And when beside my winter fire
  I feel its fragrant leaves suspire,
  Hung from my hearth-beam on a hook,
  Or laid within a quiet book
  There to awake dear ghosts of men
      When pages ope that press them—­
          Then, oh, then
  I think upon old friends and bless them.

  The gentle Rosemary, I wis,
  Is Friendship’s herb and Memory’s. 
  Ah, ye whom this small herb of grace
  Brings back, yet brings not face to face,
  Yea, all who read these lines I pen,
      Would ye for truth confess them?
          Then, oh, then
  Think upon old friends and bless them.

* * * * *

[Illustration:  VICTORY FIRST.

GERMAN SOCIALIST.  “I HOLD OUT MY HANDS TO YOU, COMRADE!”

RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONARY.  “HOLD THEM UP, AND THEN I MAY TALK TO YOU.”]

* * * * *

[Illustration:  THE UNITED STATES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

John Bull (to President Wilson).  “BRAVO, SIR!  DELIGHTED TO HAVE YOU ON OUR SIDE.”]

* * * * *

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

Monday, April 2nd.—­The MINISTER OF MUNITIONS informed the House that, owing to the demand for explosives, there is a shortage of acid for artificial fertilisers.  It is rumoured that Mr. SNOWDEN, Mr. OUTHWAITE and Mr. PRINGLE, feeling that it is up to them to do something useful for their country, have placed at Dr. ADDISON’S disposal a selection from the speeches delivered by them during the War, containing an abundant supply of the necessary commodity.

Mr. JOSEPH MARTIN has all the migratory instincts of his well-known family, and flits from East St. Pancras to British Columbia and back again with engaging irregularity.  On his rare visits to Westminster he is always ready to impart in a somewhat strident voice (another family characteristic) the political wisdom that he has garnered from the New World and the Old.  But somehow the House fails to take him at his own valuation, and when he tried to belittle the Imperial Conference, on the ground that the Dominion Premier and his colleagues would be much better employed at home, I think there was a general feeling that the physician would be none the worse for a dose of his own prescription.

Cheers greeted little Mr. STEPHEN WALSH as he stepped to the Table to give his first answer as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of National Service.  There were more cheers (in which, had etiquette permitted, the Press Gallery would have liked to join) when it was found that the new Minister needed no megaphone, every word being audible all over the House.  And when finally he gave Mr. PRINGLE a much-needed corrective, by telling him that if he wanted further information he must put a Question down, the House cheered again.  So far as a single incident enables one to judge, another representative of Labour has “made good.”