War songs, poems and pithy sayings have always had a conspicuous place in the rally of Britons to war. Letters and despatches from the european theatre of war tell of the cheerfulness of the troops; one soldier put it on record that "if singing would kill the Germans, they would all have been dead long ago." In Shanghai, Britons miss a good deal of the glamour of war, but we know that the query "Are we downhearted?" and the answer "No!" have taken on a new significance, while men are marching to death singing It's a long way to Tipperary," "Boys of the bulldog breed" or the latest melody from "Hello, Tango!" Mr. Harold Begbie has also given us in his song "Fall In," which Mr. Cowen has set to music, a budget of stirring rhymes that will probably bring as many recruits to the flag as his Scout song brought to the banner of Gen. Baden-Powell. " Fall In" is doing to-day as much as The Absent-Minded Beggar"—one of Kipling's worst as well og one of his most inspired songs—did in another direction at the time of the Boer War; as Tennyson's "'Riflemen, Form!" or the commonplace We don't want to Fight," did in other periods of national ferment. At such times poetry is not esteemed merely for the sake of art, but it is measured by ite strength of feeling, directness and graphic narrative. With these qualities and a catchy tune many poor ballad has become a part of the life's blood of the nation. The men who make the songs of a nation, especially the songs in war time, deserve their reward.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.