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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=538959" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Lieutenant-Colonel Flare</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The earth has armies plenty,<br>And semi-warlike bands,<br>I dare say there are twenty<br>In European lands;<br>But, oh! in no direction<br>You'd find one to compare<br>In brotherly affection<br>With that of COLONEL FLARE.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His soldiers might be rated<br>As military Pearls.<br>As unsophisticated<br>As pretty little girls!<br>They never smoked or ratted,<br>Or talked of Sues or Polls;<br>The Sergeant-Major tatted,<br>The others nursed their dolls.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He spent his days in teaching<br>These truly solemn facts;<br>There's little use in preaching,<br>Or circulating tracts.<br>(The vainest plan invented<br>For stifling other creeds,<br>Unless it's supplemented<br>With charitable DEEDS.)</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He taught his soldiers kindly<br>To give at Hunger's call:<br>&quot;Oh, better far give blindly,<br>Than never give at all!<br>Though sympathy be kindled<br>By Imposition's game,<br>Oh, better far be swindled<br>Than smother up its flame!&quot;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His means were far from ample<br>For pleasure or for dress,<br>Yet note this bright example<br>Of single-heartedness:<br>Though ranking as a Colonel,<br>His pay was but a groat,<br>While their reward diurnal<br>Was - each a five-pound note.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Moreover, - this evinces<br>His kindness, you'll allow, -<br>He fed them all like princes,<br>And lived himself on cow.<br>He set them all regaling<br>On curious wines, and dear,<br>While he would sit pale-ale-ing,<br>Or quaffing ginger-beer.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then at his instigation<br>(A pretty fancy this)<br>Their daily pay and ration<br>He'd take in change for his;<br>They brought it to him weekly,<br>And he without a groan,<br>Would take it from them meekly<br>And give them all his own!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Though not exactly knighted<br>As knights, of course, should be,<br>Yet no one so delighted<br>In harmless chivalry.<br>If peasant girl or ladye<br>Beneath misfortunes sank,<br>Whate'er distinctions made he,<br>They were not those of rank.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">No maiden young and comely<br>Who wanted good advice<br>(However poor or homely)<br>Need ask him for it twice.<br>He'd wipe away the blindness<br>That comes of teary dew;<br>His sympathetic kindness<br>No sort of limit knew.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He always hated dealing<br>With men who schemed or planned;<br>A person harsh - unfeeling -<br>The Colonel could not stand.<br>He hated cold, suspecting,<br>Official men in blue,<br>Who pass their lives detecting<br>The crimes that others do.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For men who'd shoot a sparrow,<br>Or immolate a worm<br>Beneath a farmer's harrow,<br>He could not find a term.<br>Humanely, ay, and knightly<br>He dealt with such an one;<br>He took and tied him tightly,<br>And blew him from a gun.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The earth has armies plenty,<br>And semi-warlike bands,<br>I'm certain there are twenty<br>In European lands;<br>But, oh! in no direction<br>You'd find one to compare<br>In brotherly affection<br>With that of COLONEL FLARE.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=William+Schwenck+Gilbert">William Schwenck Gilbert</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=538959" data-title="Lieutenant-Colonel Flare de William Schwenck Gilbert" data-description="The earth has armies plenty,
And semi-warlike bands,
I dare say there are twenty
In European lands;
But, oh! in no direction
You'd find one to compare
In brotherly affection
With that of COLONEL FLARE.

His soldiers might be rated
As military Pear..."></div>
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