O. S. of Punch

Just as Sun-readers reached each morning "to see what O'Malley had" (see p. 20), Englishmen for more than a quarter-century have thumbed their weekly copies of Punch for the satiric verse of O. S. O.. S., as every Punch-reader knows, is portly, domed Sir Owen Seaman, 71, famed poet-in-the-lighter-vein, editor of Punch since 1906. Last week it was reported that Sir Owen intends soon to retire, surrendering the editorship to Edmund George Valpy Knox, better known by his Punch pen name, "Evoe."

Reporter O'Malley and Editor Seaman shared an amused view of the world about them, but their brands of humor are scarcely to be compared. O'Malley's extravagances evoked lusty guffaws; Sir Owen's sly reticences induce subdued chuckles. A Cambridge scholar, Mr. Seaman became Professor of Literature at Durham College of Science, Newcastle-on-Tyne, later was called to the bar. Meanwhile he was fashioning verses for amusement, becoming a master of parody. His first contribution to Punch, in 1894, was a parody of Kipling's "Rhyme of the Three Sealers." Excerpt: But the foghorn bluff was safe enough, where all was weed and weft, And the conger-eels were a-making meals, and the pick of the tackle left Was a binnacle-lid and a leak in the bilge and the chip of a cracked sheerstrake And the Corporal's belt and the moke's cool pelt and a portrait of Francis Drake.

Mr. Seaman joined the staff of Punch in 1897. In 1906 he succeeded Sir Frank Burnand as editor and, ex-officio, as head of the famed "old mahogany tree." The "mahogany tree" is a long, oblong table, made not of mahogany but of deal, at which the inner circle of the Punch staff has luncheon every week for discussion of the two big political cartoons in the next issue. After Editor Seaman had presided at the "tree" for eight years he was knighted, the customary thing for chiefs of British institutions like Punch.

Much of his verse is "serious," appeals to patriotism, memorials to great individuals. Some is gentle tomfoolery. Much of what he puts in Punch is crisp commentary on topics of the times. A favorite was his "The Chastening of Big Bill," dealing with the defeat of ex-Mayor Thompson's henchmen at the Chicago polls. Excerpts

. . . . If so deadly a blight should occur to Chicawgo And menace the shambles of Michigan's shore; If the bodies of those who abide by the law go Immune from the pineapple's flavour of gore; We, too, shall miss him, "Big Bill" and his crooks, And the fables he forged in his history books; And our world will be duller when he is suppressed With his Middle-West humor gone hopelessly West.

"To Bore or Not to Bore" concerned a revival of the project of tunnelling beneath the English Channel:

. . . And some there are, a sickly crew, Whose thoughts are bent upon abating The horrors of the bounding blue, Who find the Channel nauseating, Who loathe the pitching bow, the lurch to leeward, And that faint cry of "Steward." . . . Who'll vote to stop these terrors with a tunnel? I know that I, for one'll.

In the copy of Punch which reached the U. S. last week, O. S.'s verse was entitled "Secessional"--"A Light Dirge, Indicative of Mutual Resignation, Composed for the Samuelites":

Into the wilderness off they tramp (Not an address that I should choose). Shaking the dust of the National camp Out of their old-time Party shoes. . . .

Cabinet rank (for their country's weal) These patriots took in her hour of fate; Try as they will, they can't conceal The passionate love they bear the State;

England, with such to guard her peace. Need fear no foe that attempts to biff her ; Meanwhile from a farce all find release And agree to agree it was time to cease "Agreeing to differ."

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