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+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
+ content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
+
+ <title>Punch, January 21, 1914.</title>
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+
+ .note
+ {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
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+ {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;}
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 146.,
+January 21, 1914, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 146., January 21, 1914
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: May 28, 2004 [EBook #12465]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, VOL. 146 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Malcolm Farmer, William Flis, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+ <h1>PUNCH,<br />
+ OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.</h1>
+
+ <h2>Vol. 146.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <h2>January 21, 1914.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page41"
+ id="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/41.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/41.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+
+ <table summary="caption"
+ width="100%">
+ <tr>
+ <td width="33%">"NOT VERY SPORTING LINKS, ARE
+ THEY?"</td>
+
+ <td width="34%">EVEN EARTHQUAKES HAVE THEIR
+ USE.</td>
+
+ <td width="33%">"AH, THAT'LL MAKE BETTER
+ GOLF."</td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>CHARIVARIA.</h2>
+
+ <p>MAJOR-GENERAL LEONARD WOOD, chief of the U.S.A. General
+ Staff, has reported that the American Army is, practically
+ speaking, unarmed, and advises the immediate expenditure of
+ &pound;1,200,000 for artillery and ammunition. We fancy,
+ however, that the present state of affairs is the result of a
+ compromise with the American Peace party, who will not object
+ to their country having an army so long as it is unarmed.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>"VICTORY FOR THE ORANGE WOMEN.</p>
+
+ <p>DRURY LANE INSTITUTION TO CONTINUE."</p>
+
+ <p>This should put heart into the Orange Men of Ulster.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>We hear that, to celebrate the recent glorious victory in
+ Alsace, the little town of Zabern is to be re-named
+ S&auml;beln.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The Rev. N. FITZPATRICK, describing a visit to the Balkan
+ States in a lecture at the Camera Club, spoke of the
+ difficulties he had with his laundry. The same bundle of
+ clothes was soaked in Roumania, rough-dried in Bulgaria, and
+ ironed in Servia. We are astonished that the lecturer should
+ have made no mention of mangling, which we understand is done
+ well in the Balkan States.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The KAISER, we are told, has given instructions that his
+ <i>menus</i> are in future to be written in German. What, by
+ the way, <i>is</i> the French for <i>Sauerkraut</i>?</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Mr. ARCHIBALD, a member of the Australian House of
+ Representatives, has calculated that the value of the property
+ of the five million inhabitants of the Commonwealth is
+ &pound;780,000,000. We cannot but think it is a mistake to
+ divulge the fact with so many dishonest people about.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p><i>I do like your eyes</i> is the latest bright thought for
+ a Revue title. To be followed, no doubt, by <i>Her nose isn't
+ bad, is it?</i> and <i>What's wrong with her toes?</i></p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>"FRENCH BATTLESHIP DROPPED."</p>
+
+ <p><i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>.</p>
+
+ <p>Very careless of someone.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Reading that one of the features of the new British
+ battleship class will be less draught, Aunt Caroline remarked
+ that she was glad to hear this: she had always understood that
+ during even half a gale it was very easy to catch cold at
+ sea.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Sir RUFUS ISAACS has decided to take the title of Lord
+ READING. This still leaves it open to a distinguished literary
+ man, should he be made a peer, to become Lord Writing.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The age of pleasure! Where will it stop? Extract from <i>The
+ Witney Gazette</i>:&mdash;"On Monday evening a very successful
+ dance was given in the Corn Exchange ... The company numbered
+ over one hundred, and dancing to the strains of Taylor's Oxford
+ Scarlet Band was enjoyed till the early hours of Wednesday
+ morning."</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>While Police Constable JAKEMAN was in Eldon Road, Reading,
+ last week, a cat suddenly pounced on him and bit him. We have
+ not yet received a full account of the incident, but apparently
+ the constable was on detective duty and cleverly disguised as a
+ mouse.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>One of the cats shown at the Grand Championship Cat Show had
+ her fur cut and trimmed like a poodle's. The matter has been
+ much discussed in canine circles, and we understand that there
+ may be trouble.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>An express train travelling from Nice to Macon was, last
+ week, beaten by an eagle, which raced it over a distance of
+ eighteen miles. Birds are evidently being put upon their mettle
+ by the aeroplanes.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Alleged notice outside Drury Lane:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <table summary="Headline"
+ align="center"
+ border="1">
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center">SLEEPING BEAUTY.<br />
+ <br />
+ N.B.&mdash;CHAUFFEURS ARE KINDLY<br />
+ REQUESTED NOT TO HOOT<br />
+ WHEN PASSING.</td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>From Paris comes the news that a successor to the Tango has
+ been found in the form of a Chinese dance known as the Tatao.
+ The name, presumably, is a contraction of the words "Ta-ta,
+ Tango."</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>A new character named "It" appears in the revival of <i>The
+ Darling of the Gods</i>. We presume it is The Limit.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The manager of the Little Theatre is making arrangements for
+ shilling seats for the first time in the history of the house.
+ How is it going to be done? By <i>Magic</i>, of course.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>"The Shepherdess without a Heart" continues to make good
+ progress, and the medical profession is much interested.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page42"
+ id="page42"></a>[pg 42]</span>
+
+ <h2>A FAREWELL TOUR.</h2>
+
+ <p>This is positively Chum's last appearance in print&mdash;for
+ his own sake no less than for yours. He is conceited enough as
+ it is, but if once he got to know that people are always
+ writing about him in the papers his swagger would be
+ unbearable. However, I have said good-bye to him now; I have no
+ longer any rights in him. Yesterday I saw him off to his new
+ home, and when we meet again it will be on a different footing.
+ "Is that your dog?" I shall say to his master. "What is he? A
+ Cocker? Jolly little fellows, aren't they? I had one myself
+ once."</p>
+
+ <p>As Chum refused to do the journey across London by himself,
+ I met him at Liverpool Street. He came up in a crate; the world
+ must have seemed very small to him on the way. "Hallo, old
+ ass," I said to him through the bars, and in the little space
+ they gave him he wriggled his body with delight. "Thank Heaven
+ there's <i>one</i> of 'em alive," he said.</p>
+
+ <p>"I think this is my dog," I said to the guard, and I told
+ him my name.</p>
+
+ <p>He asked for my card.</p>
+
+ <p>"I'm afraid I haven't one with me," I explained. When
+ policemen touch me on the shoulder and ask me to go quietly;
+ when I drag old gentlemen from underneath motor-'buses, and
+ they decide to adopt me on the spot; on all the important
+ occasions when one really wants a card, I never have one with
+ me.</p>
+
+ <p>"Can't give him up without proof of identity," said the
+ guard, and Chum grinned at the idea of being thought so
+ valuable.</p>
+
+ <p>I felt in my pockets for letters. There was only one, but it
+ offered to lend me &pound;10,000 on my note of hand alone. It
+ was addressed to "Dear Sir," and though I pointed out to the
+ guard that I was the "Sir," he still kept tight hold of Chum.
+ Strange that one man should be prepared to trust me with
+ &pound;10,000, and another should be so chary of confiding to
+ me a small black spaniel.</p>
+
+ <p>"Tell the gentleman who I am," I said imploringly through
+ the bars. "Show him you know me."</p>
+
+ <p>"He's <i>really</i> all right," said Chum, looking at the
+ guard with his great honest brown eyes. "He's been with us for
+ years."</p>
+
+ <p>And then I had an inspiration. I turned down the inside
+ pocket of my coat; and there, stitched into it, was the label
+ of my tailor's with my name written on it. I had often wondered
+ why tailors did this; obviously they know how stupid guards can
+ be.</p>
+
+ <p>"I suppose that's all right," said the guard reluctantly. Of
+ course I might have stolen the coat. I see his point.</p>
+
+ <p>"You&mdash;you wouldn't like a nice packing case for
+ yourself?" I said timidly. "You see, I thought I'd put Chum on
+ the lead. I've got to take him to Paddington, and he must be
+ tired of his shell by now. It isn't as if he were <i>really</i>
+ an armadillo."</p>
+
+ <p>The guard thought he would like a shilling and a nice
+ packing case. Wood, he agreed, was always wood, particularly in
+ winter, but there were times when you were not ready for
+ it.</p>
+
+ <p>"How are you taking him?" he asked, getting to work with a
+ chisel. "Underground?"</p>
+
+ <p>"Underground?" I cried in horror. "Take Chum on the
+ Underground? Take&mdash;Have you ever taken a large live
+ conger-eel on the end of a string into a crowded carriage?"</p>
+
+ <p>The guard never had.</p>
+
+ <p>"Well, don't. Take him in a taxi instead. Don't waste him on
+ other people."</p>
+
+ <p>The crate yawned slowly, and Chum emerged all over straw. We
+ had an anxious moment, but the two of us got him down and put
+ the lead on him. Then Chum and I went off for a taxi.</p>
+
+ <p>"Hooray," said Chum, wriggling all over, "isn't this
+ splendid? I say, which way are you going? I'm going this
+ way?... No, I mean the other way."</p>
+
+ <p>Somebody had left some of his milk-cans on the platform.
+ Three times we went round one in opposite directions and
+ unwound ourselves the wrong way. Then I hauled him in, took him
+ struggling in my arms and got into a cab.</p>
+
+ <p>The journey to Paddington was full of interest. For a whole
+ minute Chum stood quietly on the seat, rested his fore-paws on
+ the open window and drank in London. Then he jumped down and
+ went mad. He tried to hang me with the lead, and then in
+ remorse tried to hang himself. He made a dash for the little
+ window at the back; missed it and dived out of the window at
+ the side; was hauled back and kissed me ecstatically, in the
+ eye with his sharpest tooth ... "And I thought the world was at
+ an end," he said, "and there were no more people. Oh, I am an
+ ass. I say, did you notice I'd had my hair cut? How do you like
+ my new trousers? I must show you them." He jumped on to my lap.
+ "No, I think you'll see them better on the ground," he said,
+ and jumped down again. "Or no, perhaps you <i>would</i> get a
+ better view if&mdash;" he jumped up hastily, "and yet I don't
+ know&mdash;" he dived down, "though of course, if you&mdash;Oh
+ lor! this <i>is</i> a day," and he put both paws lovingly on my
+ collar.</p>
+
+ <p>Suddenly he was quiet again. The stillness, the absence of
+ storm in the taxi was so unnatural that I began to miss it.
+ "Buck up, old fool," I said, but he sat motionless by my side,
+ plunged in thought. I tried to cheer him up. I pointed out
+ King's Cross to him; he wouldn't even bark at it. I called his
+ attention to the poster outside the Euston Theatre of The Two
+ Biffs; for all the regard he showed he might never even have
+ heard of them. The monumental masonry by Portland Road failed
+ to uplift him.</p>
+
+ <p>At Baker Street he woke up and grinned cheerily. "It's all
+ right," he said, "I was trying to remember what happened to me
+ this morning&mdash;something rather-miserable, I thought, but I
+ can't get hold of it. However it's all right now. How are
+ <i>you</i>?" And he went mad again.</p>
+
+ <p>At Paddington I bought a label at the bookstall and wrote it
+ for him. He went round and round my leg looking for me. "Funny
+ thing," he said as he began to unwind, "he was here a moment
+ ago. I'll just go round once more. I rather think ...
+ <i>Ow!</i> Oh, there you are!" I stepped off him, unravelled
+ the lead and dragged him to the Parcels Office.</p>
+
+ <p>"I want to send this by the two o'clock train," I said to
+ the man the other side of the counter.</p>
+
+ <p>"Send what?" he said.</p>
+
+ <p>I looked down. Chum was making himself very small and black
+ in the shadow of the counter. He was completely hidden from the
+ sight of anybody the other side of it.</p>
+
+ <p>"Come out," I said, "and show yourself."</p>
+
+ <p>"Not much," he said. "A parcel! I'm not going to be a jolly
+ old parcel for anybody."</p>
+
+ <p>"It's only a way of speaking," I pleaded. "Actually you are
+ travelling as a small black gentleman. You will go with the
+ guard&mdash;a delightful man."</p>
+
+ <p>Chum came out reluctantly. The clerk leant over the counter
+ and managed to see him.</p>
+
+ <p>"According to our regulations," he said, and I always
+ dislike people who begin like that, "he has to be on a chain. A
+ leather lead won't do."</p>
+
+ <p>Chum smiled all over himself. I don't know which pleased him
+ more&mdash;the suggestion that he was a very large and fierce
+ dog, or the impossibility now of his travelling with the guard,
+ delightful man though he might be. He gave himself a shake and
+ started for the door.</p>
+
+ <p>"Tut, tut, it's a great disappointment to me," he said,
+ trying to look disappointed, but his back <i>would</i> wriggle.
+ "This chain business&mdash;silly of us not</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page43"
+ id="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/43.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/43.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+
+ <h3>THE BLACK MAN'S BURDEN.</h3>REFRAIN BY NATIVES OF SOUTH
+ AFRICA AND KIKUYU.
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page45"
+ id="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/45.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/45.png"
+ alt="" /></a><i>Kindly Hostess</i> (<i>to nervous
+ reciter who has broken down in "The Charge of the
+ Light Brigade"</i>). "NEVER MIND MR. TOMPKINS, JUST
+ TELL US IT IN YOUR OWN WORDS."
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>to have known&mdash;well, well, we shall be wiser another
+ time. Now let's go home."</p>
+
+ <p>Poor old Chum; I <i>had</i> known. From a large coat pocket
+ I produced a chain.</p>
+
+ <p>"<i>Dash</i> it," said Chum, looking up at me pathetically,
+ "you might almost <i>want</i> to get rid of me."</p>
+
+ <p>He was chained, and the label tied on to him. Forgive me
+ that label, Chum; I think that was the worst offence of all.
+ And why should I label one who was speaking so eloquently for
+ himself; who said from the tip of his little black nose to the
+ end of his stumpy black tail, "I'm a silly old ass, but there's
+ nothing wrong in me, and they're sending me away!" But
+ according to the regulations&mdash;one must obey the
+ regulations, Chum.</p>
+
+ <p>I gave him to the guard&mdash;a delightful man. The guard
+ and I chained him to a brake or something. Then the guard went
+ away, and Chum and I had a little talk ...</p>
+
+ <p>After that the train went off.</p>
+
+ <p>Good-bye, little dog. A.A.M.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Lady Strachie wishes to thoroughly recommend her
+ permanent Caretaker and Husband."&mdash;<i>Advt. in
+ "Morning Post."</i></p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Lord STRACHIE should be a proud man to-day.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>HOW GREAT MEN SHOW EMOTION.</h2>
+
+ <blockquote class="note">
+ <p>[Mr. HANDEL BOOTH, speaking in Hyde Park recently,
+ declared that, when he informed Lord ABERDEEN of the
+ conduct of the police during the Dublin riots, the Lord
+ Lieutenant "buried his head in his hands."]</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Mr. Leo Maxixe, writing in <i>The Irrational Review</i>,
+ states that he has it on the best authority that when the
+ GERMAN EMPEROR read the Criccieth New Year's interview with Mr.
+ LLOYD GEORGE he exclaimed, "This beats the Tango," and fell
+ heavily on the hearthrug.</p>
+
+ <p>Mr. James Larvin, addressing a meeting of the Confederates
+ at the Saveloy Hotel, informed his hearers that when Mr.
+ WINSTON CHURCHILL read the article in <i>The Daily Mail</i> on
+ his future he stood on his head in the corner for three
+ minutes, to the great embarrassment of Sir FRANCIS HOPWOOD, who
+ was present.</p>
+
+ <p>Sir WILLIAM ROBERTSON NICOLL, writing in <i>The British
+ Weekly</i>, asserts that when Mr. MASSINGHAM read "C.K.S.'s"
+ recent reference to <i>The Nation</i> in <i>The Sphere</i> he
+ kicked the waste-paper basket round the room and tore the hair
+ out of his head in handfuls.</p>
+
+ <p>Mr. CECIL CHESTERTON, addressing a meeting of non-party
+ fishmongers at Billingsgate last week, stated that he had heard
+ that when Mr. GODFREY ISAACS informed the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE
+ that Mr. HANDEL BOOTH had retired from the Dublin Police
+ Inquiry Lord READING OF EARLEY burst into tears and hid his
+ face in his wig.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>Why Mr. Chesterton shuns the Isle of Wight.</h3>
+
+ <p>Extract from local time-table:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"10.45 a.m. Motor Service between Freshwater and Newport
+ for light passengers only."</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Referring to the plea of Dr. Budge, the poet laureate,
+ for purer English, a writer in the 'Daily Chronicle'
+ says...."&mdash;<i>Glasgow Evening Citizen</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Purer spelling of names is what the POET LAUREATE would
+ really like to see.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>It was very touching of <i>The Evening News</i> to give so
+ much space to the distressing story of the real Duchess who
+ could not get a seat at Olympia&mdash;(surely they might have
+ thrown out a common person to make room for her?)&mdash;but it
+ was tactless to go on:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"'If you will bring me a couple of chairs,' said the
+ duchess, 'I will sit down in the gangway with the greatest
+ pleasure.'"</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>It makes one wonder which of our larger duchesses it
+ was.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page46"
+ id="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span>
+
+ <h2>THE HOUSE OF PUNCH.</h2>
+
+ <blockquote class="note">
+ <p>[He "married a princess of the House of
+ Punch."&mdash;<i>Excerpt front an account of the life of a
+ former King of Kashmir</i>.]</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Hail, Master, and accept the news I bring.</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">I come to make a solemn mystery
+ clear,</p>
+
+ <p>One that affects you deeply; for I sing</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">Of a most ancient king</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Nine hundred years ago in fair
+ Kashmir,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Who yearned towards a bride,
+ and&mdash;hear, oh hear,</p>
+
+ <p>Lord of the reboant nose and classic
+ hunch&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>"Married a princess of the House of Punch."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Yes, you are royal, as one might have seen.</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">The loftiness of your despotic sway,</p>
+
+ <p>Your strange aloofness and unearthly mien</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">(Yet regal) might have been</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A full assurance of monarchic clay.</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Had but the fates run kindly, at this
+ day</p>
+
+ <p>Yourself should be a king of orient fame,</p>
+
+ <p>Chief of the princely house that bears your
+ name.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Methinks I see you at it. I can see</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">A shamiana<a id="footnotetag1"
+ name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a>
+ loftily upreared</p>
+
+ <p>Beneath a banyan (or banana) tree,</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">Whichever it may be,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Where, with bright turban and vermilion
+ beard</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">(A not unfrequent sight, and very
+ weird),</p>
+
+ <p>You sit at peace; a small boy, doubly bowed,</p>
+
+ <p>Acts as your footstool and, though stiff, is
+ proud.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Fragrant with Champak scents the warm wind sighs</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Heavily, faintly, languorously fanned</p>
+
+ <p>By drowsy peacock-plumes&mdash;to keep the flies</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">From your full nose and eyes&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Waved from behind you, where on either
+ hand</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Two silent slaves of Nubian polish
+ stand,</p>
+
+ <p>Whose patent-leather visages reflect</p>
+
+ <p>The convex day, with mirror-like effect.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Robed in a garment of the choicest spoil</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Of Persian looms, you sit apart to
+ deal</p>
+
+ <p>Grace to the suppliant and reward for toil,</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">T'abase the proud, and boil</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The malefactor, till upon you steal</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Mild qualms suggestive of the mid-day
+ meal;</p>
+
+ <p>And, then, what plump, what luscious fruits are
+ those?</p>
+
+ <p>What goblets of what vintage? Goodness knows.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Gladly would I pursue this glowing dream,</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">To sing of deeds of chivalry and
+ sport,</p>
+
+ <p>Of cushioned dalliance in the soft hareem</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">(A really splendid theme),</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The pundits and tame poets at your
+ court,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And all such pride, but I must keep it
+ short.</p>
+
+ <p>Once let me off upon a thing so bright,</p>
+
+ <p>And I should hardly stop without a fight.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>But now you stand plain Mister; and, no doubt,</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Would have for choice this visioned pomp
+ untold.</p>
+
+ <p>Yet, Sire, I beg you, cast such musings out;</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">Put not yourself about</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">For a vain dream. If I may make so
+ bold,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Your present lot should keep you well
+ consoled.</p>
+
+ <p>You still are great, and have, when all is done,</p>
+
+ <p>A fine old Eastern smack, majestic One.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The vassals of your fathers were but few</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Compared with yours, who move the whole
+ world wide;</p>
+
+ <p>You still can splash an oriental hue,</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">Red, yellow, green or blue,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Upon a fresh and various outside;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">While you support&mdash;perhaps your
+ greatest pride</p>
+
+ <p>High pundits for your intellectual feast,</p>
+
+ <p>And some tame bards, of whom I am the least.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>DUM-DUM.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote1"
+ name="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+ <a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
+
+ <p>Tent</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>GIVEN AWAY.</h2>
+
+ <p>A correspondent of <i>The Times</i> writes:&mdash;"The
+ <i>Niva</i>, the <i>Russian Family Herald</i>, promises to
+ annual subscribers, in addition to a copy of the paper every
+ week&mdash;</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The complete works of Korolenko in twenty-five
+ volumes.</p>
+
+ <p>The complete works of Edmond Rostand.</p>
+
+ <p>The complete works of Maikof.</p>
+
+ <p>A literary supplement every month.</p>
+
+ <p>A fashion book.</p>
+
+ <p>A book of patterns of fancy-work designs.</p>
+
+ <p>A tear-off calendar for 1914,"</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>and adds, "Where does English or American journalistic
+ enterprise stand beside this?"</p>
+
+ <p>We understand that our more enterprising contemporaries have
+ no intention of allowing this question to remain unanswered,
+ and the wildest rumours are afloat as to the nature of the
+ gifts which will be offered next year to annual subscribers by
+ various British journals.</p>
+
+ <p>With a view to test the accuracy of these rumours our
+ Special Representative called yesterday upon the Editors of
+ several leading publications, and, although much secrecy is
+ still maintained, he has succeeded in collecting some valuable
+ information. For instance, the report that <i>The Nineteenth
+ Century and After</i> would include among its gifts the
+ dramatic works of the MELVILLE BROS., <i>HOW to Dance the
+ Tango</i>, and <i>Sweeter than Honey</i>, a novel with a strong
+ love interest, lacks confirmation; nor are we in a position to
+ assert definitely that <i>The Spectator</i> will present a
+ beautiful coloured supplement, entitled "Susie's Pet Pup," and
+ a handsome mug bearing the inscription: "A Present from Loo,"
+ though we believe that such may be the case.</p>
+
+ <p>On the other hand, <i>The Times'</i> reply to an inquiry as
+ to whether they would present to each reader half a ton of
+ supplements was that they had done so for some years past; and
+ <i>The Daily Mirror</i> did not deny that they were considering
+ the proposal to present a framed copy of the portrait of John
+ Tiffinch which appeared in their issue of February 29, 1913.
+ (Tiffinch, our readers will remember, was brother-in-law to the
+ man who discovered the great emerald robbery.)</p>
+
+ <p><i>The British Medical Journal's</i> list will include the
+ works of GEORGE BERNARD SHAW and the Life of Mrs. EDDY; but the
+ report that <i>The Tailor and Cutter</i> would present <i>Wild
+ Tribes of Central Africa</i> is emphatically denied.</p>
+
+ <p>Finally, <i>The Boxing World</i> had not thought of offering
+ any free-gifts, but on learning that BOSWELL had written a Life
+ of JOHNSON seemed inclined to reconsider their decision.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"In order to counteract a tendency to stoutness which
+ ex-President Taft is now overcoming, the Kaiser has lately
+ undergone a systematic course of outdoor
+ 'training.'"&mdash;<i>Daily Mail</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>This is very friendly of the KAISER, but Mr. TAFT will
+ probably do it better by himself.</p>
+
+ <p>Says an Edinburgh tram-car advertisement:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i10">THE SCOTTISH ORCHESTRA.</p>
+
+ <p>Conductor..........E. Mlynarski.</p>
+
+ <p>Solo Violinist.....Duci Kerekjarto."</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>You should see these natives when they get among the haggis.
+ Hoots!</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page47"
+ id="page47"></a>[pg 47]</span>
+
+ <h2>THE KAKEKIKOKUANS;</h2>
+
+ <h3>OR, THE HEATHEN IN HIS BLINDNESS.</h3>
+
+ <p>THE country of Kakekikoku, as its name suggests, lies in the
+ vicinity of Timbuctoo, the well-known African resort; and at
+ the present time, when so much interest is centred upon that
+ little-known land, it may be profitable to our readers, as well
+ as to the writer, to give some information about it.</p>
+
+ <p>A famous Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, who has
+ travelled widely, not only in this country but in Belgium and
+ the Channel Islands, has stated that Kakekikoku is richly
+ endowed with the bewilderments, perils and mysteries of
+ primitive and unexplored African territory. A warlike and
+ exclusive folk, the Kakekikokuans extend a red-hot welcome to
+ the foreigner who ventures within their borders. They are
+ possessed of a fine physique and an intelligence of a subtler
+ kind than many savage races can pretend to; yet while having
+ all the qualities that should go to the building up of a strong
+ nation, certain conditions of their life bar the way to such an
+ achievement. In a word, the Kakekikokuans are in the clutches
+ of the medicine-man. Each of these despots has his own little
+ following, and wields a distinctive influence, it being a point
+ of honour with him that his teaching should differ in some way
+ (usually in but a trivial detail) from the teaching of any
+ other of his kind. The solemnity of their discussions and the
+ heat of their dissensions about the minuti&aelig; of their
+ creeds would be laughable were it not so pathetic..</p>
+
+ <p>And not only do the medicine-men dispute among themselves,
+ but their followers engage even more vehemently in bitter
+ strife. For instance, there is a national belief that the
+ juby-juby nut, which grows in the forests in profusion,
+ possesses some supernatural virtue that will make a man who
+ chews it impervious to the weapons of his enemies. That this
+ virtue exists is generally accepted; but when it comes to a
+ discussion of how, when and where to chew the nut, much
+ wrangling goes on; and such men as survive in battle claim that
+ their particular method is proved to be the correct one, while
+ such as succumb are cited in proof of the error of their
+ process of absorbing the juices of the juby-juby nut. The
+ survivors include, of course, representatives of various
+ schools of thought, and a battle against a common enemy rarely
+ goes by without being immediately followed by a conflict among
+ the surviving Kakekikokuans in order to put to final proof
+ their respective theories about their remarkable fruit. Thus a
+ promising people is committing race-suicide; for this sort of
+ thing goes on not only in connection with this particular
+ problem, but over such questions as the number of beads to wear
+ round one's neck when visiting the medicine-man, whether the
+ national custom of saluting the rising sun need be observed on
+ cloudy mornings, and whether the medicine-man is entitled to
+ the pick of the yams on any day but Sunday. People of different
+ opinions on these points decline to eat together or to enter
+ into social intercourse with one another; and their children
+ are forbidden to mingle in play.</p>
+
+ <p>The good news has just come to hand, however, that a band of
+ Church of England missionaries, despatched by the Bishop of
+ ZANZIBAR, has now entered the country; and it is delightful to
+ contemplate the beneficent result that may be expected from
+ their broadminded attitude and their sane teaching on the
+ subject of the brotherhood of man.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:65%;">
+ <a href="images/47.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/47.png"
+ alt="" /></a><i>Observant Lady</i> (<i>to gentleman
+ alighting from 'bus</i>). "<i>I</i> THINK YOU'VE
+ DROPPED A PENNY!"
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"The Berlin critics have been accusing Mr. Bernard Shaw
+ of having committed in his 'Pygmalion,' produced in Germany
+ the other day, a plagiarism from Smollett's novel,
+ 'Peregrine Pickle.' Mr. Shaw denies that he has ever read
+ the novel in question, and, in an interview in the London
+ 'Observer,' remarks: 'The suggestion of the German papers
+ that I had Pygmalion produced in Germany lest I should be
+ detected in my own country of plagiarism, shows an amusing
+ ignorance of English culture.'"&mdash;<i>Yorkshire Evening
+ Post</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>It does. Why even our most cultured countryman, Mr. BERNARD
+ SHAW, has never read <i>Peregrine Pickle</i>.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Mr. Spademan, of Woodnewton, Northants, placed a dozen
+ eggs under a hen some time ago, and there were hatched out
+ thirteen chickens, one of the eggs being double-yolked. All
+ the young birds are doing well.</p>
+
+ <p>Burroughes and Watts' billiard tables for
+ accuracy."&mdash;<i>Birmingham Daily Mail</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>They are, in fact, a lesson to Mr. STADEMAN's hens.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page48"
+ id="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span>
+
+ <h2>LACONICS.</h2>
+
+ <p>"As a matter of fact," said the doctor, "you ought not to
+ speak at all. But that's asking too much. So let it go at
+ this&mdash;not a word more than is necessary. Good-bye.",</p>
+
+ <p>He left the room and I lay back pondering on his
+ instructions. How many words were really necessary?</p>
+
+ <p>The nurse soon after entered.</p>
+
+ <p>"So the doctor's gone," she said.</p>
+
+ <p>Obviously it wasn't necessary to say Yes, since the room was
+ empty save for me and her; so I made no reply.</p>
+
+ <p>She went to the window and looked out. The sky was blue and
+ the sunshine was brilliant.</p>
+
+ <p>"It's a fine day," she said.</p>
+
+ <p>No, I thought, you don't catch me there; and said nothing.
+ But I reflected that yesterday I might myself have made the
+ same inane remark as she.</p>
+
+ <p>"Would you like the paper?" she asked.</p>
+
+ <p>"Yes," I said, and then almost regretted it, for having
+ waited nearly fifty years for yesterday's news surely I could
+ wait longer. Still, the paper would help to pass the time.</p>
+
+ <p>While she was fetching it I remembered a dream of last night
+ which I had intended to tell her this morning.</p>
+
+ <p>But why do so? A dream is of no account even to the dreamer.
+ Still, the recital might have made her laugh. But why should
+ laughter be bothered about?</p>
+
+ <p>The nurse brought the paper and I signified Thank you.</p>
+
+ <p>"I'll leave you for a while now," she said; "The fire's all
+ right. Your drink's by the bed. You'll ring if you want
+ anything."</p>
+
+ <p>All these things I knew. My drink is always beside the bed;
+ the bell is the natural communication between me and the house.
+ What a foolish chatterbox the woman was! I nodded and she went
+ out.</p>
+
+ <p>On her return an hour or so later she asked, "Is there
+ anything in the paper?"</p>
+
+ <p>Before answering I examined this question. What did it mean?
+ It did not mean, Are the pages this morning absolutely blank,
+ for a change? It meant, Is there a good murder? Is any very
+ important person dead? In reply I handed the paper to her.</p>
+
+ <p>Instead of reading it she began a long account of her
+ morning's walk. She told me where she had been; whom she had
+ seen; whom she had thought she had seen and then found that it
+ was some one else; what somebody had said. Not a syllable
+ mattered, I now realised; but yesterday I should have joined in
+ the talk, asked questions, encouraged her in her
+ foolishness.</p>
+
+ <p>Just before lunch my brother and a guest came into the room
+ and began to talk about golf. My brother said that he had been
+ round in 98. This was his best since September, when he went
+ round in 97. He described his difficulties at the tenth
+ hole.</p>
+
+ <p>It all seemed very idiotic to me, for the game was over and
+ done with. Why rake it up?</p>
+
+ <p>The guest said that he had lost two balls, one of which was
+ expensive. His driving had been good, but in the short game he
+ had been weak. He could never quite make up his mind whether he
+ putted best with a gun-metal putter or a wooden one.</p>
+
+ <p>My brother asked me if I remembered that long drive of his
+ two years ago?</p>
+
+ <p>I nodded.</p>
+
+ <p>The nurse came in and told them to go. She then asked me if
+ I was hungry.</p>
+
+ <p>"Very," I said.</p>
+
+ <p>She brought me some beef-tea and calf's-foot-jelly,
+ remarking that they were easily taken and "would not hurt my
+ throat."</p>
+
+ <p>That was why they were chosen, of course.</p>
+
+ <p>In the afternoon I had a visit from my Aunt Lavinia, who sat
+ down with the remark that she would tell me all the news.</p>
+
+ <p>"You remember Esther?" she began.</p>
+
+ <p>Esther is my cousin and we were brought up together. How
+ could I have forgotten her?</p>
+
+ <p>What she told me about Esther was of no consequence. Then
+ she told me how she had nearly lost her luggage at
+ Brighton&mdash;she quite thought she had lost it, in
+ fact&mdash;but, as it happened, it turned up. "And if I had
+ lost it," she said, "it would have been dreadful, for I had a
+ number of dear Stella's beautiful sketches in one of my trunks.
+ Quite irreplaceable. However, it is all right."</p>
+
+ <p>Then why tell me?</p>
+
+ <p>And so she rattled on.</p>
+
+ <p>"You don't say anything," she said at last.</p>
+
+ <p>It was true. I had said nothing. I told her what the doctor
+ instructed.</p>
+
+ <p>"Quite right," she remarked. "I wish other people even in
+ good health could have the same prescription."</p>
+
+ <p>Just before dinner my brother came in again. "You've had
+ Aunt Lavinia here," he said.</p>
+
+ <p>I had.</p>
+
+ <p>"Getting quite grey, I thought," he said.</p>
+
+ <p>I had noticed it too.</p>
+
+ <p>He was smoking, and while he was with me he emptied his pipe
+ and filled it again. He thought he had knocked the burning ash
+ in the grate, but it had fallen in the turn-up of his right
+ trouser-leg.</p>
+
+ <p>Should I tell him? I wondered. He would, of course, find it
+ out from the smell, but meanwhile the cloth would be burned
+ through.</p>
+
+ <p>"Your trouser's burning," I said.</p>
+
+ <p>That was the only remark I volunteered all that day; and
+ really, except now and then on business, I don't see why one
+ should ever talk more.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>CURLING.</h2>
+
+ <h4>(<i>The Game and how to Play it, by a Winter
+ Sport.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <p>Take a piece of ice (you'll want Switzerland for this). Draw
+ two circles, one at each end. Draw a line a short distance from
+ each circle. The drawing can be done with a pin, pocket-knife,
+ diamond, axe, friend's razor or other edged or pointed
+ instrument. I give no dimensions because they are dull things
+ and I hate guessing. Talk of the circles at each end as
+ "houses" and the lines as "hogs," and you are well on the road
+ to become a curler.</p>
+
+ <p>Take two narrow pieces of tin with prickly eruptions on one
+ side. Place one each end of the ice-patch, prickly side down,
+ and stamp on the smooth side. Why these pieces of tin are
+ called "crampits" I can't tell you, unless it's just part of
+ the fun.</p>
+
+ <p>You now have a prepared patch that can be used for
+ hop-scotch, shove-halfpenny, Rugby football or curling. If you
+ have named the things as directed you really ought to use it
+ for curling.</p>
+
+ <p>We now come to the question of players. This is one of the
+ most important parts of the game. Four a side is the almost
+ ideal number, but a few more or less do not make any very great
+ difference. But be sure to get some Scotchmen. They take the
+ game seriously and do much to make the whole affair bright and
+ mirthful. A slight sprinkling of Irishmen often serves to bring
+ out more prominently the flavour of the Scottish humour.</p>
+
+ <p>Don't play for money unless you have the majority of
+ Scotchmen on your side.</p>
+
+ <p>The game is played with "stones," or, to use their Scotch
+ pseudonym, "stanes." To every man two stanes. You can either
+ get your "stanes" in England and travel out with them, or hire
+ them in the locality. They make the most pleasant travelling
+ companions and at times are the cause of many amusing incidents
+ which beguile the tedium of the journey. Also they often
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page49"
+ id="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span> lead to your picking up
+ chance acquaintances. I have known one stone placed in a
+ dimly lighted corridor of a train productive of much
+ merriment and harmless banter. Being of considerable weight
+ they do not readily respond to a playful kick, but having no
+ sharp corners they are seldom responsible for serious injury
+ to the kicker.</p>
+
+ <p>Every stone, when new, has a handle. Be careful to preserve
+ the handle intact on the upper part of the stone. If this
+ adjunct be lost or mislaid the stone is less amenable to
+ transit and almost useless for its original purpose.</p>
+
+ <p>You will also require a long-handled carpet-broom, which you
+ will on arrival re-name a "cow." Most dressing-bags constructed
+ for foreign travel are now fitted with these useful and
+ picturesque articles. The "cow" is used for two purposes. If
+ you are lucky enough to be appointed scorer for your side you
+ mark the score on the handle in such a way as to be
+ indecipherable by everyone but yourself. This prevents disputes
+ with regard to the accuracy of your arithmetic. You also use it
+ to sweep the ice in front of a friendly stone which appears
+ likely to give up prematurely from exhaustion. Sweeping is
+ carried out under the direction of your captain, and the
+ process is known in the vernacular as "sooping 'er oop." You
+ are not allowed to retard the progress of a stone, friendly or
+ otherwise, by intentionally sweeping obstructions into its
+ path. To discard a portion of your "cow" in front of a rapidly
+ advancing stone is actionable.</p>
+
+ <p>Over-enthusiasm in "sooping 'er 'oop" should be avoided. Ice
+ is proverbially slippery, and if you fall on to a friendly
+ stone from excess of energy or from debility, your side is
+ "huffed" that stone. This is a serious matter, and even if you
+ are able to continue the game you are looked on with disfavour
+ by your friends.</p>
+
+ <p>The object of the game is to get your stone as near as
+ possible to the centre of the circle at the other end of the
+ rink. With this object you stand on the piece of tin or
+ "crampit" before referred to, grasp the stone firmly by the
+ handle and hurl it along the ice. It is almost essential to let
+ go the stone at the right moment, otherwise it will hurl you.
+ The game is almost identical with the commoner game of "bowls,"
+ except for the language, which is worse. The term "wood" is
+ inappropriate and must be avoided, as the use of it may lay you
+ under a charge of ignorance or flippancy, which you will find
+ almost impossible to live down.</p>
+
+ <p>I will conclude with a few hints to novices. Preserve a cool
+ head and steady eye. Whilst you are playing your shot your
+ captain will be dancing about in the circle at the other end of
+ the ice. You will find it best to disregard his maniacal
+ shoutings and gesticulations. You will probably not understand
+ half of them and will not agree with the other half. If he
+ should break a blood-vessel do not take any notice unless some
+ part of his fallen body is likely to obstruct your stone. In
+ this case you are entitled to have him moved.</p>
+
+ <p>If, after you have played, cries of "hog" or "wobbler"
+ arise, remember that you are engaged in a sport and not in
+ politics and that there is nothing really offensive in the
+ terms. Finally, never scoff at the language used, and above all
+ remember that what is one man's game may be another's
+ religion.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/49.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/49.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+
+ <h3>LIFE'S LITTLE TRAGEDIES.</h3>SHY AND NERVOUS HUSBAND,
+ ABANDONED IN COSTUME DEPARTMENT BY HIS WIFE WHO HAS GONE TO
+ THE FITTING-ROOM TO HAVE HER DRESS FITTED, AND SURROUNDED
+ BY TALL AND BEAUTEOUS YOUNG LADIES WHOSE ONLY BUSINESS
+ SEEMS TO BE TO MAKE HIM FEEL LIKE A WORM.
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page50"
+ id="page50"></a>[pg 50]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/50.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/50.png"
+ alt="" /></a>"EH, BUT I HAD A RARE TIME LAST YEAR-R. A
+ WAS AT MA COUSIN MACWHUSKIE'S A WHOLE FORTNIGHT, AN' A
+ DIDNA ONCE KEN A WAS THEER!"
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>REVENGE.</h2>
+
+ <h4>(<i>Or, a Hint to a House-agent after coming away from his
+ Office.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Your voice was pleasing and your face was fat;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">With soap <i>ad libitum</i> you sought to
+ dabble us;</p>
+
+ <p>But when I told you we must leave the flat</p>
+
+ <p>Did I not notice; underneath the spat,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The bifurcated boot that marks
+ <i>Diabolus</i>?</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I know that in a brief while you'll have found</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The house I wanted (<i>sic</i>), superbly
+ roomy,</p>
+
+ <p>With a fine view and every comfort crowned,</p>
+
+ <p>A short three minutes from the Underground;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Also I know that you are safe to "do"
+ me.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>There will be something wrong; but you shall
+ fill</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">My ears with praises specious and
+ irrelevant</p>
+
+ <p>Of this and that; and you shall have your will,</p>
+
+ <p>And heave a deep sigh when I've paid my bill,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Having got off at last some rare white
+ elephant.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>And when things happen to "The Yews" or "Planes"</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Left by the Joneses like a haunt of
+ lazars;</p>
+
+ <p>When the roof falls, or in the winter rains</p>
+
+ <p>The dining-room breaks out in sudden blains,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And every feast we have recalls
+ BELSHAZZAR's;</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>You shall be smiling. But you have not guessed</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">One thing, for all your wisdom, child of
+ Lucifer:</p>
+
+ <p>You did not know I was a bard, whose breast</p>
+
+ <p>Could boil with bitter language when oppressed</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Like a bargee's; if anything,
+ abusiver.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>This is the high reward of sacred song;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The minstrels' voices are like falling
+ honey</p>
+
+ <p>When the gods please them, but when things go
+ wrong</p>
+
+ <p>They speak their mind out straight, and speak it
+ strong,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Especially on points concerned with
+ money.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>So, if you "do me down," I have my lyre,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And I shall trumpet (at the normal Press
+ wage)</p>
+
+ <p>Such things about that house, and with such
+ fire,</p>
+
+ <p>That all men ever after shall conspire</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To shun the said demesne and curse that
+ messuage.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>And spiders on the broken panes shall sit,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And the grey rats shall scuttle in the
+ basement,</p>
+
+ <p>Until the Borough Council purchase it</p>
+
+ <p>And cleanse and decorate, and lastly fit</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A fair blue <i>plaque</i> above the study
+ casement,</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Saying, "Here lived a while and wove his spell,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Eusebius Binks the bard, the
+ unforgotten;</p>
+
+ <p>The house is mentioned in his 'Lines to Hell,'</p>
+
+ <p>Also the agents, Messrs. Azazel,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And the then drains which, so he sang,
+ were rotten."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>EVOE.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p><i>The Daily Telegraph</i> says of the Portsmouth
+ Corporation telephone system:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"At present there are 1,899 subscribers and 2,528
+ distinct telephones."</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Why doesn't the Post Office experiment with this new sort of
+ telephone.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Yet it is necessary to state emphatically, although
+ no representative</p>
+
+ <p>of a daily newspaper seems to have been under this
+ impression, that not</p>
+
+ <p>for twenty years have I been so bored."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>C.K.S. in "The Sphere," on the 'Edwin Drood'
+ trial</i>.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>But how are the poor reporters to know so much about C.K.S.
+ as that?</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page51"
+ id="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/51.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/51.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+
+ <h3>COULEUR D'ORANGE.</h3>MR. ASQUITH (<i>on the
+ Riviera</i>). "LUCKY FOR ME THERE AREN'T ANY
+ 'CONVERSATIONS' HERE&mdash;I MIGHT AGREE TO ALMOST
+ ANYTHING."
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page53"
+ id="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span>
+
+ <h2>THE POST OFFICE AGAIN.</h2>
+
+ <p>DEAR UNCLE,&mdash;Its your birthday to-day. I sent you some
+ nice pairs of hankerchifs because its your birthday. They for
+ your nose. Its funny our birthdays being so close. And now no
+ more from your loving neice</p>
+
+ <p>NANCY.</p>
+
+ <p>MY DEAR NANCY,&mdash;Thank you very much indeed for the nice
+ pocket-handkerchiefs. I am very pleased with them. Nobody has
+ ever troubled to give me handkerchiefs before with pretty
+ flowers worked in the corners. I have been wearing them to-day,
+ or rather one of them. They are so nice that I really meant to
+ have kept them specially for parties and things like that, but,
+ as I was obliged to leave home in a great hurry this morning,
+ and someone had hidden my everyday handkerchiefs, I took one of
+ yours.</p>
+
+ <p>Such a funny thing has happened. I sent you for your
+ birthday a pretty card with birds on it, and somehow or other
+ it got taken in quite a different direction, and was returned
+ to me this morning by&mdash;whom do you think? Auntie Maud, all
+ the way away in Ireland. But we mustn't blame the
+ Postmaster-General without being absolutely sure of ourselves.
+ It is very difficult in mysterious cases like this to be
+ absolutely sure. Didn't you get my parcel? I sent it off at the
+ same time as I sent the card, and I haven't had the parcel
+ back. I wonder where it is. It looks as though things were
+ going on that you and I know nothing about. I shall be very
+ angry with him if he has forgotten to give you your parcel.</p>
+
+ <p>Hoping you are quite well, thank you, Your loving</p>
+
+ <p>UNCLE HENRY.</p>
+
+ <p>DEAR UNCLE,&mdash;Thank you for your pretty card for my
+ birthday. I didn't got your parsel. Its very naughty of him
+ when its my birthday. I hop youll be very very angry with him
+ because its my birthday and I didnt get your parsel. And now no
+ more from your loving neice</p>
+
+ <p>NANCY.</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Postmaster-General</i>.</p>
+
+ <p>SIR,&mdash;On Tuesday last I despatched by book-post a
+ parcel from the South-Western District Office. It is now
+ Friday, and the parcel has not been delivered. I should esteem
+ it a favour if you would kindly give the Official Handicapper
+ for the District in question instructions to allow my parcel to
+ start forthwith. Yours faithfully,</p>
+
+ <p>HY. FRESHFIELD.</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Postmaster-General</i>.</p>
+
+ <p>SIR,&mdash;In reply to your enquiry as to the nature of the
+ parcel, I beg to inform you that it was oblong in shape and
+ done up in brown paper and tied securely with string. To assist
+ you still further in the task of identification, I may mention
+ that it is addressed to Miss Nancy Freshfield, c/o F.E.L.
+ Freshfield, Esq., 47, Ottalie Gardens, Westminster, S.W.</p>
+
+ <p>Trusting that nothing serious has occurred to disqualify my
+ parcel, Yours faithfully, HY. FRESHFIELD.</p>
+
+ <p>DEAR UNCLE,&mdash;I thought it was such a long time my
+ parsel didnt come I would write to you dear Uncle. I hop you
+ were very angry with him. And now no more</p>
+
+ <p>from your loving neice NANCY.</p>
+
+ <p>DEAR SIR,&mdash;I am directed by the Postmaster-General to
+ inform you that your parcel has now been traced.</p>
+
+ <p>The name of the addressee was correctly stated by you, but
+ you omitted to append such further instructions for the
+ guidance of the Post Office as to indicate the destination to
+ which you desired it to go. I have the pleasure to add that the
+ fuller information has been copied in from your letter, and the
+ parcel despatched....</p>
+
+ <p>DEAR NANCY,&mdash;By the same post that brought me your
+ letter I heard from our absent-minded friend, the
+ Postmaster-General. You will be pained to learn that he is even
+ more absent-minded than we thought he was. Although, when I
+ handed him your parcel, I distinctly told him it was going to
+ Westminster, the moment my back is turned he must needs forget
+ all about it.</p>
+
+ <p>I feel really rather sorry for him, and I don't think we
+ ought to be angry any more. He can't possibly forget now,
+ because I have written the address down for him. Your
+ loving</p>
+
+ <p>UNCLE HENRY.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:60%;">
+ <a href="images/53.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/53.png"
+ alt="" /></a>WHAT TO DO WITH OUR FAT MEN; OR, EVERY
+ LITTLE HELPS.
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page54"
+ id="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span>
+
+ <h2>A CABINET CRISIS.</h2>
+
+ <p>It had to be faced at last. There is a demand for them
+ occasionally, and people won't put up with that excellent one
+ taken under the crab-apple tree any longer.</p>
+
+ <p>I was caught just right there. The sun was in an indulgent
+ mood and winked at the signs of advancing age. The bald patch
+ was out of sight, and the smile would have softened the heart
+ of an income-tax assessor. I acquired the negative from the
+ amateur performer, and had it vignetted, which made it better
+ still, as there was a space between the cashmere sock and the
+ spring trousering in the original that I did not want attention
+ drawn to. I had a large number of prints made, and dealt them
+ out to anybody who asked for a photograph of me. At first they
+ aroused considerable enthusiasm, but after five or six years a
+ look of doubt began to appear on the faces of the recipients.
+ Hadn't I got a later one? This was very nice, but&mdash;I
+ pointed out that I hadn't changed at all, or only a very
+ little. At my best I was still like that; and didn't they want
+ me at my best?</p>
+
+ <p>At last a person described by himself as plain-spoken, and
+ by other people as offensively rude, said that I had never
+ really been as good-looking as that, with all possible
+ allowances made, and any way he wanted a photograph and not a
+ memorial card. I took a firm stand, and said that if he wasn't
+ satisfied with that one he could go without altogether, and he
+ said in the most insulting way that he supposed he should be
+ himself again in time if he took a tonic.</p>
+
+ <p>A few more episodes of that sort eventually drove me to it.
+ I passed my <i>viva-voce</i> examination at the hands of the
+ young lady at the desk, paid my fees, got my testamur, and was
+ shown into the torture-chamber, where the head executioner was
+ busy adjusting his racks and screws.</p>
+
+ <p>I was rather taken with the rustic seat that was standing on
+ a white fur mat in front of a scene representing the Jungfrau,
+ but he headed me off it. If I liked the Jungfrau as a
+ background I could have it, but not with the seat; that was for
+ engaged couples only. He recommended a pair of skis, or a
+ bobsleigh; he could put a fine fall of snow into the negative.
+ But as I had arrayed myself in a black coat, with one of those
+ white waistcoat slips, and a flowing tie with a pearl pin, I
+ refused this offer, and we decided we wouldn't have a
+ background at all.</p>
+
+ <p>As the man who administered the laughing gas was out at
+ lunch, I prepared to go through with it in cold blood, and
+ seated myself in the operating chair in the most natural
+ attitude I could assume&mdash;something like the one I had
+ taken under the crab-tree. I thought I would show them that
+ there wasn't so much difference after all. But it did not suit
+ the head mechanic at all. He looked at me with his head on one
+ side, and then took hold of mine by the chin and the hair and
+ gave it a twist. I had never worn it at that angle in my life,
+ and I knew it would put my collar all wrong; but I had to do
+ what he told me. He arranged my coat so that it should look as
+ if it had been made to fit somebody else, and disposed my arms
+ in such a way as to give the sleeves the appearance of trouser
+ legs with rucks in them. I felt almost more sorry for my tailor
+ than for myself, but I shall send him one of the prints when I
+ get them; it will be good for him.</p>
+
+ <p>We were now ready to tackle the expression. I had chosen one
+ that would have been suitable for a man with a fair No Trump
+ hand, but with one suit not fully guarded, as I didn't want to
+ overdo it; but, judging from the inquisitor's remarks about the
+ graveside, I am quite ready to admit that it might not have
+ come out like that. I hastily dealt myself a hundred aces and a
+ long suit of clubs, and he said that that was better, but I
+ must put off the idea of the funeral altogether. It was not
+ until I had assumed the appearance of a reach-me-down Nut with
+ a dislocated neck, being made love to by six chorus-girls at
+ once, that he condescended to take a look at me through the
+ peephole. Then he ran up to me, gave my chin another hitch,
+ pulled my neck another foot or two out of my collar, added a
+ ruck or two to my sleeves, and said he liked the other side of
+ my face better, after all.</p>
+
+ <p>So we went through it all again, and I worked at it with a
+ will, for I wanted to see him get under his black cloth and
+ finish the business.</p>
+
+ <p>It wasn't as bad as I had thought, but he was not done by
+ any means when he had fired his first shot. He rammed more
+ cartridges into the breach, and twisted me into three fresh
+ contortions. He said he was sure that some of the efforts would
+ turn out magnificently.</p>
+
+ <p>I don't feel quite the same confidence myself. I am
+ anxiously awaiting the result, and trying to get rid of the
+ crick in my neck and to unbuckle the smile in the meantime. If
+ it doesn't turn out satisfactorily, I shall get a few
+ lines&mdash;not too deep&mdash;put into the negative of the one
+ taken under the crab-tree, and a little hair painted
+ out&mdash;but not too much.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:50%;">
+ <a href="images/54.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/54.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+
+ <p>"WORK! I'M NOT AFRAID O' WORK, BUT I CAN'T GET ANY IN MY
+ LINE."</p>
+
+ <p>"WHAT IS YOUR LINE?"</p>
+
+ <p>"I USED TO BE A STOCKBROKER, LIDY."</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Lemnos and Samothrace are to pass to Greece, and Chios
+ and Wtlylene are to be neutralised."&mdash;<i>Daily
+ Citizen</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>We shall remain anxious until the last-named is
+ sterilized.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page55"
+ id="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span>
+
+ <h2>THE TRAGEDY OF MIDDLE AGE.</h2>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>When I was a mid-Victorian nut</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">With a delicate taste in ties,</p>
+
+ <p>A highly elegant figure I cut,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">At least in my own fond eyes,</p>
+
+ <p>And used to regard unwaxed moustaches</p>
+
+ <p>As one of the worst of social laches.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>But now I find in my youngest son</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The sternest of autocrats.</p>
+
+ <p>He tells me the things that must be done</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And orders my collars and spats;</p>
+
+ <p>Prescribes mild exercise on the links</p>
+
+ <p>And advises me on the choice of drinks.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I've faithfully striven to imitate</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">My Mentor in dress and diction,</p>
+
+ <p>And loyally laboured to cultivate</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A taste for the latest fiction;</p>
+
+ <p>Though I still read DICKENS upon the sly,</p>
+
+ <p>And even SCOTT, when nobody's by.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>It's true I've managed to draw the line</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">At going to tango teas,</p>
+
+ <p>For, after all, I am fifty-nine</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And a trifle stiff in the knees;</p>
+
+ <p>But I've had to give up billiards for "slosh,"</p>
+
+ <p>And pay laborious homage to "squash."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Long since my whiskers I had to shave</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To please this young barbarian,</p>
+
+ <p>But still for a while I stealthily clave</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To the use of Pommade Hungarian;</p>
+
+ <p>But now my tyrant has made me snip</p>
+
+ <p>The glory and pride of my upper lip.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"My dear old man," he recently said,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">"If you go on waxing the ends,</p>
+
+ <p>You're bound to be cut, direct and dead,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">By all of my nuttiest friends.</p>
+
+ <p>For it's only done, so <i>The Mail</i>
+ discovers,</p>
+
+ <p>By Labour leaders and taxi-shovers."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>So the deed was done, but whenever I gaze</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">On my face in the glass I moan</p>
+
+ <p>As I think of the mid-Victorian days</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">When my upper lip was my own.</p>
+
+ <p>For now, of length and of breadth bereft,</p>
+
+ <p>The ghost of a tooth-brush is all that's left.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"MISSING</p>
+
+ <p>NAVY</p>
+
+ <p>PAYMASTER</p>
+
+ <p>ARRESTED."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>"Evening Standard" Poster.</i></p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>So that's where it was all the time!</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"The Under-sheriff said ... rumours against a man's
+ character were like a rolling stone, gathering moss as it
+ went."&mdash;<i>Western Mail</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>"As fond of the fire as a burnt child," is another of the
+ Under Sheriff's favourite sayings.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:65%;">
+ <a href="images/55.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/55.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+
+ <p><i>Indulgent Householder</i>. "WHY ARE YOU SINGING
+ CAROLS, MY LITTLE MAN? DON'T YOU KNOW CHRISTMAS IS
+ OVER?"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Youthful Caroller</i>. "YES, SIR; BUT I 'AD MEASLES
+ ALL FROO CHRISTMAS."</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>ONCE UPON A TIME.</h2>
+
+ <h3>GLAMOUR.</h3>
+
+ <p>Once upon a time there was a peer who knew the frailty of
+ unennobled man.</p>
+
+ <p>Having occasion to entertain at dinner a number of useful
+ follows, he instructed his butler to transfer the labels from a
+ number of empty bottles of champagne to an equal number of
+ magnums of dry ginger-ale, at ten shillings the dozen, and
+ these were placed on the table.</p>
+
+ <p>At the beginning of the repast his lordship casually drew
+ attention to the wine which he was giving his guests, and asked
+ for their candid opinion of it, as he was aware that they were
+ all good judges, who knew a good thing when they saw it, and he
+ would value their opinion.</p>
+
+ <p>And they one and all said it was an excellent champagne, and
+ two or three made a note of it in their pocket-books. And such
+ was their loyal enthusiasm that the banquet ended in a fine
+ glow of something exactly like hilarity.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page56"
+ id="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span>
+
+ <h2>AT THE PLAY.</h2>
+
+ <h3>"MARY-GIRL."</h3>
+
+ <p>"I'm not going to give up my daily bath!" In these pregnant
+ and moving words rang the <i>cri de coeur</i> which was to
+ precipitate the tragedy of <i>Mary Sheppard</i>. To you the
+ attitude of mind which provoked this cry may seem as natural as
+ it was sanitary. But you must understand that it ran directly
+ counter to <i>Ezra Sheppard's</i> ideal of the simple
+ God-fearing life. Godliness with him came first, and
+ cleanliness followed where it could. In his view a tub once a
+ week was all that any sane person should need. Apart from this
+ hebdomadal use its proper function was to hold dirty dishes and
+ soiled clothes for the washing. And indeed this had at one time
+ been <i>Mary's</i> own view (though tempered by vague
+ aspirations towards a softer existence, as we might have
+ guessed from the elegance of her brown shoes) before a year of
+ the higher life had shaken her content. Let us go back.</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:33%;">
+ <a href="images/56.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/56.png"
+ alt="" /></a>Mr. MCKINNEL (<i>Ezra Sheppard</i>) to
+ Miss MAY BLAYNEY (<i>Mary Sheppard</i>). "You've been
+ lying again! You know how I hate it&mdash;I told you
+ so in this very theatre when we were playing in
+ <i>Between Sunset and Dawn</i>."
+ </div>
+
+ <p><i>Ezra Sheppard</i> was by profession a market-gardener,
+ and his favourite recreation was preaching in a barn. We have
+ the picture of a frugal but happy interior, with a new-born
+ infant (<i>off</i>). The trouble began with an offer made to
+ his wife of a situation as foster-mother to the baby (also
+ <i>off</i>) of a neighbouring Countess. The wages were to be
+ high and she was to be delicately entreated; but there were
+ hard conditions. She was not to hold communication with her
+ husband or child for twelve months. I am sorry to say that
+ <i>Mary</i> did not flinch from these conditions quite so much
+ as I could have hoped. <i>Ezra</i>, however, rejected them for
+ her with manly scorn, until he was reminded that the high wages
+ would speed the end of his own ambitions&mdash;namely, to
+ replace his barn with a conventicle of brick. So he let his
+ wife loose into Eden with the Serpent.</p>
+
+ <p>And now we see <i>Mary</i> seated in the lap of luxury, with
+ soft gowns to wear, and peaches to eat and instant slaves at
+ her beck. You will, of course, expect her virtue to fall an
+ easy prey; but you will be wrong. The Earl's attitude is
+ pleasantly parental, and the attentions of the Countess's
+ cavalier&mdash;an author&mdash;are confined to the extraction
+ of copy. And anyhow <i>Mary's</i> instincts are sound. Now and
+ again she remembers to pity the loneliness of her husband,
+ whose cottage light she can see from the window of her bower;
+ and once, by a ruse, she gets him to break the conditions and
+ visit her; but when he learns that the invitation came from
+ her, and not, as alleged, from the Countess, his conscience
+ will not permit him to take advantage of his chance. So you
+ have the unusual spectacle of a true and loving wife pleading
+ in vain for the embraces of her true and loving husband.</p>
+
+ <p>But if her virtue, in the technical sense, remained intact,
+ the Serpent had overfed her with <i>pommes de luxe</i>. On her
+ return home&mdash;where the restoration of her child might have
+ helped matters, but it doesn't know who she is and refuses to
+ part from its foster-mother&mdash;we find her lethargic, off
+ her feed, indifferent to the claims of menial toil, and
+ clamorous (as I have shown) for her rights of the daily
+ bath.</p>
+
+ <p>In the first joy of conjugal reunion <i>Ezra</i> consents to
+ tolerate the discomfort of this change, but in the end he loses
+ patience and hits her. She leaves for London the same
+ afternoon.</p>
+
+ <p>Six black months pass over the husband's bowed head, and
+ then, on a very windy night (the wind was well done), she makes
+ a re-entry, and confesses that, under stress of need, she has
+ lapsed from virtue. This is bad news for <i>Ezra</i>, but he is
+ prepared to forgive a fault in which he himself has had a fair
+ share. Only there must be a sacrifice of something, if moral
+ justice is to be appeased. So he chooses between his wife and
+ his chapel and does execution on the latter. He goes out into
+ the storm and sets the thing alight. His conscience is thus
+ purified by fire, the gale being favourable to arson.</p>
+
+ <p>It is a pity that so excellent an object as a brick chapel
+ should be the evil genius of the play. Yet so it is. Built of
+ the materials of Scandinavian drama, it is always just round
+ the corner, heavy with doom. We never see it, but we hear more
+ than enough about it, and in the end it becomes a bore which we
+ are well rid of.</p>
+
+ <p>The theme of the perils of foster-motherhood is not new, but
+ Mrs. MERRICK has treated it freshly and with a very decent
+ avoidance of its strictly sexual aspects. But her methods are
+ too sedentary. She kept on with her atmosphere long after we
+ knew the details of the cottage interior by heart; while a
+ whole volume of active tragedy&mdash;<i>Mary's</i> six months
+ in London&mdash;was left to our fevered imagination. And the
+ sense of reality which she was at such pains to create was
+ spoiled by dialogue freely carried on in the immediate vicinity
+ of persons who were not supposed to overhear it.</p>
+
+ <p>The chief attraction of <i>Mary-Girl</i> (a silly title) was
+ the engaging personality of Miss MAY BLAYNEY. Always a
+ fascinating figure to watch, she showed an extraordinary
+ sensitiveness of voice and expression. As for that honest and
+ admirable actor, Mr. MCKINNEL, who made the perfect foil to her
+ charms that every good husband should wish to be, he seems
+ never to tire of playing these stern, dour, semi-brutal parts.
+ That more genial characters are open to him his success in
+ <i>Great Catherine</i> showed. Miss MARY BROUGH, as a
+ charwoman, supplied a rare need with her richly-flavoured
+ humour and its clipped sentences. All the rest did themselves
+ justice. Miss HELEN FERRERS was a shade more aristocratic than
+ the aristocrat of stage tradition; and it was not the fault of
+ Miss DOROTHY FANE (as her daughter, <i>Lady Folkington</i>)
+ that she was required to behave incredibly in the presence of
+ her inferiors. I have not much to say for the manners of
+ Society in its own circles; but it is probably at its best in
+ its intercourse with humbler neighbours. Mrs. MERRICK's picture
+ of the <i>Countess</i> on a visit to the <i>Sheppards'</i>
+ cottage might have been designed for a poster of the Land
+ Campaign.</p>
+
+ <p>There was no dissenting note, I am glad to say, in the
+ reception of Mrs. MERRICK's charming self when she appeared
+ after the fall of the curtain.</p>
+
+ <p>"A pretty authoress!" said an actress in the stalls.</p>
+
+ <p>"Is that your comment on the play?" I asked.</p>
+
+ <p>"Yes!" she said.</p>
+
+ <p>O.S.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Her Majesty was accompanied by Princess Henry and
+ John."&mdash;<i>Liverpool Echo</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Where was Lord SAYE AND SELE?</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page57"
+ id="page57"></a>[pg 57]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/57.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/57.png"
+ alt="" /></a>"COME, COME, SIR! THAT'S THE HORSE WE
+ KEEP FOR QUITE YOUNG CHILDREN! HE WANTS TO <i>PLAY</i>
+ WITH YOU, SIR!"
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>THE LAST STRAW.</h2>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I sing the sofa! It had stood for years,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">An invitation to benign repose,</p>
+
+ <p>A foe to all the fretful brood of fears,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Bidding the weary eye-lid sink and
+ close.</p>
+
+ <p>Massive and deep and broad it was and
+ bland&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>In short the noblest sofa in the land.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>You, too, my friend, my solid friend, I sing,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Whom on an afternoon I did behold</p>
+
+ <p>Eying&mdash;'twas after lunch&mdash;the cushioned
+ thing,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And murmuring gently, "Here are realms of
+ gold,</p>
+
+ <p>And I shall visit them," you said, "and be</p>
+
+ <p>The sofa's burden till it's time for tea."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Let those who will go forth," you said, "and
+ dare,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Beyond the cluster of the little
+ shops,</p>
+
+ <p>To strain their limbs and take the eager air,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Seeking the heights of Hedsor and its
+ copse.</p>
+
+ <p>I shall abide and watch the far-off gleams</p>
+
+ <p>Of fairy beacons from the world of dreams."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Then forth we fared, and you, no doubt, lay
+ down,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">An easy victim to the sofa's charms,</p>
+
+ <p>Forgetting hopes of fame and past renown,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Lapped in those padded and alluring
+ arms.</p>
+
+ <p>"How well," you said, and veiled your heavy
+ eyes,</p>
+
+ <p>"It slopes to suit me! This is Paradise."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>So we adventured to the topmost hill,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And, when the sunset shot the sky with
+ red,</p>
+
+ <p>Homeward returned and found you taking still</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Deep draughts of peace with pillows
+ 'neath your head.</p>
+
+ <p>"His sleep," said one, "has been unduly long."</p>
+
+ <p>Another said, "Let's bring and beat the gong."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Gongs," said a third and gazed with looks
+ intent</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">At the full sofa, "are not adequate.</p>
+
+ <p>There fits some dread, some heavy, punishment</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">For one who sleeps with such a dreadful
+ weight.</p>
+
+ <p>Behold with me," he moaned, "a scene accurst.</p>
+
+ <p>The springs are broken and the sofa's burst!"</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Too true! Too true! Beneath you on the floor</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Lay blent in ruin all the obscure
+ things</p>
+
+ <p>That were the sofa's strength, a scattered store</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Of tacks and battens and protruded
+ springs.</p>
+
+ <p>Through the rent ticking they had all been
+ spilt,</p>
+
+ <p>Mute proofs and mournful of your weight and
+ guilt.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>And you? You slept as sweetly as a child,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And when you woke you recked not of your
+ shame,</p>
+
+ <p>But babbled greetings, stretched yourself and
+ smiled</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">From that eviscerated sofa's frame,</p>
+
+ <p>Which, flawless erst, was now one mighty flaw</p>
+
+ <p>Through the addition of yourself as straw.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>R.C.L.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"A really acceptable present for a lady is a nice piece
+ of artificial hair, as, when not absolutely necessary, it
+ is always useful and ornamental."&mdash;<i>Advt. in
+ "Aberdeen Free Press."</i></p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Still, it might be misunderstood.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Theologians and mystics might say, 'Is that not mere
+ anthropomrhpism?'"&mdash;<i>Mr. BALFOUR according to "The
+ Daily Mail."</i></p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>But a Welshman would say it best.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"An aggressive minority succeeded in showing that the
+ Little Navy-ites do not represent the bulk of public
+ opinion."&mdash;<i>Daily Express</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>It is, of course, always the aggressive minority which
+ really represents the bulk of public opinion.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page58"
+ id="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span>
+
+ <h2>A BYGONE.</h2>
+
+ <p>When I see the white-haired and venerable Thompson standing
+ behind my equally white-haired but much less venerable father
+ at dinner, exuding an atmosphere of worth and uprightness and
+ checking by his mere silent presence the more flippant
+ tendencies of our conversation; when I hear him whisper into my
+ youthful son's ear, "Sherry, Sir?" in the voice of a tolerant
+ teetotaler who would not force his principles upon any man but
+ hopes sincerely that this one will say No; and when I am
+ informed that he promised our bootboy a rapid and inevitable
+ descent to a state of infamy and destitution upon discovering
+ no more than the fag end of a cigarette behind his ear, then I
+ am tempted to recall an incident of fifteen years back, lest it
+ be forgotten that Thompson is a man like ourselves who has
+ known, and even owned, a human weakness.</p>
+
+ <p>Dinner had begun on that eventful evening at 7.30 P.M., and
+ it was drawing within sight of a conclusion, that is, the sweet
+ had been eaten and the savoury was overdue, at 9.45 P.M. Four
+ of us had trailed thus far through this critical meal: my
+ father, a usually patient widower who was becoming more than
+ restless; the Robinsons, never a jocund brace of guests, who
+ were by now positively sullen, and myself who, being but a
+ boy&mdash;of twenty odd years and having little enough to say
+ to a woman of fifty-five and her still more antique husband,
+ had long ago settled down to a determined silence. Meanwhile
+ Thompson, then in his first year of service with us, tarried
+ mysteriously heaven knows where.</p>
+
+ <p>The intervals of preparation before each course had been
+ growing longer and longer and the pause before the savoury
+ threatened to be infinite. My father commanded me to ring the
+ bell severely. Longing to escape from the table I did so with
+ emphasis, and my ring summoned (to our surprise, for we were
+ not aware of her existence in the house) a slightly soiled
+ kitchen-maid.</p>
+
+ <p>"Where is Thompson?" asked my father sternly.</p>
+
+ <p>"At the telephone, Sir," stammered the maid.</p>
+
+ <p>"The telephone!" cried my father. "Whatever is the
+ matter?"</p>
+
+ <p>The maid started to mumble an explanation, burst into tears
+ and fled in alarm, never again to emerge from the back regions.
+ My father commanded me to the bell again, but as I rose
+ Thompson entered. He was even then a stately and dignified
+ person, and it was with a measured tread and slow that he
+ advanced upon my father.</p>
+
+ <p>"Will you please serve the savoury at once?" said my
+ father.</p>
+
+ <p>"I am afraid it cannot be done, Sir," said Thompson. "May I
+ explain, Sir?"</p>
+
+ <p>"What is the meaning of this?" asked my father, fearing some
+ terrible disaster below stairs, and sacrificing politeness to
+ his guests with the hope of saving lives in the kitchen.</p>
+
+ <p>Thompson cleared his throat.&mdash;"For some weeks, Sir," he
+ said, "I have been much worried with financial affairs. Like a
+ fool I have invested all my savings in speculative shares, and
+ the variations of the market have unduly depressed me. When I
+ am depressed I take no food, and that depresses me even
+ more."</p>
+
+ <p>You will be as surprised as we were that this was allowed to
+ continue, but when a man of so few words as Thompson chooses to
+ come out of his shell he is always master of the situation.
+ "And so, Sir," he continued, "I have taken the liberty of
+ telephoning to the mews for a cab."</p>
+
+ <p>He paused and bowed, as if this made it all clear, and was
+ about to withdraw. "Kindly finish serving dinner at once, and
+ don't be impudent," my father got out at last.</p>
+
+ <p>Thompson sighed. "It is absolutely out of the question,
+ Sir," said he. "Quite, quite impossible."</p>
+
+ <p>"Why on earth?" cried my father.</p>
+
+ <p>Thompson became, if possible, more solemn and deliberate
+ than before. "I am drunk, Sir," said he.</p>
+
+ <p>At this point Mrs. Robinson, whose indignation had slowly
+ been swelling within her, rose and left the room. Robinson, as
+ in duty bound, followed. Neither of them, to my infinite joy,
+ has ever returned...</p>
+
+ <p>"Depressed by want of food, Sir," continued Thompson, by
+ sheer duress preventing my father from following his guests and
+ attempting to pacify them, "I have taken to spirits. I do not
+ like the taste of spirits and they go at once to my head. They
+ depress me further, Sir, but they intoxicate me. Yes, I am
+ undoubtedly tipsy."</p>
+
+ <p>My father seized the opportunity of his pause for reflection
+ to order him to leave the room and present himself in the
+ morning when he was sober.</p>
+
+ <p>"You dismiss us without notice, Sir," he stated, referring
+ to himself and his wife in the kitchen. "First thing in the
+ morning we go. And so I have ordered the cab to take us."</p>
+
+ <p>This was a very proper fate for Thompson but came a little
+ hard on my father. "But what am <i>I</i> to do?" asked he.</p>
+
+ <p>Thompson regarded him with a desultory smile. "The Mews
+ desires to know, Sir," said he, "who will pay for the cab?"</p>
+
+ <p>I ought to be able to state that there followed with the
+ cold light of day an apology, with passionate tears and
+ remorse, from Thompson, or at least a severe reprimand from my
+ father before he consented to keep him on. I regret to say that
+ my father, next morning, postponed the interview till the
+ evening, and from the evening till the next morning,
+ and&mdash;that interview is still pending. If this seems weak,
+ you have only to see Thompson to realize that no man with any
+ sense of the incongruous could even mention the word "Drink" in
+ his presence.</p>
+
+ <p>As for the cab which Thompson had ordered, though we never
+ saw it we later heard all about it. It went to the wrong house
+ because, as the proprietor of the mews informed us with shame
+ and regret, the driver entrusted with the order had been very
+ much under the influence of alcohol. Altogether it is a sordid
+ tale, made no better by the fact that the house which the
+ drunken driver chose to go to and insult was the
+ Robinsons'...</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>LOVE AT THE CINEMA.</h2>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Inert I watched the Hero sacked</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">For lapses clearly not his own;</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">The midnight murder on the cliff,</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">The wonted ante-nuptial tiff,</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">The orange-blossoms, bored me stiff.</p>
+
+ <p>The picture-hall was simply packed,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">But I was all alone.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Alone! Two little hours could span</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The gloom that bound me stark and
+ grim</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">(No melancholy pierced me through</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Before the 7.32</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Had ravished Barbara from view),</p>
+
+ <p>And yet I brooked it like a man</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Until I noticed HIM.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>He sat extravagantly near</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">His Heart's Delight. To my distress,</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">When temporary twilight fell,</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">He squeezed her hand (and squeezed it
+ well!),</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Possessed her waist, and in that
+ shell,</p>
+
+ <p>That damask shell she calls an ear,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Breathed words of tenderness.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The blood ran riot to my head</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And still I held my madness thrall,</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">My lips repressed the frenzied
+ shriek,</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">My straining heart was stout as teak;</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">But, when he kissed her mantling
+ cheek,</p>
+
+ <p>I broke&mdash;and two attendants led</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Me wailing from the hall.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page59"
+ id="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/59.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/59.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+
+ <h3>THE LOST CHRISTMAS PRESENT.</h3>
+
+ <p><i>Maid</i> (<i>to postman delivering long-delayed
+ parcel</i>). "WHAT IS IT?"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Postman</i>. "LABEL SAYS, 'WILD DUCKS,' BUT THEY'RE
+ 'UMMING-BIRDS NOW".</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.</h2>
+
+ <h4>(<i>By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <p>There is at least one thing that will surprise you about
+ <i>It Happened in Egypt</i> (METHUEN), and that is that,
+ although C.N. and A.M. WILLIAMSON are the writers, motor-cars
+ are hardly so much as mentioned throughout. It is a tale of the
+ Nile and the Desert, of camels and caravans, told with a quite
+ extraordinary power of making you feel that you have visited
+ the scenes described. But this, of course, if you have any
+ previous experience of the WILLIAMSON method, will not surprise
+ you at all. As for the story that strings the scenes together,
+ though it promised well, with almost every possible element of
+ fictional excitement&mdash;buried treasure, and spies, and
+ abductions, and secrets&mdash;somehow the result was not wholly
+ up to the expectation thus created. To borrow an appropriate
+ simile, the great thrill remained something of a mirage, always
+ in sight and never actually reached. Also I wish to record my
+ passionate protest against stories of treasure-trove in which
+ the treasure is not taken away in sacks and used to enrich the
+ hunters; I am all against leaving it underground, for whatever
+ charming and romantic reasons. No, it is not so much as a novel
+ of adventure that might have happened pretty well anywhere that
+ I advise you to read this book, but as a super-guide to scenes
+ and sensations that happen in Egypt and nowhere else. From the
+ moment when, as one of the WILLIAMSON party, you sit down to
+ breakfast on the terrace of Shepherd's, till you take leave of
+ your fellow-travellers in the mountain-tomb of QUEEN CANDACE,
+ you will enjoy the nearest possible approach to a luxurious
+ Egyptian tour, under delightful guidance, and at an inclusive
+ fare of six shillings.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Mr. SETON GORDON is a bold man. It is one thing to call a
+ book <i>The Charm of the Hills</i> (CASSELL) and quite another
+ to succeed in conveying that charm through the medium of the
+ printed word. Perhaps, however, he was encouraged by the
+ success that has already attended these pen-pictures of
+ Highland scenes in serial form; certainly he knew also that he
+ had another source of strength in a collection of the most
+ fascinating photographs of mountain scenery and wild life,
+ nearly a hundred of which are reproduced in the present volume.
+ So that what Mr. GORDON the writer fails to convey about his
+ favourite haunts (which is not much) Mr. GORDON the
+ photographer is ready to supply. The papers, which range in
+ subject from ptarmigan to cairngorms, are written with an
+ engaging simplicity and directness, and show a sympathetic
+ knowledge of wild nature such as is the reward only of long
+ familiarity. The glorious mountain wind blows through them all,
+ so that as you read you feel the heather brushing your knees,
+ and see the clouds massing on the peaks of
+ Ben-something-or-other. Perhaps Mr. GORDON is at his most
+ interesting on the subject of the Golden Eagle. There are many
+ striking snapshots of the king of birds in his royal home; and
+ some stories of court life in an eyrie that are fresh and
+ enthralling. One thing that I was specially glad to learn on so
+ good authority is that the Golden Eagle, so far from being
+ threatened with extinction, is actually increasing in the
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page60"
+ id="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span> deer forests of the North.
+ This is intelligence as welcome as it is nowadays unusual.
+ The book, which is published at 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net,
+ is dedicated "to one who loves the glens and corries of the
+ hills"; and all who answer to this description should be
+ grateful to the writer for his delightful record.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Goodness knows that of all London's teeming millions I am
+ the possessor of the most easily curdled blood, but my flesh
+ declined to creep an inch from the first page to the last of
+ <i>Animal Ghosts</i> (RIDER). I think it was Mr. ELLIOTT
+ O'DONNELL's way of telling his stories that was responsible for
+ my indifference. He is so incorrigibly reticent. His idea of a
+ well-told ghost story runs on these lines:&mdash;"In the year
+ 189&mdash;, in the picturesque village of C&mdash;&mdash;, hard
+ by the manufacturing town of L&mdash;&mdash;, there lived a
+ wealthy gentleman named T&mdash;&mdash; with his cousin
+ F&mdash;&mdash; and two friends M&mdash;&mdash; and
+ R&mdash;&mdash;." I simply refuse to take any interest in the
+ spectres of initials, still less in the spectres of the
+ domestic pets of initials. I am no bigot; by all means deny
+ your ghost his prerogative of clanking chains and rattling
+ bones; but there are certain points on which I do take a firm
+ stand, and this matter of initials is one of them. Not one of
+ these stories is convincing. Mr. O'DONNELL taps you on the
+ chest and whispers hoarsely, "As I stood there my blood
+ congealed, I could scarcely breathe. My scalp bristled;" and
+ you, if you are like me, hide a yawn and say, "No, really?"
+ There is a breezy carelessness, too, about his methods which
+ kills a story. He distinctly states, for instance, that the
+ story of the "Headless Cat of No. &mdash;&mdash;, Lower Seedley
+ Street, Manchester," was told to him by a Mr. ROBERT DANE. In
+ the first half of the narrative this gentleman's brother-in-law
+ addresses him as <i>Jack</i>, and later on his wife says to
+ him, "Oh, <i>Edward</i>." What a man whose own Christian name
+ is so much a matter of opinion has to say about seeing headless
+ cats does not seem to me to be evidence.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>There seems to be an increasing public for the volume of
+ reflections. At all events Mr. REGINALD LUCAS, who has already
+ two or three successes in this kind to his credit, has been
+ encouraged to produce another, to which he has given the
+ pleasant title of <i>The Measure of our Thoughts</i>
+ (HUMPHREYS). It is, of course, difficult to be critical with a
+ book like this; either it pleases the reader or it doesn't, and
+ that is about all that can be said. One reason for my belief
+ that Mr. LUCAS's <i>Thoughts</i> will please is that he has put
+ them into the brain of a definitely conceived and very well
+ drawn character. They are told in the form of letters by this
+ character to his old tutor. The writer is supposed to be the
+ rather unattractive and self-conscious eldest son of a noble
+ house, who suffers from the presence of a father and sister who
+ think him a fool, and a brother whose charm is a continual and
+ painful contrast to his own lack of it. The special skill of
+ the letters is their self-revelation, which brings out the
+ pathos of the writer's position, while at the same time showing
+ quite clearly the defects that explained it. Mr. LUCAS, in
+ short, does not commit the error of making his hero merely a
+ mute, misunderstood paragon, whom anyone with common
+ penetration must have recognised as such. On the contrary, we
+ sympathise with him, especially in the big tragedy of his life,
+ while quite admitting that to any casual acquaintance he must
+ have appeared only a dull and uninteresting egoist. This I call
+ clever, because it shows that Mr. LUCAS has created a real
+ thinker, rather than striven to give him any unusual profundity
+ of thought. An agreeable book.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>In the sixteenth chapter of the First Part of <i>The Rocks
+ of Valpr&eacute;</i> (FISHER UNWIN) <i>Trevor Mordaunt</i>
+ married <i>Christine Wyndham</i>, and on the last page (which
+ is the 511th) of the book, "she opened to him the doors of her
+ soul, and drew him within...." Granted that <i>Mordaunt</i>,
+ with the eyes of steel, was not exactly an oncoming man and
+ that when he married <i>Christine</i> he received, as wedding
+ presents, two or three brothers-in-law who sponged hopelessly
+ upon him, I still think that Miss ETHEL DELL has given us too
+ detailed an account of the domestic differences between
+ <i>Mordaunt</i> and his wife. For my own part I became frankly
+ tired of the pecuniary crises of the <i>Wyndhams</i> and of
+ their incurable inability to tell the truth. Had
+ <i>Mordaunt</i> got up and given these feckless brethren a
+ sound hiding I should have been relieved, but he preferred to
+ make them squirm by using his steely eyes. In the future I
+ suggest to Miss DELL that she should leave these strong silent
+ men alone. They have had their day and gone out of vogue. The
+ best part of this book, and indeed the best work Miss DELL has
+ yet done, is her treatment of the romantic friendship between
+ <i>Christine</i> and <i>Bertrand de Montville</i>. It is
+ handled so touchingly and so surely that I resent with all the
+ more peevishness the banality of the steel-eyed one.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:60%;">
+ <a href="images/60.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/60.png"
+ alt="" /></a>ONE OF THE FEW HISTORIC MANSIONS OF
+ ENGLAND WHERE QUEEN ELIZABETH DID <i>NOT</i> SLEEP.
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"His lordship dismissed the application, with costs, and
+ the jury found in his favour, assessing the damages at
+ &pound;1,000."</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>We should like to be a Judge. It seems to be easy and
+ well-paid work.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>From the synopsis of a Singapore play&mdash;just the last
+ scene or two:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Samion, after going through Nyai Dasima's fortune,
+ maltreated her, and told her to leave his protection. He
+ also commissioned a wicked man called Puasa to murder Nyai
+ Dasima. Puasa murdered Dasima, and throw her body into a
+ river. The corpse of Dasima floated and entangled in the
+ bathing-place of William. William, seeing this, at once
+ reported to the Police of Dasima's death. Puasa and others
+ were arrested and imprisoned. The Judge investigated the
+ case, and Puasa was sentenced to be hanged. Samion got mad
+ and died. Mah Buyong also got mad."</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>And so home to bed.</p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol.
+146., January 21, 1914, by Various
+
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+</pre>
+
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