PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOL. 156.

JANUARY 1, 1919.







TO AN UNKNOWN COLLEAGUE.

_(Inspired by the exchange of Minutes in Government Departments.)_

He was my friend--if friendship's proof
Be sympathy profound and sweet;
Eight months we toiled beneath one roof,
Yet somehow never chanced to meet.

So near and yet so far! I own
We may have passed upon the stair;
Yet, if we did, we passed unknown;
No tremor told me he was there.

He knew not it was I. Alas!
With such community of souls
That he and I should blindly pass
And live as sundered as the poles!