of pottage
TROTSKY'S wireless apothegms,
Take a little country cottage
And a houseboat on the Thames.

Oh to think that as he lingers
Hour by hour he needs must hook
Round imperial palms the fingers
Of a hand that LENIN shook.

Commerce like an iron girder
Props the new world and the old;
All men know the stains of murder
May be lightly washed with gold.

Ah, but when the bright-eyed vulture,
Fresh from feasting on the slain,
Learns the way of foreign culture
Shall his claws grow sharp again?

So for him we weep, the Tartar
Blood-bedabbled to his wrists,
When his free soul sinks to barter
With abhorred capitalists.

Silken ways and softer manners
Bend the sturdiest victor down;
Woe unto the Soviet banners!
M. KRASSIN is in town.

EVOE.

* * * * *

[Illustration: AIR-CRAFTINESS

BRITISH LION. "HALLO! STARTED FLYING AGAIN ALREADY?"

GERMAN EAGLE. "OH, PURELY A COMMERCIAL FLUTTER."

BRITISH LION (_to himself_). "I REMEMBER HEARING THAT SAME YARN ABOUT
THEIR NAVY. TIME I DEVELOPED _MY_ WINGS AGAIN."

["In Germany there are millions of men firmly determined to win back
by the air what they have lost by sea and on land."

_General Seeley._]]

* * * * *

[Illustration: "MANY YEARS AGO."

SIR ERIC GEDDES AT A SUNDAY SCHOOL TREAT.]

* * * * *

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

_Monday, June 7th._--"Has the right hon. gentleman any experience
of Sunday School treats?" asked Mr. INSKIP after the MINISTER OF
TRANSPORT had announced that the railway companies, while conceding
reduced fares for these outings, could not extend the facilities to
more than one adult for every ten children. Sir ERIC GEDDES admitted
that his experience was "many years ago." There must have been "giants
in those days" among the Sunday School teachers if one of them was
able to "moderate the transports" of ten little ERICS.

The PRIME MINISTER had discarded the jaunty grey suit which he wore
last week, and in his "blacks" looked rather like a Scottish elder.
Nevertheless, when requested by Mr. MACCALLUM SCOTT to interpret the
articles of the "Auld Kirk" he declined to rush in where Mr. BONAR LAW
had feared to tread, and contented himself with the remark that this
was "a very dangerous question for a mere Southerner."

The negotiations with M. KRASSIN caused many inqui