LITTLE WILLIE'S OPINION OF FATHER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12083, 11 August 1917, Page 7

LITTLE WILLIE'S OPINION OF FATHER.

» " How long tho conflict may last lies in God's baud; it is rot our business to ask questions ab-iut it ... It is not tho Prussian way to praiso oneself. . . . It is row a matter of holding out, however long it lasts."—Extract from Speech by the Kaiser, delivered near Arias. I fear that Father's lost his nerve. As T peruse his last oration I seem to miss tbo good old vervo, The tone of lofty exaltation. The swelling noto of triumph. (Sieg) That, often carried half a league. The drum on whose resounding hide Ho brought to boar such weight and griat'o Has 13qw been scrapped and laid aside In favour of the penny whistle, which he plays bo very small " hardly bean the thing at all. No mora we mark the clarion shout—"Go where 'he winds of victcry whirl you!" His Gagle organ, petering out, Whines like a sick and muted curlew; A plaintive clirgc supplants the p;sau That used to rock the empyrean. Poor Fa-thcr must have changed a lot. He had a habit (now he's shed it) Of patronising " Uneer Oott " And going shares in all the credit; To-day lie wears a humbler air, And leaves to Heaven tho whole affair. llo's modified his sanguine view About the foes ho meant to batter; He talks no move of barging through; He frankly owns it's just a matter Of hanging or and fitting tight, Possibly through the Ewigkoit. "I never speak in bonrful vein; No Prussian does." ho tells the Army. It really looks as if his brain Is going " gugga," which is barmy; He' s done some talking through his hat, But never quite such tcsh as that. How to correct the sad decline Which takes this form of futilo prattle? That pious feat might yet he mine ]f I cculd only win a battle: Cases are known of mental crocks Restored by shard and staggering shocks. —O.S., in " Punch."