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Show JAP-RUSSO TROUBLES MARITIME. The warlike gents who fought in olden days Swoqped on the foe with spear or bludgeon bare And knew not Schrapnel's devastating blaze Or leaden menace in the musket's glare Then if two hostile galleons marched the main To fracture Vulcan's primordial repose, No swift torpedo's thunders heaped the slain The cutlass served the patriarchal foes But now these methods old and obsolete We've waived In combats on the heaving brine, Our broils all end in manner much more fleet By contact with a subterranean mine. But mines are mundane and most indiscreet, They interrupt no alien warship's flight, In fact, they wreck our own be-cruised fleet And leave no ships wherewith to wage the fight The moral hidden in this pale refrain Is clear as kings full in a poker game; If you dig pitfalls for a neighboring swain Refrain yourself from stepping in the same |