dying flame of France:
Not on wires, with no word written,
Thou hadst trod thine airy track,
Faster than the mailed mitten,
And behold our fleet was smitten
Somewhere near the Skager Rack.

So. And when their lines are broken,
When their shrapnel falls less fast,
Shalt thou fail to send a token
Undefeated to the last?
Surely not. Red devastation
Still shall urge by land and sea
Every proud advancing nation
While Marconi's installation
Rules the skies of Germany.

Still when pagan peoples sever
Railway line and telegraph
Thou shalt keep thy staunch endeavour,
Thou shalt scatter us like chaff.
Still, O goddess of the Prussians,
Thou shalt sound thy trump of tin
Undeterred by rude concussions
While the Frenchmen hail the Russians
On the flagstones of Berlin.

EVOE.

* * * * *

A German Motto:--"Gott mit Huns."

* * * * *

Illustration: THE GREAT ILLUSION.

KAISER. "MY POOR BIRD, WHAT _HAS_ HAPPENED TO YOUR TAIL-FEATHERS?"

GERMAN EAGLE. "CAN YOU BEAR THE TRUTH, SIRE?"

KAISER. "IF IT'S NOT FOR PUBLICATION."

GERMAN EAGLE. "IT'S LIKE THIS, THEN. YOU TOLD ME THE BRITISH LION WAS
CONTEMPTIBLE. WELL--HE WASN'T!"

* * * * *

Illustration: FROM OUR SPECIALLY CREDULOUS CORRESPONDENT.

_Stoker._ "I SEE THE TORPEDO APPROACHIN' US; SO, WITHOUT WAITIN' FER ANY
ORDERS, I DIVES OVERBOARD, JUST GIVES 'IM A FLICK ON 'IS LITTLE RUDDER,
AN' OFF 'E GOES TO STARB'D AN' PASSES US 'ARMLESSLY BY."

* * * * *

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

(EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF TOBY, M.P.)

_House of Commons, Monday, Sept. 14._--House met to-day with proud
feeling of altered circumstance. A fortnight ago things looked bad in
France. Allied Armies were continuing prolonged retreat not made more
acceptable by being officially named "Retirement." A detailed narrative
compiled in neighbourhood of the Army had described the little British
Force, long fighting at odds of four to one, as "broken to pieces."

Seemed as if Paris were on verge of another triumphal entry by German
forces: France on eve of a second Sedan.

To-day a more hurried retreat is daily accumulating speed. This time it
is the invader who, in order to avoid final disaster, is racing back to
the comparative safety of his own country, whilst French and British,
elate with repeated victory