old in reverence profound;
Used for a dynamic function
'Tis a word devoid of guile,
Only as connoting unction
It excites my bile.

_Why, fastidious poetaster,
Waste your energy and breath
Like a petulant schoolmaster
Only doing words to death?
Needlessly you slate and scourge us;
War, that sifts and tries and tests,
May be safely left to purge us
Of these verbal pests._

* * * * *

England, February, 1917.--"The great loan land."

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE LAST THROW.]

* * * * *

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

_Monday, February 12th_.--Question-time, which towards the end of last
Session was extended by a quarter-of-an-hour, to-day reverted to its old
limits. Consideration for overworked officials was assigned as the reason,
but I think the House as a whole was rather relieved at the disappearance
of what was often a _triste quart d'heure_. One can easily have a surfeit
of the piquant humours of Mr. GINNELL, Mr. KING and the rest of the _Rosa
Dartles_ of the House.

The new Administration received some useful support from an unexpected
quarter. Mr. MCKENNA, a little disturbed, perhaps, by the discovery that he
had been a trifle of 350 millions out in his Budget estimate of the cost of
the War, was fain to rebuke the Government for proposing two big Votes of
Credit on one day. This unprecedented demand, he insisted, must have some
dark purpose behind it. Were the Government contemplating a General
Election? Mr. BONAR LAW quietly reminded him that exactly the same thing
had been done this time last year when Mr. MCKENNA himself was at the
Exchequer.

"Luff, boy, luff," whispered Mr. ASQUITH to his discomfited lieutenant, who
thereupon went off on another tack and proceeded to express doubts as to
the wisdom of over-sea expeditions. But his course was again unfortunate.
"Why did you go to Salonika?" interjected a voice from below the Gangway.
As Major GODFREY COLLINS afterwards observed, neither the House nor the
country will stand much criticism of the new Government by members of the
old one.

_Tuesday, February 13th_.--Lord BERESFORD, in latter days heard with
difficulty in the House of Commons, has found his voice again in the ampler
air of the Gilded Chamber. His speech this afternoon on the submarine peril
and how to defeat it might have wakened the echoes in the Admiralty