ary now, alack!
Soon as old Sol has sought his bed,
That those who next the window sit,
Though they'd prefer to watch the gloaming,
Should draw the blind, nor leave a slit,
Keeping it down until they're homing,
Else on the metals will be thrown
A glowing trail as from a comet,
And Huns to whom a train is shown
Will most indubitably bomb it!'

"That," he observed complacently, "is not only verse of the highest
order, but clearly conveys the reason for such precautions, which the
official mind chose to cut out. And now let me ask you to read the next
paragraph." I did so. "_At night-time when the blinds are drawn_" it
ran, "_passengers are requested before alighting to make sure when the
train stops that it is at the platform_."

"Which," he cried fiercely, "is their mangled and mutilated version of
this:--

"'At night-time when the blinds are drawn
(As screens against those devils' spawn,
Which love the gloom, but dread the dawn),
A train may be at standstill,
Then we request 'twill not occur
That some impatient passenger,
Whose nerves are in a chronic stir,
And neither feet nor hands still,
Without preliminary peep
Will forth incontinently leap,
Alighting in a huddled heap
To lie, a limp or flat form,
In some inhospitable ditch,
If not on grittier ballast, which
(The darkness far surpassing pitch)
He took to be the platform!'

"As to the next paragraph," he continued, "I don't complain so much,
though, personally, I consider '_Extract from Order made by the
Secretary of State for the Home Department_' a very poor paraphrase of
the resounding couplet in which I introduced him:--

"'Now speaks in genial tones, from heart to heart meant,
The Secretary for the Home Department!'

"I could have overlooked that, Sir, if they had retained the lines I had
written for him. But they've only let him speak the first four
words--'_Passengers in Railway Carriages_'--and then drivel on thus:
'_which are provided with blinds must keep the blinds covered so as to
cover the windows'_--a clumsy tautology, Sir, for which I am sure no
Home Secretary would care to be held responsible, and from which I had
been at some pains to save him, as you may judge when I read you the
original text:--

"'Passengers in railway carriages
Possess a sense which none disparages;
So those who are not perverse or froward
May be trusted to see that the blinds are lowered,
To co