Page:Patriotic pieces from the Great War, Jones, 1918.djvu/36

32 SQUARING OURSELVES

How many howled about Josephus every time a sailor man

Found an unresponsive barkeep when he went to rush the can!

How they growled about Josephus when commanders got the news

That the Admiral had orders for a dry and boozeless cruise!

Even such a wild teetotaller as the temperate T. R.

Shouted from a thousand housetops that Josephus went too far.

From all quarters of the Nation excellent, well-meaning folk,

Said in letters to the papers that Josephus was a joke.

Poets chuckled (we among them) in all sorts of jibing verse

When Josephus said that seamen might be brave, and still not curse.

Never on the rolling ocean had men navigated ships

Be the weather fine or dirty, without oaths upon their lips.

Even Dr. Lyman Abbott had to pause and breathe a prayer