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authorRoger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>2025-10-15 04:43:14 -0700
committerRoger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>2025-10-15 04:43:14 -0700
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+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
+ content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
+
+ <title>Punch, January 29, 1919.</title>
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13927 ***</div>
+
+ <h1>PUNCH,<br />
+ OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.</h1>
+
+ <h2>Vol. 156.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <h2>January 29, 1919.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page73"
+ id="page73"></a>[pg 73]</span>
+
+ <h2>CHARIVARIA.</h2>
+
+ <p>Peace is only a matter of time, says Mr. HUGHES. The
+ ex-Kaiser is said to be of the opinion that Mr. HUGHES might
+ have been more explicit as to who is going to get that
+ "time."</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Meanwhile the ex-Kaiser is growing a beard. He evidently has
+ no desire to share the fate of "Wilhelmshaven."</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>After reading the numerous articles on whether he should be
+ charged with murder or not, we have come to the conclusion that
+ the answer now rests solely between "Yes" or "No."</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Mr. DE VALERA has been appointed a delegate of the Irish
+ Republic to the Peace Conference. The fact that he has not
+ ordered the Peace Conference to come to Brixton prison should
+ satisfy doubters like <i>The Daily News</i> that Sinn Fein can
+ be moderate when it wants to.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>People in search of quiet amusement will be glad to know
+ that there will be an eclipse of the sun on May 29th.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Owing to the overcrowding of Tube trains we understand there
+ is some talk of men with beards being asked to leave them in
+ the ticket offices.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>It is reported that an All-Tube team has applied for
+ admission to the Rugby Union.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>A large number of forged five-pound notes are stated to be
+ in circulation in London. The proper way to dispose of one is
+ to slip it between a couple of genuine fivers when paying your
+ taxi fare.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The ancient office of Town Crier of Driffield, which carries
+ with it a retaining fee of one pound per annum, is vacant.
+ Several Army officers anxious to better themselves have applied
+ for the job.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>A large number of "sloping desks," made specially for
+ Government Departments, are offered for sale by the Board of
+ Works. The bulk of them, it is understood, slope at 3.30
+ P.M.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The mysterious disappearance of sheep from Barnstaple has
+ led to the report that some Government Department has fixed a
+ price for sheep.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>"It is not practicable," says the London Electric Railway
+ Company, "for passengers to enter Tube cars at one door and
+ leave by the other, because the end cars have only one door."
+ The idea of reserving these cars for persons getting in or out,
+ but not both, appears to have been overlooked.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>There is no truth in the report that the lodging, fuel and
+ light allowance of Officers is to be raised from two shillings
+ and sevenpence to two shillings and sevenpence halfpenny per
+ day, the cost of living having increased since the Peninsular
+ War.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>"What is reported to be the largest sapphira in the world,"
+ says a contemporary, "disappeared when the Bolshevists took
+ Kieff." We suspect that the largest living Ananias had a hand
+ in the affair.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>It is not surprising to learn, following the Police Union
+ meeting, that the burglars have decided to "down jemmies"
+ unless the eight-hour night is conceded.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The rumour that there was a vacant house in the Midlands
+ last week has now been officially denied.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>With reference to the Market Bosworth woman who, though
+ perfectly healthy, has remained in bed for three years, until
+ removed last week by the police, it now appears that she told
+ the officers that she had no idea it was so late.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>"What can be done to make village life more amusing?" asks
+ <i>The Daily Mirror</i>. We are sorry to find our contemporary
+ so ignorant of country life. Have they not yet heard of Rural
+ District Councils?</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>An Oxted butcher having found a wedding ring in one of the
+ internal organs of a cow, it is supposed that the animal must
+ have been leading a double life.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>"In order to live long," says Dr. EARLE, "live simply."
+ Another good piece of advice would be: "Simply live."</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>A Streatham man who has been missing from his home since
+ November, 1913, has just written from Kentucky. This disposes
+ of the theory that he might have been mislaid in a Tube
+ rush.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>"Distrust of lawyers," Mr. Justice ATKIN told the boys of
+ Friars School recently, "is largely caused by ignorance of the
+ law." Trust in them, on the other hand, is entirely due to
+ ignorance of the cost.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Giving evidence at Marylebone against a mysterious foreigner
+ charged with using a forged identity book, the police said they
+ did not know the real name and address of the man. The Bench
+ decided to obviate the difficulty in the matter of the
+ address.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>In a Liverpool bankruptcy case last week the debtor stated
+ that he had lost six hundred pounds in one day rabbit-coursing.
+ The Receiver pointed out that he could have almost bought a new
+ set of rabbits for that.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:60%;">
+ <a href="images/73.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/73.png"
+ alt="THE PICTURE OF THE YEAR." /></a>
+
+ <h3>THE PICTURE OF THE YEAR.</h3>PROBABLE EFFECT AT THIS
+ YEAR'S ACADEMY EXHIBITION OF THE ELECTION OF SIR ASTON
+ WEBB, THE FAMOUS ARCHITECT, TO THE PRESIDENCY.
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>From a list of wedding presents:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Case of sauce ladies from Mr. W.
+ &mdash;&mdash;."&mdash;<i>Provincial Paper</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>No doubt he was glad to be rid of them.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"The &mdash;&mdash; National Kitchen has had to close
+ down.... The great majority of the patrons were Army Pap
+ Corps."</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Who presumably required only liquid refreshment.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"The German Government has protested to Russia against
+ the 'criminal interference' of olsheviks in the internal
+ affairs of Germany."&mdash;<i>Daily Mail</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Much correspondence will now doubtless take place, as it
+ seems evident that the Bolsheviks have sent their initial
+ letter in reply.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page74"
+ id="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span>
+
+ <h2>GETTING OUT.</h2>
+
+ <p>"If you belong to any of the following classes," said the
+ Demobilisation advertisement, "do nothing." So Lieut. William
+ Smith did nothing.</p>
+
+ <p>After doing nothing for some weeks he met a friend who said,
+ "Hallo, aren't you out yet?"</p>
+
+ <p>"Not yet," said William, looking at his spurs.</p>
+
+ <p>"Well, you ought to <i>do</i> something."</p>
+
+ <p>So Lieut. William Smith decided to do something. He was a
+ pivotal-man and a slip-man and a one-man-business and a
+ twenty-eight-days-in-hospital man and a W.O. letter ZXY/999
+ man. Accordingly he wrote to the War Office and told them
+ so.</p>
+
+ <p>It was, of course, a little confusing for the authorities.
+ Just as they began to see their way to getting him out as a
+ pivotal man, somebody would decide that it was quicker to
+ demobilise him as a one-man-business; and when this was nearly
+ done, then somebody else would point out that it was really
+ much neater to reinstate him as a slip-man. Whereupon a
+ sub-section, just getting to work at W.O. letter ZXY/999, would
+ beg to be allowed a little practice on William while he was
+ still available, to the great disgust of the medical
+ authorities, who had been hoping to study the symptoms of
+ self-demobilisation in Lieut. Smith as evidenced after
+ twenty-eight days' in hospital.</p>
+
+ <p>Naturally, then, when another friend met William a month
+ later and said, "Hallo, aren't you out yet?" William could only
+ look at his spurs again and say, "Not yet."</p>
+
+ <p>"Better go to the War Office and have a talk with somebody,"
+ said his friend. "Much the quickest."</p>
+
+ <p>So William went to the War Office. First he had a talk with
+ a policeman, and then he had a talk with a porter, and then he
+ had a talk with an attendant, and then he had a talk with a
+ messenger girl, and so finally he came to the end of a long
+ queue of officers who were waiting to have a talk with
+ <i>somebody</i>.</p>
+
+ <p>"Not so many here to-day as yesterday," said a friendly
+ Captain in the Suffolks who was next to him.</p>
+
+ <p>"Oh!" said William. "And we've got an army on the Rhine
+ too," he murmured to himself, realising for the first time the
+ extent of England's effort.</p>
+
+ <p>At the end of an hour he calculated that he was within two
+ or three hundred of the door. He had only lately come out of
+ hospital and was beginning to feel rather weak.</p>
+
+ <p>"I shall have to give it up," he said.</p>
+
+ <p>The Captain tried to encourage him with tales of gallantry.
+ There was a Lieutenant in the Manchesters who had worked his
+ way up on three occasions to within fifty of the door, at which
+ point he had collapsed each time from exhaustion; whereupon two
+ kindly policemen had carried him to the end of the queue again
+ for air.... He was still sticking to it.</p>
+
+ <p>"I suppose there's no chance of being carried to the
+ <i>front</i> of the queue?" said William hopefully.</p>
+
+ <p>"No," said the Captain firmly; "we should see to that."</p>
+
+ <p>"Then I shall have to go," said William. "See you
+ to-morrow." And as he left his place the queue behind him
+ surged forward an inch and took new courage.</p>
+
+ <p>A week later William suddenly remembered Jones. Jones had
+ been in the War Office a long time. It was said of him that you
+ could take him to any room in the building and he could find
+ his way out into Whitehall in less than twenty minutes. But
+ then he was no mere "temporary civil-servant." He had been the
+ author of that famous W.O. letter referring to Chevrons for
+ Cold Shoers which was responsible for the capture of Badajoz;
+ he had issued the celebrated Army Council Instruction,
+ "Commanding Officers are requested to replace the pivots,"
+ which had demobilised MARLBOROUGH's army so speedily; and, as
+ is well known, HENRY V. had often said that without
+ Jones&mdash;well, anyhow, he had been in the War Office a long
+ time. And William knew him slightly.</p>
+
+ <p>So William sent up his card.</p>
+
+ <p>"I want to talk to somebody," he explained to Jones. "I
+ can't manage more than of couple of hours a day in the queue
+ just now, because I'm not very fit. If I could sit down
+ somewhere and tell somebody all about myself, that's what I
+ want. Any room in the building where there are no queues
+ outside and two chairs inside. I'd be very much obliged to
+ you."</p>
+
+ <p>"I'll give you a note to Briggs," said Jones promptly. "He's
+ the fellow to get you out."</p>
+
+ <p>"Thanks <i>awfully</i>," said the overjoyed William.</p>
+
+ <p>A messenger girl took him and the note to Captain Briggs.
+ Briggs listened to the story of William's
+ qualifications&mdash;or rather disqualifications&mdash;and
+ considered for a moment.</p>
+
+ <p>"Yes, we ought to get you out very quickly," he said.</p>
+
+ <p>"Good," said William. "Thanks <i>awfully</i>."</p>
+
+ <p>"Walters will tell you just what to do. He's a pal of mine.
+ I'll give you a note to him."</p>
+
+ <p>So in another minute the overjoyed William was following a
+ messenger girl to the room of Lieutenant Walters.</p>
+
+ <p>Walters was very cheerful. The thing to do, he said, was to
+ go to Sanders. Sanders would get him out in half-an-hour. He'd
+ give William a note, and then Sanders would do his best. The
+ overjoyed William followed the messenger girl to Sanders.</p>
+
+ <p>"That's all right," said Sanders a few minutes later. "We
+ can get you out at once on this. Do you know Briggs?"</p>
+
+ <p>"Briggs," said William, with a sudden sinking feeling.</p>
+
+ <p>"I'll give you a note to him. He knows all about it. He'll
+ get you out at once."</p>
+
+ <p>"Thank you," said William faintly.</p>
+
+ <p>He put the note in his pocket and strode briskly out in
+ search of the dear old queue.</p>
+
+ <p>"It will be quicker after all," he told himself, as he took
+ his place at the end of the queue next to a Lieutenant in the
+ Manchesters. ("Don't crowd him," said a policeman to William;
+ "he wants air.")</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>And you think perhaps that the story ends here, with William
+ in the queue again? Oh, no. William is a man of resource. The
+ very next day he met another friend, who said, "Hallo, aren't
+ you out yet?"</p>
+
+ <p>"Not yet," said William.</p>
+
+ <p>"My boy got out a month ago."</p>
+
+ <p>"H-h-h-how?" said William.</p>
+
+ <p>"Ah well, you see, he's going up to Cambridge. Complete his
+ education and all the rest of it. They let 'em out at once on
+ that."</p>
+
+ <p>"Ah!" said William thoughtfully.</p>
+
+ <p>William is thirty-eight, but he has taken the great
+ decision. He is going up to Cambridge next term. He thinks it
+ will be quicker. He no longer stands in the queue for two hours
+ every day; he spends the time instead studying for his Little
+ Go.</p>
+
+ <p class="author">A.A.M.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>TREES AND FAIRIES.</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The larch-tree gives them needles</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To stitch their gossamer things;</p>
+
+ <p>Carefully, cunningly toils the oak</p>
+
+ <p>To shape the cups of the fairy folk;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The sycamore gives them wings.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The lordly fir-tree rocks them</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">High on his swinging sails;</p>
+
+ <p>The hawthorn fashions their tiny spears,</p>
+
+ <p>The whispering alder charms their ears</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">With soft mysterious tales.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The chestnut decks their ball-room</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">With candles red and white,</p>
+
+ <p>While all the trees stand round about</p>
+
+ <p>With kind protecting arms held out</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To guard them through the night.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p class="author">R.F.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page75"
+ id="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/75.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/75.png"
+ alt="THE LOST ALLY." /></a>
+
+ <h3>THE LOST ALLY.</h3>PEACE. "I HOPED HE WOULD MAKE MY
+ PATH EASIER FOR ME&mdash;NOT MORE DIFFICULT."
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page76"
+ id="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span>
+
+ <h2>THE MINISTERIAL TREADMILL.</h2>
+
+ <h4>(<i>Being a free résumé of Lord CURZON's speech at the
+ Eccentric Club on Wednesday the 22nd.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Lord CURZON rises with the lark&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>That is (at present) when it's dark&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Breakfasts in haste on tea and toast,</p>
+
+ <p>Then grapples with the early post,</p>
+
+ <p>And reads the newspapers, which shed</p>
+
+ <p>Denunciation on his head.</p>
+
+ <p>Having digested their vagaries</p>
+
+ <p>He calls his faithful secretaries</p>
+
+ <p>And keeps them writing, sheet on sheet,</p>
+
+ <p>Until he's due in Downing Street.</p>
+
+ <p>The Cabinet is seldom through</p>
+
+ <p>Until the clock is striking two,</p>
+
+ <p>When Ministers, dispersing, munch</p>
+
+ <p>Their frugal sandwiches for lunch.</p>
+
+ <p>Then back into affairs of State</p>
+
+ <p>Again they plunge from three till eight,</p>
+
+ <p>Presiding, guiding, interviewing,</p>
+
+ <p>Tea conscientiously eschewing,</p>
+
+ <p>Until exhausted nature cries</p>
+
+ <p>At half-past eight for more supplies.</p>
+
+ <p>Another hasty meal is snatched</p>
+
+ <p>And, when the viands are despatched,</p>
+
+ <p>Once more our admirable Crichton,</p>
+
+ <p>Though feeling like a weary Titan,</p>
+
+ <p>Resumes the toil of brain and pen</p>
+
+ <p>Till two is sounded by Big Ben.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <hr class="short" />
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The life of those whom duty spurs on</p>
+
+ <p>To lead laborious days, like CURZON,</p>
+
+ <p>Is not the life of BILLY MERSON</p>
+
+ <p>Or any gay inferior person.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3><i>RUS IN URBE.</i></h3>
+
+ <p>The Selborne Society, which used to be a purely rural
+ expeditionary force, has lately taken to exploring London, and
+ personally-conducted tours have been arranged to University
+ College in darkest Gower Street, where Sir PHILIP MAGNUS and
+ Sir GREGORY FOSTER will act as guides, and to the Royal Courts
+ of Justice, where Sir EDWARD MARSHALL HALL, K.C., "will
+ describe the methods of conducting civil actions." What GILBERT
+ WHITE would say to all this brick-and-mortar sophistication we
+ do not dare to guess. All that we venture to do is to suggest
+ one or two more urbane adventures.</p>
+
+ <p>Why, for example, should not a visit be paid to the House of
+ Lords, under the direction of the new LORD CHANCELLOR? Five
+ minutes spent on the Woolsack in such company not only would be
+ a treasured memory, but a liberal (or, at any rate, a
+ coalition) education. After such an experience all the
+ Selbornians should come away better fitted to climb the ascents
+ which life offers.</p>
+
+ <p>Again, if Sir HORACE MARSHALL, the Lord Mayor, invited the
+ Society to the Mansion House they might be enormously
+ benefited. Of turtle doves they naturally know all; GILBERT
+ WHITE would have seen to that; but what do they know of turtle
+ soup? Well, the LORD MAYOR would instruct them. He would show
+ them the pools under the Mansion House where these creatures
+ luxuriate while awaiting their doom; he would indicate the
+ areas beneath the shell from some of which is extracted the
+ calipash and from some the calipee; he might even induce the
+ Most Worshipful Keeper of the Turtles, O.B.E., to discourse on
+ the subject.</p>
+
+ <p>Then there is New Scotland Yard. It would be a scandal for
+ the members of the Selborne Society not to visit that home of
+ amity and see all the New Scots at work in tracking down the
+ breakers of the laws that are made in the picturesque building
+ with the clock tower so close by. And not very distant is the
+ War Office, where mobilisation-while-you-wait may be studied at
+ first hand, we don't think. Indeed, London offers such
+ opportunities that we shall be surprised if the Selborne
+ Society ever looks at a mole or a starling again.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>THE ROAD TO THE RHINE.</h2>
+
+ <h3>BUSINESS LEAVE.</h3>
+
+ <p>Of course we <i>know</i> demobilisation is proceeding apace.
+ We <i>know</i> that pivotal men are simply pirouetting to
+ England in countless droves. We know it because we see it in
+ the papers (when they come), and it is a great source of
+ comfort to us. But since it is six days' train journey and four
+ days' lorry-hopping from where we sit guarding the wrong side
+ of the river to the necessary seaport, perhaps they have
+ forgotten us, or they are keeping all the pivots in this area
+ for one final orgy of demobilisation at some future date, which
+ for the moment I am not at liberty to disclose.</p>
+
+ <p>At present my poor friend Cook is sitting in the Company
+ Mess with his thoughts all of the inside of Army prisons,
+ instead of the glowing pictures he used to have of himself
+ exchanging his battle-bowler for the headgear of civilisation.
+ He says I'm responsible for his state of mind, because I first
+ put the idea into his head. Well, I did; but I don't see how
+ you can blame the fellow who filled the shell if some silly ass
+ hits it on the nose-cap with a hammer.</p>
+
+ <p>It started like this. After the Demobilisation General Post
+ had sounded Cook spent his time writing to everybody who did
+ not know him well enough to down his chances, filled up all the
+ forms in triplicate and packed his valise ready to start off
+ any time of the day or night for England, home and wholesale
+ hardware, which is his particular pivot. I may say here that
+ nominally this business is run by him and his brother, and the
+ fact that they are now both in the Army is probably the chief
+ reason why the manager in charge is able to make the business
+ pay. However, you know what people are; if they draw receipts
+ from a business nothing will persuade them but that they must
+ be there, "on the spot you know," to "look after it." So,
+ seeing his face grow longer and longer as the days went by
+ without the Quarter-Master coming round and handing him his
+ ration trilby hat, civvy suit and the swagger cane he hopes
+ for, I said, "Why don't you put in for two months' business
+ leave?"</p>
+
+ <p>The air was at once rent with a fearful rush of leaves of
+ his A.B. 153, and he ceased to take any interest in his platoon
+ from that moment. In vain I urged upon him the consummate folly
+ of neglecting to inquire more closely into the case of a
+ reprobate in No. 11 Platoon who had so far forgotten all sense
+ of discipline as to set out his kit with haversack on the left
+ instead of the right (or <i>vice-versâ</i>, I forget which, but
+ the Sergeant-Major spotted it.). He even went the length of
+ saying he didn't care a cuss; and when I asked him
+ sarcastically if he had forgotten the Platoon Commander's
+ pamphlet-bible, "Am I offensive enough?" he said he thought he
+ was, and I agreed with him.</p>
+
+ <p>When the whole mess-room was simply a-flutter with torn-out
+ leaves from his A.B. 153, representing his abortive attempts to
+ put down his application succinctly and plausibly, we all began
+ to take an interest in his case. We crowded round and offered
+ him most valuable hints. Together we got through two very
+ pleasant evenings and three or four A.B.'s 153, and still the
+ application remained in a tentative state. We got on all right
+ to start with, but it was after the "I have the honour to
+ submit for the approval and recommendation of the Commanding
+ Officer this my application for two months' business leave"
+ that we got stuck.</p>
+
+ <p>Of course <i>I</i> know it was no use, anyway. I have seen
+ these things go forward before. They have no chance.</p>
+
+ <p>It was then that a stroke of genius (unfortunate, as it
+ turned out, but a stroke of genius nevertheless) occurred to
+ me. "Why not say that your manager is a complete fool and in
+ his hands the business is going to rack and ruin?" I said. He
+ bit at it like a tiger, and only the law of libel prevented him
+ putting it into execution there and then;
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page77"
+ id="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span> but all the same we had a
+ jolly fine argument (six of us) about it for some three
+ hours, and nobody got put out of the room for introducing
+ acrimony into the discussion.</p>
+
+ <p>Finally, he said that he was sure his brother wouldn't mind
+ his saying it about <i>him</i>, and the application went in as
+ follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p><i>To Adjutant, First Crackshire Regt.</i></p>
+
+ <p>Sir,&mdash;I have the honour to submit for the approval and
+ recommendation of the Commanding Officer this my application
+ for two months' business leave in the following special
+ circumstances:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>The necessity of my presence in the business (wholesale
+ hardware) has become more and more urgent of late. It is
+ imperative that I should get home at once owing to the total
+ incapability of my partner to carry out simple directions which
+ are dictated by letters, and it is no exaggeration to say that
+ the business, which has been built up almost entirely by my
+ efforts, must inevitably collapse unless it receives my
+ personal attention at once.</p>
+
+ <p>My address would be, etc., etc., London.</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I am, Sir,</p>
+
+ <p>Your obedient Servant, etc., etc.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>The Adjutant looked serious when he read it. So did Cook,
+ for he thought the Adjutant had noted the London address and
+ had remembered the business was in Bristol. But it was all
+ right. It wasn't that at all really. Pencil and squared paper
+ are poor means of conveying information at any time, and when
+ the Adjutant had been assured that the business was really
+ "wholesale hardware," and not "wholesale hardbake," as he had
+ first read it, everything went swimmingly. The C.O. signed it
+ and off it went on its momentous journey. Cook began to take a
+ renewed interest in his platoon, and, having discovered the
+ recalcitrant one of No. 11 actually coming on parade with only
+ the front of the tip of his bayonet-scabbard polished, he took
+ a fiendish delight in seeing the criminal writhing under the
+ brutal and savage sentence of three days' C.B.</p>
+
+ <p>A week later he got a great surprise. His brother-partner
+ turned up with a draft of men and found himself posted to the
+ battalion. The brothers met, as only brothers can, with the
+ words, "What the deuce are you doing here?" Highly elated, Cook
+ told him about the application for business leave and gloated
+ over his chances of being home first, and on full pay too. His
+ brother was intensely amused, and they both laughed heartily,
+ when he told us that he himself, while waiting at the
+ reception-camp with the draft, had put in much the same kind of
+ application, saying the same kind of things about Cook.</p>
+
+ <p>But when they realised that both applications would be
+ forwarded to the same Divisional Headquarters for consideration
+ the joke lost some of its savour. And when the Adjutant called
+ them up and handed the two returned applications <i>pinned
+ together</i> both brothers needed all their qualities of
+ toughness and rigidity which, as I understand, are acquired in
+ the wholesale hardware business.</p>
+
+ <p class="author">L.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/77.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/77.png"
+ alt="Shortsighted Traveller and Naval Officer." /></a>
+
+ <p><i>Shortsighted Traveller</i>. "IS THERE SOME DELAY ON
+ THE LINE, MY GOOD MAN?"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Naval Officer</i>. "WHO THE &mdash;&mdash; DO YOU
+ THINK I AM, SIR?"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Traveller</i>. "ER&mdash;N-NOT THE VICAR,
+ ANYWAY."</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>"Homes Furnished Complete."</h3>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Oak bedstead, 3 ft. 6 in., with wife and Wool Mattress,
+ new condition, £5 10<i>s.</i> 0<i>d.</i>
+ lot."&mdash;<i>Provincial Paper</i>,</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"One Parsel Furnishing goods curtains, cushion covers,
+ etc., Rs. 26; one bundle babies, Rs. 5.&mdash;Apply Mrs.
+ &mdash;&mdash;."&mdash;<i>Ceylon Independent</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Temporary Cook wants Hampshire."&mdash;<i>Morning
+ Post</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Really quite moderate. Some cooks nowadays seem to want the
+ whole earth.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page78"
+ id="page78"></a>[pg 78]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/78.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/78.png"
+ alt="POST-WAR PROBLEMS." /></a>
+
+ <h3>POST-WAR PROBLEMS.</h3>
+
+ <p><i>Adjutant</i> (<i>who has been interrupted in his real
+ work by a summons from Colonel</i>). "YES, SIR?"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Temporary Colonel</i>. "I
+ SAY&mdash;ER&mdash;SMITH&mdash;IT'S SO UNCERTAIN HOW LONG
+ WE SHALL BE OUT HERE&mdash;DEMOBILISATION, YOU KNOW.
+ ER&mdash;FACT IS&mdash;<i>DO</i> YOU THINK IT WORTH MY
+ WHILE GETTING ANOTHER PAIR OF BREECHES?"</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>THE VISITOR.</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>When yesterday I went to see my friends&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">(Watching their patient faces in a
+ row,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I want to give each boy a
+ D.S.O.)&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>When yesterday I went to see my friends,</p>
+
+ <p>With cigarettes and foolish odds and ends</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">(Knowing they understand how well I
+ know</p>
+
+ <p>That nothing I may do can make amends,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">But that I must not grieve or tell them
+ so),</p>
+
+ <p>A pale-faced Inniskilling, tall and slim,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Who'd fought two years and now was just
+ eighteen,</p>
+
+ <p>Smiled up and showed, with eyes a little dim,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">How someone left him, where his leg had
+ been,</p>
+
+ <p>On the humped bandage that replaced the limb,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A tiny green glass pig to comfort
+ him.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>These are the men who've learned to laugh at
+ pain,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And if their lips have quivered when they
+ spoke</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">They've said brave things or tried to
+ make a joke;</p>
+
+ <p>Said it's not worse than trenches in the rain,</p>
+
+ <p>Or pools of water on a chalky plain,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Or bitter cold from which you stiffly
+ woke,</p>
+
+ <p>Or deep wet mud that left you hardly sane,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Or the tense wait for "Fritz's master
+ stroke."</p>
+
+ <p>You seldom hear them talk of their "bad luck,"</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And suffering has not spoiled their ready
+ wit,</p>
+
+ <p>And oh! you'd hardly doubt their fighting pluck,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">When each new operation shows their
+ grit;</p>
+
+ <p>Who never brag of blows for England struck,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">But only yearn to "get about a bit."</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"The Allies had threatened to destroy the Dardanelles if
+ the Medina garrison did not surrender."&mdash;<i>Birmingham
+ Mail</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>So, being reduced to its last Straits, the garrison
+ surrendered.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"MATRIMONY&mdash;Young Lady (21), good prospects, wishes
+ to correspond with young man, similar age, with a view to
+ above; no rebels need apply."&mdash;<i>Irish Paper</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>But we guess there will be one Home Ruler in the family.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Replying to a query concerning the rumour that Messrs.
+ Guinness were in treaty for the purchase of the National
+ hell Factory, Parkgate Street, a representative of that
+ firm said this afternoon: 'We have no statement to make at
+ all.'"&mdash;<i>Irish Paper</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>We gather that the printer is a Prohibitionist.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"At Doncaster on Saturday, Messrs. &mdash;&mdash; sold
+ for £7,100 the fully licensed house at Armthorpe known as
+ the Plough Inn to the Markham Main Colliery Company, the
+ proprietors of the colliery being sunk in the
+ parish."&mdash;<i>Yorkshire Post</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Not <i>spurlos versenkt</i>, we trust. Perhaps it is hoped
+ that the Plough will unearth them.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page79"
+ id="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span>
+
+ <h2>TEACHING TOMMY.</h2>
+
+ <p>Here is a simple method of aiding the admirable efforts of
+ educational Staff-Officers in the army.</p>
+
+ <p>Let all Regimental Orders be interspersed with items of
+ information likely to be of use in civilian life.
+ Thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>53. ... will be rendered to this office, in triplicate, by
+ noon to-morrow.</p>
+
+ <p>53A. <i>Etiquette, Points of</i>. It is not considered
+ correct to address an Archbishop as "Archie" unless one is on
+ terms of considerable intimacy with him. In writing to a
+ Duchess never commit the vulgar error of putting a stamp on the
+ envelope; the sixth footman in a ducal household is always
+ provided with a fund in respect of unpaid postage on incoming
+ correspondence.</p>
+
+ <p>54. ... is placed out of bounds to all troops on account of
+ an outbreak of mumps.</p>
+
+ <p>54A. <i>Data, Geographical</i>.&mdash;Of all fish those of
+ the Bay of Biscay are perhaps the best nourished. An isthmus is
+ a piece of land which saves another piece of land from being an
+ island. The principal exports of Germany are prisoners of
+ war.</p>
+
+ <p>55. ... to be read on three consecutive parades.</p>
+
+ <p>55A. <i>Theory</i>, <i>Untenable</i>,
+ <i>Literary</i>.&mdash;The The theory that BACON was a
+ pork-butcher and derived inspiration for <i>Hamlet</i> by
+ gazing at the viands in his shop has now been disproved.</p>
+
+ <p>56. ... and a sum of twopence per haircut will be chargeable
+ against public funds.</p>
+
+ <p>56A. <i>Courts, Foreign</i>.&mdash;The Sultan of Socotra is
+ entitled to a salute of fourteen popguns and one catapult.
+ Before approaching the throne of the Duke of the Djibouti one
+ is required to take lessons from the Court Contortionist.</p>
+
+ <p>57. ... and Company Commanders are reminded of their
+ responsibility in this matter.</p>
+
+ <p>57A. <i>World, the Animal</i>.&mdash;It is interesting to
+ know that the inventor of the Tank first planned that engine of
+ warfare while watching the peregrinations of the armadillo at a
+ travelling menagerie. The efficacy of our blockade was such
+ that large consignments of armadillo-fodder were prevented from
+ reaching Germany, the consequent demise of all German-kept
+ armadilloes thus robbing our enemy of the opportunity of
+ devising a similar instrument.</p>
+
+ <p>58. ... will parade in full marching order at Reveille.</p>
+
+ <p>58A. <i>Facts, Historical</i>.&mdash;There once was a king
+ who never smiled again, but history might have recorded a
+ different verdict had His Majesty witnessed the spectacle of
+ the Second-in-Command, on a frisky horse, trying to drill the
+ Battalion.</p>
+
+ <p>59. ... will therefore immediately submit rolls of all
+ skilled organ-blowers of Category B ii.</p>
+
+ <p>59A. <i>Information, General</i>.&mdash;If all the Treasury
+ Notes circulated in the United Kingdom since 1914 were placed
+ end to end they might reach from Bristol to Yokohama and back,
+ but they would not constitute a sufficient inducement to a
+ London taxi-driver.</p>
+
+ <p>60. ... and this practice must cease forthwith.</p>
+
+ <p>60A. <i>Query, Our Daily</i>.&mdash;What is Popocatapetl? Is
+ it an indoor game, a cannibal tribe, a curative herb, or
+ neither? Solutions are invited.</p>
+
+ <p>There are two very advantageous points about this scheme:
+ (1) The ingenious system of numbering would avoid interference
+ with army routine, which must go on: and (2) men might be
+ encouraged to read Regimental Orders.</p>
+
+ <p>This suggestion is made without hope of fee or reward. Its
+ author does not even ask for extra duty pay.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:65%;">
+ <a href="images/79.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/79.png"
+ alt="HIS STOCK-IN-TRADE." /></a>
+
+ <h3>HIS STOCK-IN-TRADE.</h3>
+
+ <p><i>Tramp</i>. "CAN YOU SPARE A PORE OLD GENTLEMAN THE
+ PRICE OF A CUP OF KORFEE. SIR?"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Sub.</i> (<i>in high spirits</i>). "RIGHT-O. ALL THE
+ COFFEE YOU WANT AND THE PRICE OF A SHAVE AND A HAIR-CUT AS
+ WELL."</p>
+
+ <p><i>Tramp</i>. "WILL YER? THEN WHO'S A-GOIN' TO KEEP ME
+ WHILE MY 'AIR AN' BEARD GROWS AGAIN?".</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page80"
+ id="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span>
+
+ <h2>A FINE EAR FOR THE HASPIRATE.</h2>
+
+ <p>"I wish 'as 'ow I warn't married."</p>
+
+ <p>Mr. Punt crooned out the impious aspiration as he sorted a
+ judicious modicum of hemp into the canary seed. He spoke in
+ semi-soliloquy, yet quite loud enough to reach the vigilant ear
+ of Mrs. Punt, who was dusting the cages at the other end of the
+ live-stock store. She said nothing in reply, but her eye fixed
+ itself upon him with a glint eloquent of what she might say
+ later.</p>
+
+ <p>"Why is that, Mr. Punt?" I asked encouragingly.</p>
+
+ <p>"Why, it's on'y to-day, Sir, as I met a lidy, a widder lidy,
+ friend o' Uncle George's down Putney way, as 'as one leg, a
+ nice little bit o' 'ouse property and two great hauk's
+ eggs."</p>
+
+ <p>It did seem a rare combination of marriageable qualities. I
+ asked the value of a great auk's egg, and was surprised to
+ learn that a specimen had recently been sold at auction for
+ something like three hundred pounds. I inquired whether all the
+ great auks' eggs that came on the market were genuine, or
+ whether "faked" specimens were to be met with. I had heard, I
+ thought, of "faked" eagles' eggs.</p>
+
+ <p>"Different kind o' bird altogether, Sir, and different kind
+ o' egg. Can't very well be imitated. You didn't think as I said
+ great 'awk, Sir?" he asked very anxiously.</p>
+
+ <p>"No, no; I understand," I hastened to assure him.</p>
+
+ <p>"The 'awk, Sir, is a bird o' the heagle kind; the hauk's a
+ different kind altogether&mdash;web-footed, aquatic&mdash;was,
+ I should rather say, seeing as 'ow 'e's un appily extinct. Hauk
+ and 'awk, Sir&mdash;you take the difference?"</p>
+
+ <p>I said that I thought the distinction was perceptible to a
+ fine ear for the aspirate.</p>
+
+ <p>The phrase took the little man's fancy wonderfully. "That's
+ it, Sir," he exclaimed, beaming up delightedly at me. "You've
+ 'it it! Done it in one, you 'ave. 'Fine ear for the
+ haspirate'&mdash;that's what my darter Maria 'ave and what I,
+ for one, 'ave not. I'm not above confessing of it; 'tain't
+ given to all of us to 'ave everything, as the ant said to the
+ helephant when 'e was boasting about 'is trunk. Some there is
+ as ain't got no ear for music&mdash;same as Joe Mangles, the
+ grocer down the street, as 'as caught a heavy cold in 'is 'ead
+ with taking 'is 'at off every time as 'e 'ears 'It's a long
+ long way to Tipperary.' Why, I've knowed men," said Mr. Punt,
+ in the manner of one who works himself up to an almost
+ incredible climax&mdash;"I've knowed men as couldn't tell the
+ difference between a linnet's note and a goldfinch."</p>
+
+ <p>"Astonishing," I said.</p>
+
+ <p>One of the canaries suddenly broke into a rich trill of
+ song, as if to add his personal expression of surprise.</p>
+
+ <p>"Now there!" Mr. Punt exclaimed, shaking a podgy forefinger
+ at him. "There's the bird as give all the trouble and cause
+ words 'tween me and Maria, 'e did. 'Artz Mountain roller, that
+ bird is. Beeutiful 'is note, ain't it, Sir?"</p>
+
+ <p>There really was a deep full tone, distantly suggestive of a
+ nightingale's, that favourably distinguished the bird's song
+ from the canary's usual acute treble.</p>
+
+ <p>"'I'm doubting, Maria,' I say to 'er," Mr. Punt resumed. "No
+ longer ago than this very morning I say it&mdash;'I'm doubting
+ whether I did ought to call that 'ere bird a 'Artz Mountain
+ roller,' I say to 'er&mdash;me meaning, o' course, as the 'Artz
+ Mountains being, as some thinks, in Germany, that pussons
+ wouldn't so much as go to look at a canary as called 'isself a
+ 'Artz Mountain bird, as it might be a German bird, for all as
+ 'e'd never a-bin no nearer Germany than the Royal Road,
+ Chelsea, not never since 'e chip 'is little shell, 'e
+ 'aven't.</p>
+
+ <p>"So I ask 'er the question, doubting like, and she up and
+ say, all saucy as a jay-bird, 'Why, certainly you didn't ought
+ to call 'im so,' she say.</p>
+
+ <p>"'Question is, Maria,' I says, 'in that case what did I
+ ought to call 'im?'</p>
+
+ <p>"'And I can tell yer that too, Dad,' she say&mdash;Maria
+ did. 'You didn't ought to call 'im 'Artz Mountain roller, but
+ ha-Hartz Mountain roller. That's the way to call 'im,' she
+ says&mdash;impident little 'ussy! But there&mdash;what's in a
+ name, as the white blackbird said when 'e sat on a wooden
+ milestone eating a red blackberry? Still, 'e weren't running a
+ live-stock emporium, I expect, when 'e ask such a question as
+ that 'ere. There's a good deal in 'ow you call a bird, or a
+ dawg or a guinea-pig neither, if you want to pass 'im on to a
+ customer in a honest way o' trade."</p>
+
+ <p>I assured Mr. Punt I had not a doubt of it.</p>
+
+ <p>"But I shall be a-practisin' my haitches, Sir," he promised
+ me, as I went out with the canary seed which I had called to
+ purchase&mdash;"practise 'em 'ard, I shall. It's what I ain't
+ a-got at the present moment&mdash;'a fine ear for the
+ haspirate.' Beeutiful expression that, Sir, if you'll excuse me
+ sayin' so. But I don't see no reason as a man mightn't 'ope to
+ acquire it, 'im practising constant and careful&mdash;same as a
+ pusson can learn a bullfinch to pipe ''Ome, sweet 'Ome.' That
+ haitch is a funny letter, but it's a letter as I shall
+ practise. Still, haitches or no haitches," he concluded, with a
+ profound sigh, "I wish as I knowed 'ow I could set about coming
+ it over that 'ere one-legged widder lidy at Putney what 'ave
+ the two great hauk's eggs."</p>
+
+ <p>Out of the dusty twilight in the far end of the shop Mrs.
+ Punt's eye gleamed balefully.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>BLIGHTY IMPRESSIONS.</h2>
+
+ <h3>THE BARBER.</h3>
+
+ <p>I went into a tobacco-shop, tendered a pound note and asked
+ for a packet of cigarettes and a box of matches. With much
+ regret and a smiling face, she informed me she had the goods
+ but no change.</p>
+
+ <p>What a dilemma! A shop with cigarettes and matches, but I
+ couldn't spare a pound note for them.</p>
+
+ <p>An inspiration!&mdash;I would go into the hairdressing
+ establishment behind the shop, have a shave&mdash;which I
+ really didn't need&mdash;obtain change and make my purchase.
+ Besides, with so many barbers closed owing to the strike, it
+ was an opportunity.</p>
+
+ <p>This is what happened.</p>
+
+ <p>"Good morning, Sir. Your turn next but six."</p>
+
+ <p>A long, long interval.</p>
+
+ <p>"Shave, Sir? Lovely weather we're having. Razor all right,
+ Sir?"</p>
+
+ <p>I said as little as possible; it is the only safe thing.</p>
+
+ <p>"Face massage, Sir?"</p>
+
+ <p>"No, thanks," I mumbled.</p>
+
+ <p>"Wonderful thing for the face, Sir; make a new man of you.
+ Invigorates the circulation, improves the
+ complexion&mdash;"</p>
+
+ <p>"Oh, all right," I gasped.</p>
+
+ <p>And then for about twenty minutes snatches of conversation
+ floated to me through bundles of wet towels. My head was having
+ a Turkish bath. My face was covered with ointments and creams.
+ Currents of electricity played about my brow.</p>
+
+ <p>"Just trim your hair, Sir?"</p>
+
+ <p>I swear I said "No," but before I knew what was happening
+ the scissors were running merrily over my head.</p>
+
+ <p>"Singeing, Sir?"</p>
+
+ <p>"Er&mdash;no. I&mdash;"</p>
+
+ <p>"Finest thing in the world, Sir. It's a treat to see hair
+ like this. Just a bit 'endy,' but singeing will soon put that
+ right."</p>
+
+ <p>Even had I been blind I should have discovered that I was
+ undergoing the process.</p>
+
+ <p>"What would you like for the shampoo, Sir? Eau de
+ Quinine&mdash;Violet&mdash;"</p>
+
+ <p>"I don't think&mdash;"</p>
+
+ <p>My feeble protest was cut
+ short.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page81"
+ id="page81"></a>[pg 81]</span>
+
+ <p>"I always recommend Violet," he said, sprinkling my head
+ profusely.</p>
+
+ <p>More rubbing, more towels, more electricity and finally a
+ brush and comb.</p>
+
+ <p>"I've a hair-lotion here, Sir&mdash;"</p>
+
+ <p>"No, thank you."</p>
+
+ <p>I meant it.</p>
+
+ <p>He helped me on with my coat, brushed off a deal of
+ imaginary dust, said something about skin softeners and bath
+ requisites, but I'd had enough for one morning, and I was
+ yearning to get those cigarettes and have a smoke.</p>
+
+ <p>I tendered my pound note.</p>
+
+ <p>He took it, and with his best smile said&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>"Another sixpence, Sir, please."</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/81.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/81.png"
+ alt="'MOTHER, I &lt;i&gt;HAVE&lt;/i&gt; BEEN GOOD TO-DAY&mdash;SO PATIENT WITH NURSE.'" />
+ </a>"MOTHER, I <i>HAVE</i> BEEN GOOD TO-DAY&mdash;SO
+ PATIENT WITH NURSE."
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>BLIMP!</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>There are many things Dora kept dark</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">That she's now letting into the
+ light,</p>
+
+ <p>And to-day an astounding aerial barque</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Has suddenly sailed into sight;</p>
+
+ <p>But its past makes no sympathies burn,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And its future leaves interest limp,</p>
+
+ <p>Compared with the rapture I feel when I learn</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">That its name is the Blimp.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Who gave it its title, and why?</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Was it old EDWARD LEAR from the
+ grave?</p>
+
+ <p>Since Jumblies in Blimps would be certain to fly</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">When for air they abandon the wave.</p>
+
+ <p>Was it dear LEWIS CARROLL, perhaps</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Sent his phantom to christen the
+ barque,</p>
+
+ <p>Since a Blimp is the obvious vessel for chaps</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">When hunting a snark?</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>And to-day, in the first-fruits of joy,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I scarcely believe it is true</p>
+
+ <p>That Blimp is a word we shall one day employ</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">As lightly as now Bakerloo;</p>
+
+ <p>And my reason refuses to jump</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To the fact that a man, not an imp,</p>
+
+ <p>Can flash through the other and land with a bump</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">From a trip in a Blimp.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"It needs no very profound knowledge of the politics of
+ South-Western Europe to surmise that neither Rumania nor
+ Greece would lend military assistance of this kind without
+ being promised something in return.&mdash;<i>Manchester
+ Guardian</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>But a rather more profound knowledge of the geography might
+ be useful.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>THE OLD INVINCIBLE.</h3>
+
+ <p>It is late in the day to draw attention to Mr. Punch as a
+ prophet. Everyone knows that his eyes have always discerned the
+ farthest horizon. None the less it is pleasant now and again to
+ succumb to the temptation of saying "I told you so," and
+ especially when it is the finger of a friendly reader that
+ points the way to the Sage's triumph. Were we in the habit of
+ quoting from past numbers, as many of our contemporaries do, we
+ should print the following paragraph from the issue of
+ September 2nd, 1871:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <h4>"A REAL DANGER.</h4>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"'According to <i>Le Havre</i>, about forty Prussian
+ officers in mufti leave Dieppe every morning for England,
+ their object being to visit the military establishments of
+ Great Britain.'</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>"Here at last is an actual invasion! Prussian officers
+ landing on our defenceless shores, on the transparently flimsy
+ pretext of making themselves acquainted with our military
+ establishments, at the rate (excluding Sundays) of 240 a week,
+ or in this present September, of 1,080 a month, or, amazing and
+ terrifying total, of 12,520 a year! We commend this startling
+ announcement to the attention of the Cabinet (Parliament,
+ unfortunately, is not sitting), the Commander-in-Chief, the War
+ Office, the Commanders of all Volunteer Corps, the Author of
+ 'The Battle of Dorking,' <i>Sergeant Blower</i>, and <i>Cheeks
+ the Marine</i>."</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page82"
+ id="page82"></a>[pg 82]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/82.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/82.png"
+ alt="Tommy, homeward bound." /></a><i>Tommy</i>
+ (<i>homeward bound, and determined not to
+ disappoint</i>). "WHY, MISSY, THREE DAYS BEFORE THE
+ ARMISTICE THE AIR WAS THAT THICK WITH AEROPLANES THE
+ BIRDS HAD TO GET DOWN AND WALK."
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>THE SAUSAGE ROLL.</h2>
+
+ <h3>THE VERY LATEST DANCE.</h3>
+
+ <blockquote class="note">
+ <p>[To any English composer who has not yet contributed to
+ the wave of music and dance which is now sweeping the
+ country the writer offers the following as the basis of an
+ entirely new and original dance, strictly national in
+ character and full of that quaint old rustic, not to say
+ aboriginal, grace which distinguishes modern
+ dance-music.]</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Oh say, won't you stay down-away at the Sausage
+ Farm?</p>
+
+ <p>It's a scream, it wouldn't seem you could dream such
+ perfect ch-e-arm;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">You can bet that Jazz'll be beat to a
+ frazzle,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And the old Fox Trot'll be a pale green
+ mottle,</p>
+
+ <p>When they gauge what's the rage of the age at the
+ Sausage Farm.</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">(CRASH! BANG! TINKLE!)</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Come along, you'll be wrong if you miss that
+ Sausage Roll.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Every pig does the jig, for he's in this heart
+ and so-ul:</i></p>
+
+ <p class="i2"><i>See the old sow shout, "What about my
+ litter?"</i></p>
+
+ <p class="i2"><i>But she dries those tears when she
+ hears, poor crittur,</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>That they're all at the Ball in the
+ Soss-Soss-Sausage Roll.</i></p>
+
+ <p class="i8">(TZING! BOOM! The lights go out.)</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Oh, haste, life's a waste till you're based at the
+ Sausage Farm,</p>
+
+ <p>Where the dog and the hog and the frog go
+ arm-in-arm;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And the farm-yard bosses can all do
+ Sosses;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The old man's crazy, and his poor Aunt
+ Maisie,</p>
+
+ <p>Over this hit of bliss (have a kiss) at Sausage
+ Farm.</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">(CLATTER! BUMP! The walls begin to
+ crack.)</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Come a-quick, you'll be sick if you miss that
+ Sausage Roll,</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>For the cow does it now and the cat we can't
+ contro-ol,</i></p>
+
+ <p class="i2"><i>And I heard as she purred, "Oh, I've
+ found my kittens,</i></p>
+
+ <p class="i2"><i>You could bet they'd get with the
+ best-born Britons,</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>For they're all at the Ball in the
+ Soss-Soss-Sausage Roll."</i></p>
+
+ <p class="i8">(CRASH! BANG! The roof falls in.)</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p class="author">A.P.H.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>A Tall Order.</h3>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"SHANGHAI MUNICIPAL COUNCIL POLICE FORCE.&mdash;Police
+ recruits are now required. Applicants must be unmarried, of
+ good physique, with sound teeth, about 20 to 25 years of
+ age, not less than 57 ft. 10 in. in
+ height."&mdash;<i>Weekly Paper</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Lloyd's agent at Chriseiansund telegraphs that wreckage
+ marked 'Wilson Line' drifted ashore near
+ Switzerland."&mdash;<i>Provincial Paper</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Following the WILSON line the seas appear to be already
+ behaving with unusual freedom.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"'George Eliot' (Mary Ann Evans), the gifted
+ Warwickshire authoress, who wrote 'Adam Bede' and several
+ other popular works."&mdash;<i>Daily Telegraph</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>We have noticed the name from time to time, and we are glad
+ to know who "GEORGE ELIOT" was.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>From a "multiple shop" catalogue:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"SMOKING ROOM.&mdash;The decorations are well worth a
+ special note, and are quite unique of their kind, being
+ without a match anywhere."</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Surely not "unique." We know a lot of smoking-rooms equally
+ matchless.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page83"
+ id="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/83.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/83.png"
+ alt="THE FIRST GERMAN VICTORY." /></a>
+
+ <h3>THE FIRST GERMAN VICTORY.</h3>[The German Elections
+ have resulted in a signal defeat for the Extremists.]
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page85"
+ id="page85"></a>[pg 85]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/85.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/85.png"
+ alt="Hostess and small guest." /></a>
+
+ <p><i>Hostess</i> (<i>to small guest, who is casting
+ lingering glances at the cakes</i>). "I DON'T THINK YOU CAN
+ EAT ANY MORE OF THOSE CAKES, CAN YOU, JOHN?"</p>
+
+ <p><i>John</i>. "NO, I DON'T THINK I CAN. BUT MAY I STROKE
+ THEM?"</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>A NEW SCHOOL.</h2>
+
+ <p>An evening newspaper informs its readers that arrangements
+ are being made for "a school for M.P.'s"&mdash;"a weekly
+ meeting of Unionist M.P.'s new to Parliamentary life, who will
+ receive instruction in the forms of the House. They will be
+ taught how to address the SPEAKER, how to frame a question,"
+ and so forth.</p>
+
+ <p>This intelligence is of particular interest in that it
+ conveys an admission that our new M.P.'s do not know
+ everything.</p>
+
+ <p>Interviewed by a correspondent, Mr. Raleigh Quawe, the able
+ young educationist, who, it is understood, is watching the
+ experiment with some concern, said, "While I do not wish to
+ seem to be giving away too much to the gloom of youth, I cannot
+ help feeling that the school may be run on wrong lines unless
+ the greatest care is exercised. Will the opportunity be taken
+ for testing methods which have been so disastrously absent
+ hitherto from our public school system? I would urge those in
+ authority to put away the old formulæ, and to ensure the
+ introduction of a right spirit in the school by the appointment
+ of young masters endowed with vision and enthusiasm.</p>
+
+ <p>"I hope that the worship of sport will not be encouraged. I
+ was never one who believed that our battles have been won on
+ the playing-fields of Westminster. I am confident that I am not
+ alone in the hope that the old games at Westminster will be
+ abandoned.</p>
+
+ <p>"It is most important that there should be no suppression of
+ the emotional nature. Rob politics of emotion and the
+ newspapers are not worth reading; and it must not be forgotten
+ that what Westminster does to-day is read of by the British
+ Empire to-morrow. No effort should be spared to awaken the
+ artistic sense of the pupils. If the pictures and sculptures in
+ and about the corridors of the Houses of Parliament are not
+ enough, let others be prepared. No expense should be spared.
+ For my part I see no reason why a little music should not be
+ introduced occasionally.</p>
+
+ <p>"Freedom of opinion should also be encouraged. One fault of
+ our educational system has been its tendency to produce
+ mass-thinking. This will never do among our Unionist Members of
+ Parliament. Yes, I would even advocate that some of the seniors
+ should be allowed to read <i>The Herald</i> if they wished to
+ do so, and I question whether <i>The Nation</i> would do any of
+ them any harm."</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>Commercial Candour.</h3>
+
+ <p>Notice in a watchmaker's window:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"No repairs except to watches recently purchased."</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Advertisement in Provincial Paper:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"WALK IN,</p>
+
+ <p>But you will be happier when you go out."</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"An extraordinary plague of rats prevails on the
+ Sheffield Corporation rubbish tips at Killamarsh. The
+ rodents have constructed beaten tracks eight inches wide,
+ extending to corn stacks on a local farm, where they have
+ wrought munch havoc."&mdash;<i>Local Paper</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Quite the right epithet, we feel sure.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"We make a speciality of gorillas and chimpanzees. They
+ are wonderfully intelligent and can be trained right up to
+ the human standard in all except speech. One of our
+ directors, Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, and his wife are both able
+ to only be tamed to live in captivity."&mdash;<i>Irish
+ Paper</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>A perusal of the above paragraph is said to have stimulated
+ Mr. &mdash;&mdash;'s gift of speech in a startling degree.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page86"
+ id="page86"></a>[pg 86]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/86.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/86.png"
+ alt="IF THE POETS STRUCK WOULD THE MILITARY BE CALLED IN TO DO THEIR WORK?" />
+ </a>IF THE POETS STRUCK WOULD THE MILITARY BE CALLED IN TO
+ DO THEIR WORK?
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>FATHER THAMES TALKS.</h2>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>One day last week, it might be Wed-</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">nesday, or even Friday,</p>
+
+ <p>A day not yet entirely dead,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A shortly-doomed-to-die day,</p>
+
+ <p>The Naiad who lay stretched in dream</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Awoke and gave a shiver&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>The Naiad who has charge of stream</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And rivulet and river.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>I had intended to write the whole of this article in verse,
+ of which the above is a shocking sample, but, on the whole, I
+ think I will go on in prose. When you have committed yourself
+ to double rhymes, prose is the easier medium. In verse it is
+ more difficult to stick to your subject, and as the subject in
+ this case is a very important one and deserves to be stuck to,
+ I shall do the rest in prose.</p>
+
+ <p>Anyhow, the fact is that I have read a paragraph in one of
+ the papers about a proposed revival of rowing. Rowing, like
+ other sports, has, it seems, lain dormant for the past four
+ years and a half. From the moment in 1914 when war was declared
+ it suffered a land-change; shorts and zephyr and blazer and
+ sweater were abandoned at once, and, for the oarsman as for
+ everybody else, khaki became the only wear. Already trained by
+ long discipline to obey, our oarsmen trooped to the colours,
+ and wherever hard fighting was to be done their shining names
+ are to be found on the muster-roll of fame. Some will return to
+ us, but for others there waited the <i>eternum exitium
+ cymbæ</i>&mdash;a very different craft from those to which they
+ were accustomed, but they accepted it with pride and without a
+ murmur.</p>
+
+ <p>Bearing these things in mind, I went to Henley last week to
+ interview Father Thames. I found the veteran totally unchanged
+ in his quarters on the Temple Island, and immediately began the
+ interview.</p>
+
+ <p>"Dull?" he said. "I believe you, my boy. But they tell me
+ there's talk of reviving the regatta. You tell them with my
+ compliments not to be in too great a hurry about it. Think of
+ what Henley meant to the lads who rowed. They hadn't learnt
+ their skill in a day&mdash;no, nor in as many days as go to a
+ year."</p>
+
+ <p>"Do you then," I said, "consider the regatta only from the
+ oarsman's point of view?"</p>
+
+ <p>"Really," said the old gentleman, "there's no other. Not but
+ what," he added with a chuckle, "it gave them more pleasure to
+ row their races with lots of pretty faces to look on. Lor'
+ bless you, I don't object to 'em. It's the prettiest scene in
+ the world when the sun shines as it sometimes does. And that's
+ enough talking for one afternoon." With that he plunged, and
+ nothing I did could bring him to the surface again.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>EARLY ONE MORNING.</h2>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Bound South from Japan to the port of Hong Kong</p>
+
+ <p>We fell in with a little junk blowing along;</p>
+
+ <p>We met her all bright at the breaking of day,</p>
+
+ <p>And we gave her good-morning and passed on our
+ way.</p>
+
+ <p>She had stretched her red sails like the wings of a
+ bat,</p>
+
+ <p>And light, like a gull, on the water she sat;</p>
+
+ <p>She had two big bright eyes for to keep a
+ look-out;</p>
+
+ <p>On her stern there were dragons cavorting about.</p>
+
+ <p>And Mrs. Ah Fit by the kitchen did sit</p>
+
+ <p>Preparing some breakfast for Mr. Ah Fit,</p>
+
+ <p>The gentleman who, as we saw when we neared her,</p>
+
+ <p>By waggling the tickle-stick skilfully, steered
+ her.</p>
+
+ <p>The little Fit men and the little Fit maids</p>
+
+ <p>Were playing at tig round the brass carronades,</p>
+
+ <p>And with all the delight of a juvenile Briton</p>
+
+ <p>The littlest Ah Fitlet was plucking the kitten.</p>
+
+ <p>With a "How do you do, Sir?" and "Hip, hip,
+ hooray!"</p>
+
+ <p>'Twas so they blew by at the breaking of day.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page87"
+ id="page87"></a>[pg 87]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/87.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/87.png"
+ alt="Comedian." /></a><i>Comedian</i> (<i>who has been
+ instructed to modify his humour to suit the taste of a
+ select audience at a charity performance at the local
+ theatre</i>). "THERE YOU ARE! NOT A LAUGH! THIS IS WOT
+ COMES OF YOUR 'FUNNY WITHOUT BEIN' VULGAR'!"
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>OUR BIVVIE.</h2>
+
+ <p>"Not a bad possie," said George, looking round the village.
+ "Let's rustle a bivvie before the crowd comes along."</p>
+
+ <p>All George's performances in the art of rustling bivvies
+ rank as star. He permits no coarse and obvious gathering of an
+ expectant horde about the opening door; no slacking of straps
+ and bootlaces until the final "I will" is said on either side.
+ He debouches in extended order on the doomed house; gets his
+ range and has the barrage well in hand (the quantity and
+ quality of Madame's gesticulations furnish the key to this)
+ before Colin drifts off the horizon and shows a peaked face
+ with haunting eyes over George's shoulder. Colin does not
+ speak. That is not his <i>métier</i>. He is the star shell
+ illuminating the position; and usually in about six minutes'
+ time it is safe for John to put in an appearance with the
+ kit.</p>
+
+ <p>This is the recognised procedure, and it has served us
+ indifferently well up and down three years of war and a good
+ deal of France and Flanders. Therefore John was not to blame
+ when, after waiting the scheduled six minutes, he arrived to
+ find the other two still in the thick of it. Either Colin was
+ not haunting up to form (which was likely, as he had been
+ over-fed lately) or George's French (which was never made in
+ the place where they make marriages) had scandalised
+ Madame.</p>
+
+ <p>She stood in the door like some historical personage,
+ probably the Sphinx, and repeated a guttural kind of
+ incantation while George stretched his ears until they stood
+ out more than usual in a struggle to understand.</p>
+
+ <p>"Rotten patois some of these people speak," he said. "I
+ believe she has a room, though something's biting her. Likely
+ enough Fritz went off with all her furniture; but I've already
+ explained twenty times that that doesn't matter. <i>Écoutez,
+ Madame.</i> We only want a room. <i>Chambre-à-coucher.</i> We
+ can furnish it. We have three beds. <i>Trois lits.</i>
+ <i>Trois</i> stretcher-beds sent over from <i>Angleterre</i>.
+ <i>À la gare.</i> We've just seen them. <i>Trois lits nous
+ avons.</i> Three beds."</p>
+
+ <p>"Beds!" Madame pounced on the word. "<i>C'est cela!</i> No
+ beds, <i>Monsieur</i>. <i>Je n'en ai pas.</i>"</p>
+
+ <p>"Ah, now we know where we are." George looked round
+ triumphantly. "<i>Écoutez, Madame.</i> We don't want beds.
+ <i>Nous les desirons jamais.</i> We have them. <i>Trois
+ lits.</i> We don't want them. We have beds.
+ <i>Comprenez?</i>"</p>
+
+ <p>"No beds," explained Madame firmly.</p>
+
+ <p>"But I've just told you&mdash;" George plunged again into
+ the maelstrom, and a pretty girl appeared from the firelit room
+ behind to stir him to his highest flights of eloquence. A smell
+ of savoury cooking came also, and out in the street night shut
+ down dark and chill and sinister, as it does in all the best
+ novels. John let part of the kit down on the door-sill. It was
+ his way of explaining that at the present moment there was a
+ deeper, more intimate call than the Call of the Wild. Colin
+ moved up a step and turned the haunting-stop full on. George
+ redoubled his efforts, making them very clear indeed. We could
+ understand almost every word he said.</p>
+
+ <p>Then Madame answered, and we could understand that
+ too.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page88"
+ id="page88"></a>[pg 88]</span>
+
+ <p>"No beds," she said.</p>
+
+ <p>The pretty girl smiled in a troubled way and murmured
+ something in a soft voice.</p>
+
+ <p>"She says they haven't got any beds in the rooms. Fritz took
+ them all," interpreted George. "<i>Écoutez, Mademoiselle</i>.
+ We have beds. <i>Trois lits. Nous les avons. Tous les trois.
+ Oui. À la gare. Absolument</i>."</p>
+
+ <p>Mademoiselle looked at Madame with a kink of her pretty
+ brows. Madame rose like a balloon to the need.</p>
+
+ <p>"No beds," she said very distinctly, with a rounding of eyes
+ and mouth. "No beds, Messieurs. No-o-o&mdash;<i>beds</i>."</p>
+
+ <p>Before George could recover John interfered. He makes a
+ hobby of cutting Gordian knots.</p>
+
+ <p>"Oh, what's the earthly use of telling 'em we have beds when
+ they can see for themselves that we haven't? They just think we
+ can't understand. Let's go up and take the rooms if they're
+ decent. Then we'll get the stretchers and put 'em up. That's
+ the only sort of argument we can handle."</p>
+
+ <p>Manfully George went to work again. And reluctant, and yet
+ obviously fascinated by his French, like a bird by a snake,
+ Mademoiselle led up the narrow stairs and into a sizeable room,
+ clean as a pin and as naked. On the threshold Madame washed her
+ hands of hope.</p>
+
+ <p>"<i>Regardez!</i> No beds. <i>C'est affreux!</i>"</p>
+
+ <p>George began again. He had courage. Whatever else Nature and
+ luck denied him there was no question of that. For a little it
+ looked as though he were in sight of the goal. Then
+ Mademoiselle explained. They were <i>désolées</i>, but the
+ <i>sales Boches</i> had stolen all the beds, and Madame would
+ not let the bare rooms to <i>Messieurs les Anglais</i>. It
+ would not be <i>convenable</i> when they had no beds.</p>
+
+ <p>"No beds!" Madame appealed to the skylight as witness, and
+ we looked at each other. It was getting late and the others
+ would have rustled all the best bivvies by now. John had
+ another brain-wave.</p>
+
+ <p>"Let's pantomime it. They always understand pantomime.
+ There's no use <i>saying</i> we've got beds&mdash;not when
+ George has to say it. We'll show them."</p>
+
+ <p>Earnestly we pantomimed stretcher beds&mdash;our own
+ stretcher beds&mdash;and reposeful slumber thereon. "<i>Mon
+ Dieu!</i>" cried Mademoiselle, retreating in haste. "No beds,"
+ repeated Madame, unconvinced and unafraid.</p>
+
+ <p>"She means that she doesn't want to have us," said John in
+ cold despair.</p>
+
+ <p>"She'd be a fool if she did now," answered Colin grimly.
+ "Let's get out of this."</p>
+
+ <p>And then John had a third brain-wave. He ordered George on
+ guard, and descended with Colin in search of the concrete proof
+ of our sanity. And Madame's voice, faint yet pursuing, followed
+ us down.</p>
+
+ <p>"No beds," it said.</p>
+
+ <p>In ten minutes we were back triumphant with the three
+ stretchers. It was a full six months since we had written to
+ England for them, and they had come at last. Visions of rest
+ went upstairs with us, and under the big eyes of Madame and
+ Mademoiselle and several more Madames who had collected as
+ unobtrusively as a silk hat collects dust we slashed at the
+ coverings, ripped them off and disclosed&mdash;three
+ deck-chairs.</p>
+
+ <p>We did not attempt to meet the situation. We left it to the
+ devil&mdash;or Madame. And she, with the lofty serenity of one
+ who through long and grievous misunderstanding has won home at
+ last, was completely adequate.</p>
+
+ <p>"No beds," she said.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:55%;">
+ <a href="images/88.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/88.png"
+ alt="Grieved Wife." /></a><i>Grieved Wife</i>. "OH,
+ SIMON, ALL OVER YOUR NOO CONTROLLED TROUSERS."
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"ADOPTION.&mdash;Fine healthy boy, 3½ years; entire
+ surrender to good home. reception. 5 bedrooms;
+ £1,100."&mdash;<i>Provincial Paper</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>What an exacting young rascal!</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Liebknecht was the son of a father who opposed tyranny
+ in earlier days, who sounded the toxin for
+ liberty."&mdash;<i>Express and Star</i>
+ (<i>Wolverhampton</i>).</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>But, to do old LIEBKNECHT justice, it was the son, not the
+ father, who spelt it that way.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>THE WAR-DOG'S PARTY.</h2>
+
+ <h4>(<i>Continued.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <p>I expected, of course, when I declared the resolution, "Dogs
+ not Doormats," open for general discussion that there would be
+ some pretty plain barking, but nothing calling for the
+ intervention of the Chair. Britain's dogs are sound at heart,
+ even if they do talk a bit wildly about the Tyranny of Man and
+ Rabbitism and Abolishing the Biscuiteer. I don't agree with a
+ lot of it myself&mdash;we Airedales have always been
+ conservatively inclined; but I am bound to say that three years
+ in the Army open one's eyes to a lot of things.</p>
+
+ <p>Nothing of a really seditious character was said until the
+ Borzoi commenced to address the meeting. I had always disliked
+ the fellow and half suspected him of being an Anarchist or the
+ president of some brotherhood or other. (It's funny how these
+ rascals, whose one idea is to get something which belongs to
+ somebody else without working for it, always call themselves a
+ brotherhood.) But those Russian dogs have such a shifty
+ slinking way with them that you can't always tell what they are
+ driving at. This Borzoi chap had tried once or twice to
+ interest me in what he called the Community of Bones doctrine,
+ but I soon found out that his master was a conscientious
+ objector and a vegetarian and that the doctrine really meant
+ that he would do the communing and I would provide the
+ bones.</p>
+
+ <p>The rogue began with some fulsome ingratiating remarks about
+ how pleased he was to see so many fine representatives of the
+ canine race prepared to maintain intact their sovereign doghood
+ whatever the sacrifice might entail. This brought loud applause
+ from the young hotheads; but I noticed traces of disgust along
+ the backs of the older dogs. The time had passed, he continued,
+ for speeches and resolutions and votes of censure. Dogs must
+ act if Man, the enemy, was to be finally crushed. I intervened
+ at this point and told the Borzoi he must moderate his
+ language, upon which he began to bluster, shouting that he
+ would not be put down by an arrogant hireling of effete
+ Militarism. One learns to practise self-control in the
+ trenches, so I was able to repress an inclination to
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page89"
+ id="page89"></a>[pg 89]</span> assert my authority then and
+ there. It was no use striking at man himself, he went on,
+ for he had guns and whips and stones at his command. We must
+ strike at him through his children.</p>
+
+ <p>Cries of dissent greeted this statement, and I really think
+ the matter would have ended then and there only it so happened
+ that none of those present were personally interested in
+ children, except old Betty the bulldog, who belongs to four
+ little girls who treat her sovereign doghood in a most
+ disrespectful way. But old Betty had gone to sleep, and,
+ anyway, she is rather deaf and has no teeth, so it's likely she
+ would have confined herself to a formal snuffle of protest.
+ "Yes," shouted the Borzoi, now thoroughly worked up, "let every
+ dog take a solemn oath to bite every child on every possible
+ occasion&mdash;at least when no one is looking&mdash;and Man,
+ the oppressor, will soon come begging for mercy and make peace
+ with us on our own terms. No false loyalty or ridiculous sense
+ of chivalry must withhold us," he continued. "The baby in the
+ pram to-day is the man with the whip of to-morrow and must be
+ bitten with all the righteous fury of outraged doghood." Cries
+ of "Shame!" greeted this remark. I decided that it was time to
+ interpose. With all the severity at my command I bade the
+ wretch be silent.</p>
+
+ <p>"Fellow dogs," I said, "it is clear that we must choose here
+ and now, once and for all, between Britishism and Bolshevism.
+ Tails up those who wish to remain British!" And of course every
+ tail went up. "Tails up, the Bolshevists!" But the Borzoi's was
+ down beyond recall and shivering between his legs. "That being
+ your decision, ladies and gentlemen," I continued, "the meeting
+ will constitute itself a Committee of Safety. Remarks have been
+ passed about your Chairman and the canine forces of His Majesty
+ that cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. All I ask is plenty
+ of room and no favour."</p>
+
+ <p>All this time the Borzoi had been edging towards the door,
+ and I really think he would have tried to make a dash for it,
+ only at the last minute he caught the eye of the Irish
+ wolfhound. It's no good running away from a dog like that, so
+ Bolshy decided to stay and face the music. Well, as I said
+ before, we war dogs are supposed to be as modest as we are
+ brave, so I will confine myself to saying that down our way
+ Bolshevism hasn't a leg to stand on. Of course Master, when he
+ saw my ear, pretended to be angry, but he knows a war dog
+ doesn't fight except for his country, and when the Borzoi's
+ owner came round next day to complain Master told him he was a
+ miserable Pacifist and had no <i>locus standi</i>. I told
+ Master afterwards that the Borzoi had no <i>loci standi</i>
+ either, because I'd jolly well nearly chewed them off; and he
+ laughed and gave me a whole cutlet with a lot of delicious meat
+ on it, saying he wasn't hungry himself.</p>
+
+ <p>Of course we dogs met again and adopted the rest of our
+ platform; and I don't mind saying I kept a pretty tight grip on
+ the proceedings. In fact, several resolutions, such as those
+ dealing with "Municipal Dog's-meat," "Rabbits in Regent's
+ Park," "The Prosecution of Untruthful Parlourmaids," "Shorter
+ Fur and Longer Legs," were carried without discussion.
+ Naturally the meetings concluded with a vote of thanks to the
+ Chair, to which I replied (they tell me) felicitously.</p>
+
+ <p>That is how the War Dogs' Party came into being; and
+ to-morrow I shall tell that little terrier fellow from No. 10,
+ Downing Street, that as long as his master remains faithful to
+ the Dog-in-the-Street the War Dogs' Party will remain faithful
+ to him.</p>
+
+ <p class="author">ALGOL.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/89.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/89.png"
+ alt="'OO LUMME! THAT MUST BE THE BLOKE WOT WON THE WAR!'" />
+ </a>"OO LUMME! THAT MUST BE THE BLOKE WOT WON THE WAR!"
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"'The little lass, and what worlds away,' one says to
+ oneself on coming out of Mr. Rosing's
+ recital."&mdash;<i>"Times'" Musical Critic</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>It's the worst of music that it makes one so love-sick and
+ sentimental.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page90"
+ id="page90"></a>[pg 90]</span>
+
+ <h2>AN EXPENSIVE AMUSEMENT.</h2>
+
+ <p>"As," says one of Mr. Punch's many and very welcome
+ correspondents, "you will probably be writing for the benefit
+ of your readers a short handbook on how to be demobilised, I
+ enclose for your guidance my solicitor's bill. He was engaged
+ from November 12th until I returned home on leave on December
+ 30th and took a hand in the game myself. The chief work was
+ tracing the various Government Departments to their hidden
+ lairs in which they indulge in the pleasing habit of exchanging
+ minutes.</p>
+
+ <p>"Some day perhaps demobilisation will reach me. The sooner
+ the better, for I can never settle this account on my Army
+ pay."</p>
+
+ <p>So much for the preamble. Here, with the alteration only of
+ certain names, is the document itself. Mr. Jones, it should be
+ mentioned, is a member of the firm to which the Officer in
+ question (whom we will call Mr. Lute) wishes to
+ return:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <table summary="solicitor's bill"
+ align="center"
+ width="80%">
+ <tr>
+ <td align="left">1918.</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right">£</td>
+
+ <td><i>s.</i></td>
+
+ <td><i>d.</i></td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">Nov.&nbsp;12.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Mr. Jones on calling on the
+ telephone as to Mr. Lute and advising him to make an
+ application</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">6</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">8</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 27.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Demobilisation Office,
+ Whitehall Gardens, when the place was too crowded to be
+ seen to-day. Engaged nearly two hours.</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">13</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="left">Writing Mr. Lute I was putting through
+ application.</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">3</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">6</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center" valign="top">" 28.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending New Bridge Street when I
+ interviewed Official and he handed me pivotal form
+ after explaining circumstances</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">18</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 29.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Mr. Jones on calling when
+ Mrs. Lute was present, filling in form after discussing
+ same. Engaged 3 to 3.50.</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">10</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">0</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="left">Copy to keep</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">1</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">0</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 30.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending New Bridge Street,
+ interviewing Official, and he referred Mr. Lute's case
+ to Mr. Bedford Smith, 105a, Portman Square, Head Food
+ Department for your district</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">13</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">Dec. 2.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Portman Square, interviewing
+ Official, when he said I had got the wrong form and
+ requested me to go to Whitehall Gardens and ask them
+ about it.</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td></td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Demobilisation Office at
+ Whitehall Gardens, interviewing Official when he wanted
+ to know how I had got the form as I had no business to
+ have it as the issue of them had been stopped, and I
+ said it had been given to me, and he was unable to say
+ what should be done with it, but in any event another
+ form ought to be filled up, R.C.V., and he handed me
+ such form. Engaged 10.30 to 1; 2 to 3.45</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">3</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">3</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">0</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">Dec. 3.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Portman Square office, when
+ I said that I had been to the office at Whitehall
+ Gardens and they wanted to know how I had got the
+ pivotal form, but he took it in and said he would refer
+ it to the local committee at once, and he gave me the
+ name of the head man there and suggested we might push
+ it if we went to him, and he had nothing to do with the
+ R.C.V. form.</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">13</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Whitehall Gardens asking
+ what they wanted done with R.C.V. form and they said if
+ it was sent in there filled up it would receive
+ attention in its turn.</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">10</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">0</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="left">Writing Mr. Jones to get in touch with
+ Local Authority.</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">3</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">6</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 5.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Mr. Jones on telephone as to
+ getting into touch with local representative, which he
+ would do at once</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">3</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 6.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Filling up same and writing them
+ therewith</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">5</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">0</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 11.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Mr. Jones on telephone when
+ he said Committee had recommended application last
+ Friday evening</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">3</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 12.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Portman Square, interviewing
+ Official and they had not received recommendation of
+ local committee</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">13</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 13.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Mr. Jones, informing him
+ thereof on telephone giving me reference No. and he
+ would send on copy letter to him by local committee
+ recommending application</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">3</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 16.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Portman Square when they had
+ not heard from local committee, handing them copy of
+ their letter and they would act on that</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">13</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 18.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Writing Mr. Jones as to further form,
+ sent in to him to sign</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">3</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">6</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 19.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Portman Square when
+ application had gone forward</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">13</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="left">Telephoning to Mrs. Lute to that
+ effect. Like Mr. Jones.</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">3</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 20.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Writing Mr. Lute as to the matter</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">3</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">6</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 23.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Portman Square Official when
+ application was on way to War Office and they said you
+ would be demobilised shortly</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">13</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 31.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Mr. Lute, showing me
+ correspondence and requesting me to see Demobilisation
+ Department, Broad Street.</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="left">1919</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">Jan. 2.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Broad Street when they had
+ removed to Hotel Windsor and obtaining two forms to
+ fill up to extend your leave while your case went
+ through if necessary and they knew nothing about your
+ case</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">13</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending at your office getting
+ Secretary to sign form.</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">10</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">0</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center"
+ valign="top">" 4.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending Windsor Hotel when
+ department disbanded and had gone to Lancaster
+ Gate</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">13</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="left">Attending you reporting on
+ telephone</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">3</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">4</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td align="center">" 6.</td>
+
+ <td align="left">Fare and expenses</td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">15</td>
+
+ <td align="right"
+ valign="bottom">0</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+
+ <td align="right">&mdash;</td>
+
+ <td align="right">&mdash;</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td></td>
+
+ <td align="right">Total</td>
+
+ <td align="right">£14</td>
+
+ <td align="right">5</td>
+
+ <td align="right">0</td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>THE DRINK OF THE GODS.</h2>
+
+ <h3>A PROHIBITIONIST'S CANTICLE.</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Let meaner souls make merry</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">O'er cups of ruby wine,</p>
+
+ <p>With claret, port or sherry</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Their tunes incarnadine;</p>
+
+ <p>Let little boys emphatic</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Become o'er ginger b.</p>
+
+ <p>Myself I grow ecstatic</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">About a drink called "Tea."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Tea elevates one's pecker,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Rejuvenates the mind,</p>
+
+ <p>Enriches the exchequer,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Yet never makes men "blind";</p>
+
+ <p>When footsore and effete I'm</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">From every ache set free,</p>
+
+ <p>And not alone at tea-time</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I thank the Lord for "Tea."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>It tells of balmy breezes</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">That blow "o'er Ceylon's isle"</p>
+
+ <p>(While HEBER mostly pleases</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">His accent here is vile)&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Of some far-flung plantation</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Where Hindus bend the knee;</p>
+
+ <p>And would my occupation</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Were prefixed (ah!) by "Tea"!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>'Tis told in classic fable</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The nectar served to Zeus</p>
+
+ <p>At his Olympic table</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Was just a vinous juice;</p>
+
+ <p>That such is purely fiction</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I heartily agree,</p>
+
+ <p>Having the sound conviction</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">'Twas nothing less than "Tea."</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>"PARIS, Saturday.</h3>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>The Conference will be held in the imposing Salle de la
+ Grande Horloge. The 'hall of the great clock' is about
+ 30in. long by 15in. wide."&mdash;<i>Liverpool Echo</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>"Imposing," indeed.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Manchester's £6,000,000 scheme for obtaining water
+ supplies from Haweswater was approved last night at a
+ meeting of ratepayers in the Town Hall. The annual
+ increased consumption of water had been a little over a
+ million gallons per head per day."&mdash;<i>Daily
+ Dispatch</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>The new slogan of the temperance enthusiasts&mdash;What
+ Manchester drinks to-day England will drink to-morrow.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page91"
+ id="page91"></a>[pg 91]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/91.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/91.png"
+ alt="Visitor." /></a>
+
+ <p><i>Visitor</i>. "BUT THOSE ATTACKS OF MALARIA DON'T LAST
+ LONG, DO THEY?"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Tommy</i>. "MINE ISN'T ORDINARY MALARIA. THE DOCTOR
+ CALLS IT 'MALINGERING MALARIA.'"</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.</h2>
+
+ <h4>(<i>By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <p>I own that to find the publishers, those sometimes too
+ generous critics, writing upon the wrapper of <i>An English
+ Family</i> (HUTCHINSON) an appreciation that bracketed it with
+ <i>The Newcomes</i>, did little to predispose me in its favour.
+ Later, however, when I had read the book with an increasing
+ pleasure, I was ready to admit that the comparison was by no
+ means wholly unjustified. Certainly Mr. HAROLD BEGBIE has
+ written a very charming story in this history of the
+ <i>Frothinghams</i> and the growth of their typically English
+ characters, maturing just in time for the ordeal that has
+ tested and (one is proud to think) triumphantly approved the
+ spirit of our country. In fact these memoirs of <i>Hugh
+ Frothingham</i> are something more than an idle romance; there
+ is an allegory in them, and some touch of propaganda, cunningly
+ introduced in the fine character of <i>Torrance</i>, the great
+ surgeon who married one of the <i>Frothingham</i> girls and was
+ bombed in the hospital raids. Through the varied activities of
+ the family, as they develop, passes the cleverly-shown figure
+ of <i>Hugh</i>, the narrator, who, starting with fairer
+ prospects than any of the others, is ruined by indolence and an
+ income, and hardly saved by the War from degenerating into the
+ torpid existence of a social pussy-cat. <i>Hugh</i> is an
+ admirable example of the difficult art of seemingly unconscious
+ self-revelation. Altogether I have found <i>An English
+ Family</i> greatly to my taste, displaying as it does a dignity
+ and breadth that recall not unworthily the best traditions of
+ the English novel. But did we speak of <i>Serbia</i> in 1914? I
+ only ask.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p><i>High Adventure</i> (CONSTABLE) is in certain ways the
+ most fascinating account of flying and of fliers which has come
+ my way. Captain NORMAN HALL, already well known to readers of
+ <i>Kitchener's Mob</i>, tells us in this later book how he
+ became a member of the Escadrille Américaine and how he learned
+ to fly. And, as his modesty is beyond all praise, I feel sure
+ that he will forgive me for saying that it is not the personal
+ note which is here so specially attractive. What makes his book
+ so different from other books on flying is that in it we have a
+ novice suffering from all sorts of mishaps and mistakes before
+ he has mastered the difficulties of his art. Whether
+ consciously or not Captain HALL performs a very great service
+ in describing the life of a flier while his wings are&mdash;so
+ to speak&mdash;only in the sprouting stage. In an introduction
+ Major GROS tells us of the work done by American pilots before
+ America entered the War, a delightful preface to a book which
+ both for its matter and style is good to read.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>I confess at once that <i>The Uprooters</i> (STANLEY PAUL)
+ is a story that I have found hard to understand. There seems an
+ idea somewhere, but it constantly eluded me. To begin with,
+ exactly who or what were the Uprooters, and what did they
+ uproot? At first I thought the answer was going to name
+ <i>Major</i> and <i>Mrs. Elton</i>, who for no very sufficient
+ reason would go meddling off to Paris, and transporting thence
+ the brother and sister <i>Ormsby</i> to Ireland. The
+ <i>Ormsbys</i> had been happy and (apparently) harmless enough
+ hitherto, but once uprooted they promptly developed the most
+ unfortunate passions&mdash;reciprocated, moreover&mdash;for
+ their well-wishers. The obvious and laudable moral of
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page92"
+ id="page92"></a>[pg 92]</span> which is, never remove your
+ neighbour from his chosen landmarks. Later, however, it
+ became apparent that Mr. J.A.T. LLOYD had a more subtle
+ interpretation for his title in the activities of a band of
+ pacifists, headed by a multi-millionaire, who called himself
+ an American, though somehow his name, <i>Schwartz</i>,
+ hardly inspired me with any feelings of real confidence. On
+ his death-bed, however, this gentleman reveals blood of the
+ most Prussian blue, confessing that his wealth has actually
+ been derived from the dividends of Frau BERTHA; and as the
+ War has by this time resolved the emotional difficulties of
+ the other characters the story comes to its somewhat
+ procrastinated finish. My own belief in it had to endure two
+ tests, of which the less was inflicted by a scene
+ specifically placed in a "dim <i>second class</i> carriage"
+ on the L.&amp;N.W.R. in 1916; and the greater by the <i>cri
+ de coeur</i> of the lady, whose husband surprised her with
+ her lover: "Edmund, get that murderous look out of your
+ eyes, the look of that dreadful ancestor in the portrait
+ gallery!" I ask you, does that carry conviction under the
+ circumstances?</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Really, the delight of the publishers over <i>Cecily and the
+ Wide World</i> (HURST AND BLACKETT) is almost touching. On the
+ outside of the wrapper they call it "charming," and are at the
+ further pains to advise me to "read first the turnover of
+ cover," where I find them letting themselves go in such terms
+ as "true life," "sincerity," "charm" (again), "courage," and
+ the like. The natural result of all which was that I approached
+ the story prepared for the stickiest of American cloy-fiction.
+ I was most pleasantly disappointed. Miss ELIZABETH F. CORBETT
+ has chosen a theme inevitably a little sentimental, but her
+ treatment of it is throughout of a brisk and tonic sanity,
+ altogether different from&mdash;well, you know the sort of
+ stuff I have in mind. <i>Cecily</i> was the discontented wife
+ of <i>Avery Fairchild</i>, a young doctor with three children
+ and a fair practice. After a while her discontent so increased
+ that she betook herself to the wide, wide world, to live her
+ own life. And as both she and <i>Avery</i> before long fell
+ cheerfully in love with other persons I suppose the move could
+ so far be counted a success. Before, however, the divorce
+ facilities of the land of freedom could bring the tale to one
+ happy ending an accident to <i>Cecily's</i> motor and the long
+ arm that delivered her to her husband's professional care
+ brought it to another. I am left wondering how this dénouement
+ would have been affected if <i>Avery</i> had been, say, a
+ dentist, or of any other calling than the one that so obviously
+ loaded the dice in his favour. I repeat, however, a distinctly
+ well-written and human story, almost startlingly topical too in
+ one place, where <i>Dr. Avery</i> observes, "There's a lot of
+ grippe in town, and it's a thing that isn't reported to the
+ Health Department." The obvious inference being that it ought
+ to be. <i>Avery</i>, you observe, had more practical sense than
+ the majority of heroes, few of whom would ever have thought of
+ this, or, at any rate, mentioned it.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Baroness ORCZY's romance of old Cambrai, <i>Flower o' the
+ Lily</i> (HODDER AND STOUGHTON), should not be regarded as in
+ any way bearing upon the more modern history of that remarkable
+ city. It has nothing to do with our war; it has a war of its
+ own, a rapid affair of bows and arrows, scaling ladders and
+ such desperate situations as can be, and were, saved by the
+ arrival of the right man, single-handed, in the right place at
+ the right moment. Familiar as is his type in novels of this
+ adventurous kind, I think I shall never tire of the consummate
+ swordsman hero who impersonates, for political and matrimonial
+ ends, a man of infinitely higher degree but far less real worth
+ than himself, handling the vicarious business with an
+ incredible adroitness, but mistakenly carrying by storm the
+ love of the lady for himself. The lady is so confoundedly
+ attractive in these circumstances, possibly because there is
+ about them a tonic which lends additional colour to the
+ feminine cheek and a new brilliance to the eye. And, however
+ bitter may be the first moment when the true personalities are
+ divulged, it all comes right in the end. Here is a story of
+ intrigue and battle and love, written in the necessary
+ phraseology of the time and woven round (and, I trust,
+ consistent with) the historical contest between the Spanish and
+ French Powers, disputing the terrain of Flanders; in every way
+ a worthy successor of <i>The Scarlet Pimpernel</i>. It is
+ inevitable to suggest that this story should also be dramatised
+ in due course; it would make as a play an instant and
+ irresistible appeal to that great public which loves the
+ theatre most when it is most theatrical. And it is doubtless
+ destined also for the Movies.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:50%;">
+ <a href="images/92.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/92.png"
+ alt="SCENE.&mdash;&lt;i&gt;Cologne&lt;/i&gt;&mdash;&lt;i&gt;Present Day&lt;/i&gt;." />
+ </a>SCENE.&mdash;<i>Cologne</i>&mdash;<i>Present
+ Day</i>.<br />
+ "GIE YE CHOCOLATE! <i>GIE YE CHOCOLATE!!</i> D'YE THINK
+ I'VE BEEN BOBBIN' UP AN' DOON IN FRONT O' YOUR AULD MON FOR
+ FOUR YEARS JUST TAE COME HERE AN' GIE YE CHOCOLATE?"
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>More Secrets of the Fleet.</h3>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Few people realise the difficulty senior officers in
+ the Navy who are married and have children have in making
+ both ends meet. Naval officers who entered over fifteen
+ years ago did not, as a rule, come from the married
+ classes."&mdash;<i>Sunday Paper</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"Whilst waiting to be bathed, an old blind female inmate
+ of the &mdash;&mdash; Institution fell to the floor,
+ breaking her thigh. Her injury has accentuated her death
+ from bronchitis."&mdash;<i>Birmingham Post</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>With a grave accent, we fear.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"The war broke Germany's hold on world's wild animal
+ trade, the New York Zoological Society chairman states.
+ Zoos and circuses are now turning to British dealers to
+ fill their cages."&mdash;<i>Evening Paper</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Provided that the above paragraph has made the British
+ dealers sufficiently wild.</p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13927 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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