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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
+
+ <title>Punch, March 21st, 1917.</title>
+
+ <style type="text/css">
+ <!--
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+ hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;}
+ html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;}
+
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+
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14455 ***</div>
+
+ <h1>PUNCH,<br />
+ OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.</h1>
+
+ <h2>Vol. 152.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <h2>March 21st, 1917.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>[pg 177]</span>
+
+<h3>CHARIVARIA.</h3>
+
+ <p>There is a convict at Pentonville who is said to be exactly like the
+ KAISER. He feels that in view of the great inconvenience he has suffered
+ it is the KAISER'S duty at once to remove his moustache or grow side
+ whiskers.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The KAISER is in a bit of a hole. Attending a special service for the
+ success of the War, he is reported to have "sung the <i>De Profundis</i>
+ at the top of his voice." All the rest of him, including the lower part
+ of his voice, seems to have been submerged.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The revolutionary spirit in Germany seems to have extended to the
+ vegetable kingdom. In a riot at Barmen which occurred recently the chief
+ of police was "seriously wounded" by a turnip.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The <i>Berliner Tageblatt</i> states that for appearing at a private
+ concert a famous opera singer has been paid in food, including sixty
+ eggs. The custom is not unknown to some of our own music-hall artistes,
+ who however are usually more than content with receiving "the bird."</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>According to a <i>Globe</i> report Mr. CHARLES GULLIVER is giving at
+ the Palladium "a programme of real entertainers." Enterprise and
+ originality are always to be commended in a manager.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>A telegram from Mexico City announces that General CARRANZA has been
+ elected President of the Mexican Republic. It is expected that a full
+ list of the casualties will be published shortly.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>A Melbourne despatch states that Mr. HUGHES has been offered
+ thirty-four seats in the forthcoming elections. The Opposition, it is
+ understood, has expressed its willingness to allow Mr. HUGHES to occupy
+ all thirty-four.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>So effective has been the attempt to reduce circulation that we are
+ not surprised to find a provincial paper advertising in <i>The Daily
+ Telegraph</i> for "A Reader."</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>"There is no monument more enduring than brass," writes Mr. GEORGE
+ BERNARD SHAW, War Correspondent. The general feeling, however, is that
+ there is a kind of brass that is beyond enduring.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The idea of blaming <i>Queen Elizabeth</i> for the Dardanelles fiasco
+ is so entirely satisfactory to all parties concerned that it is being
+ freely asked why the Commission couldn't have thought of that itself.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The new order prohibiting newspapers from printing contents bills is
+ bearing hardly in certain quarters, and it is rumoured that at least one
+ sensational contemporary has offered to forgo publishing itself in return
+ for the privilege of selling its posters.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>By order of the General Officer Commanding the London District the
+ Grafton Galleries have been placed out of bounds. Or, as they say in the
+ best War-time dancing circles, out of leaps and bounds.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <div class="figcenter" style="width:50%;">
+ <a href="images/177.png"><img width="100%" src="images/177thumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ PROGRESS.
+ </div>
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Kensington Council states that 300,000 tons of food are consumed
+ annually by thousands of dogs which serve no useful purpose. The dogs, on
+ the other hand, are asking what would become of the nation's womanhood if
+ there were no dogs to take it out for exercise in the afternoon.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The Government, it appears, is determined to keep Charing Cross
+ Railway Station on the North side of the river. All the objections to the
+ present site, they point out, are easily outweighed by its proximity to
+ the National Gallery.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>At Highgate, says a news item, a man named YELLS was fined for having
+ in his possession pork which was not sound. It was suggested that
+ defendant had held back the squeal for his own purposes.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>An applicant recently informed the House of Commons' Tribunal that
+ cutting sandwiches was highly skilled work, which could not be done
+ satisfactorily by women. The difficulty appears to consist not in the
+ actual cutting, but in conveying the hammy taste from the knife to the
+ bread without actually parting with the ham itself.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>Skipping is recommended as a healthy recreation. Several Germans on
+ the Ancre say they already owe their lives to this practice.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>It is now proposed that Telephone Directories should be charged for.
+ The idea appears to be to bring them into line with other light
+ literature; but <i>Punch</i> fears no rivals.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>It has been decided by Mr. PAUL TAYLOR at Marylebone that bacon is
+ meat. Lord DEVONPORT, now that his suspicion has been judicially
+ confirmed, has announced his intention of going ahead on that basis.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>From a school-girl's examination paper:&mdash;"<i>Question.</i> What
+ do you know of Tantalus? <i>Answer</i>: Tantalus suffered from continual
+ hunger and thirst in internal regions."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>CHILDREN'S TALES FOR GROWN-UPS.</h3>
+
+<p class="center">III.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ITS OWN REWARD.</p>
+
+ <p>"What fun!" cried the wasp.</p>
+
+ <p>"Where?" asked the bee looking up with a subdued smile.</p>
+
+ <p>"I mean I can't help laughing," said the wasp.</p>
+
+ <p>"A disgusting habit," said the bee.</p>
+
+ <p>"Look at those people nearly out of their wits. Here goes for old
+ Bless-my-Soul again!" He flew off and buzzed round the old gentleman's
+ neck and then flew back to the bee, laughing louder than ever at his
+ purple rage.</p>
+
+ <p>"I don't know what you think of your conduct," said the bee severely,
+ "but I think it is insects like you who give us all a bad name."</p>
+
+ <p>"Be hanged to your bad name," scoffed the wasp. "A short life and a
+ merry one, say I."</p>
+
+ <p>"A busy life and a useful one, rather," said the bee. "I am proud to
+ be the friend of man."</p>
+
+ <p>"Good heavens!" shouted the wasp. "Here comes old Bless-my-Soul bent
+ on murder. Look out! I'm going for his neck."</p>
+
+ <p>Old Bless-my-Soul slashed wildly with his table-napkin and slew the
+ bee. He went back triumphantly with his spoil.</p>
+
+ <p>"A bee!" shouted everybody. "I thought it was a wasp. I didn't know
+ bees were like that."</p>
+
+ <p>"All insects are vicious," said old Bless-my-Soul.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4>Another Impending Apology.</h4>
+
+ <blockquote>"LONDON PAVILION. CHEERIO! at 8.30.&mdash;'Just the thing for
+ a dull evening.'"&mdash;<i>Daily News.</i></blockquote>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <blockquote>"A few of the waiting women abandoned hope of getting
+ potatoes, and substituted the purchase by parsnips and
+ sweres."&mdash;<i>Daily Mirror.</i></blockquote>
+
+ <p>In the circumstances who shall blame them?</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTICE.</h3>
+
+ <p>In order to meet the national need for economy in the consumption of
+ paper, the Proprietors of <i>Punch</i> are compelled to reduce the number
+ of its pages, but propose that the amount of matter published in
+ <i>Punch</i> shall by condensation and compression be maintained and
+ even, it is hoped, increased.</p>
+
+ <p>It is further necessary that means should be taken to restrict the
+ circulation of <i>Punch</i>, and its price has been raised to Sixpence.
+ The Proprietors believe that the public will prefer an increase of price
+ to a reduction of matter.</p>
+
+ <p>Readers are urged to place an order with their Newsagent for the
+ regular delivery of copies, as <i>Punch</i> may otherwise be
+ unobtainable, the shortage of paper making imperative the withdrawal from
+ Newsagents of the "on-sale-or-return" privilege.</p>
+
+ <p>In consequence of the increase in the price of <i>Punch</i> the period
+ covered by subscriptions already paid direct to the <i>Punch</i> Office
+ will be proportionately shortened; or the unexpired value will be
+ refunded, if desired.</p>
+
+ <p>The next issue of <i>Punch</i> (March 28th) will be a Navy Double
+ Number, price Sixpence. The Proprietors regret that arrangements for this
+ Number were completed before the further drastic restrictions in the
+ paper supply were announced.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" id="page178"></a>[pg 178]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter" style="width:66%;">
+ <a href="images/178.png"><img width="100%" src="images/178thumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <p><i>Unlucky One</i> (<i>after perusing latest list of honours</i>).
+ "NEVER HAVE HAD ANY LUCK. MONTHS AGO I SAVED A SERGEANT CHAP FROM A
+ ROTTEN PLACE&mdash;CARRIED THE FELLOW ALL THE WAY BACK&mdash;AND TOLD
+ HIM NOT TO SAY A WORD ABOUT IT!"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Friend.</i> "WELL, WHAT'S WRONG? HAS HE BEEN TALKING?"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Unlucky One.</i> "NOT A WORD, CURSE HIM!"</p>
+ </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE MUD LARKS.</h3>
+
+ <p>When I was young, my parents sent me to a boarding school, not in any
+ hopes of getting me educated, but because they wanted a quiet home.</p>
+
+ <p>At that boarding school I met one Frederick Delane Milroy, a chubby
+ flame-coloured brat who had no claims to genius, excepting as a
+ <i>littérateur</i>.</p>
+
+ <p>The occasion that established his reputation with the pen was a
+ Natural History essay. We were given five sheets of foolscap, two hours
+ and our own choice of subject. I chose the elephant, I remember, having
+ once been kind to one through the medium of a bag of nuts.</p>
+
+ <p>Frederick D. Milroy headed his effort "THE FERT" in large capitals,
+ and began, "The fert is a noble animal&mdash;" He got no further, the
+ extreme nobility of the ferret having apparently blinded him to its other
+ characteristics.</p>
+
+ <p>The other day, as I was wandering about on the "line," dodging Bosch
+ crumps with more agility than grace, I met Milroy (Frederick Delane) once
+ more.</p>
+
+ <p>He was standing at the entrance of a cosy little funk-hole, his boots
+ and tunic undone, sniffing the morning nitro-glycerine. He had swollen
+ considerably since our literary days, but was wearing his hair as red as
+ ever, and I should have known it anywhere&mdash;on the darkest night. I
+ dived for him and his hole, pushed him into it, and re-introduced myself.
+ He remembered me quite well, shook my chilblains heartily, and invited me
+ further underground for tea and talk.</p>
+
+ <p>It was a nice hole, cramped and damp, but very deep, and with those
+ Bosch love-tokens thudding away upstairs I felt that the nearer Australia
+ the better. But the rats! Never before have I seen rats in such
+ quantities; they flowed unchidden all over the dug-out, rummaged in the
+ cupboards, played kiss-in-the-ring in the shadows, and sang and brawled
+ behind the old oak panelling until you could barely hear yourself shout.
+ I am fond of animals, but I do not like having to share my tea with a
+ bald-headed rodent who gets noisy in his cups, or having a brace of
+ high-spirited youngsters wrestle out the championship of the district on
+ my bread-and-butter.</p>
+
+ <p>Freddy apologised for them; they were getting a bit above themselves,
+ he was afraid, but they were seldom dangerous, seldom attacked one
+ unprovoked. "Live and let live" was their motto. For all that they
+ <i>did</i> get a trifle <i>de trop</i> sometimes; he himself had lost his
+ temper when he awoke one morning to find a brawny rat sitting on his face
+ combing his whiskers in mistake for his own (a pardonable error in the
+ dark); and, determining to teach them a lesson, had bethought him of his
+ old friend, the noble fert. He therefore sent home for two of the
+ best.</p>
+
+ <p>The ferrets arrived in due course, received the names Burroughs and
+ Welcome, were blessed and turned loose.</p>
+
+ <p>They had had a rough trip over at the bottom of the mail sack and were
+ looking for trouble. An old rat strolled out of his club to see what all
+ the noise was about, and got the excitement he needed. Seven friends came
+ to his funeral and never smiled again. There was great rejoicing in that
+ underground Mess that evening; Burroughs and Welcome were fêted on bully
+ beef and condensed milk, and made honorary members.</p>
+
+ <p>For three days the good work went on; there was weeping in the
+ cupboards and gnashing of teeth behind the old oak panelling. Then on the
+ fourth day Burroughs and Welcome disappeared, and the rats swarmed to
+ their own again. The deserters were found a week later; they had wormed
+ through a system of rat-holes into the next dug-out, inhabited by the
+ Atkinses, and had remained there, honoured guests.</p>
+
+ <p>It is the nature of the British Atkins to make a pet of anything, from
+ a toad to a sucking pig&mdash;he cannot help it. The story about St.
+ George, doyen of British soldiers, killing that dragon&mdash;nonsense! He
+ would have spanked it, may be, until it promised to reform, then given it
+ a cigarette, and taken it home to amuse the children. To return to our
+ ferrets, Burroughs and Welcome provided no exception to the rule; they
+ were taught to sit up and beg, and lie down and die, to turn handsprings
+ and play the mouth-organ; they were gorged with Maconochie, plum jam and
+ rum ration; it was doubtful if they ever went to bed sober. Times out of
+ number they were borne back to the Officers' Mess and exhorted to do
+ their bit, but they returned immediately to their friends the Atkinses,
+ <i>viâ</i> their private route, not unnaturally preferring a life of
+ continuous carousal and vaudeville among the flesh-pots to sapping and
+ mining down wet rat-holes.</p>
+
+ <p>Freddy was of opinion that, when the battalion proceeded up Unter den
+ Linden, Burroughs and Welcome would be with it as regimental mascots,
+ marching behind the band, bells on their fingers, rings on their toes. He
+ also assured me that if he ever again has to write an essay on the Fert,
+ its characteristics, the adjective "noble" will not figure so
+ prominently.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>HERBS OF GRACE.</h3>
+
+<p class="center">III.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SWEET MARJORAM.</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>"Sweet Marjoram! Sweet Marjoram!"</i></p>
+ <p class="i2">(Sang an old dame standing on the kerb);</p>
+ <p>"You may hear a thousand ballads,</p>
+ <p>You may pick a thousand salads,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Ere you light on such another herb.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Sweet Marjoram! Sweet Marjoram!</i></p>
+ <p class="i2">(Let its virtues evermore be sung);</p>
+ <p>Oh, 'twill make your Sunday clo'es gay,</p>
+ <p>If you wear it in a nosegay,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Pretty mistress, like when I was young.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>"Sweet Marjoram! Sweet Marjoram!</i></p>
+ <p class="i2">(Sing of sweet old gardens all a-glow);</p>
+ <p>It will scent your dower drawer, dear,</p>
+ <p>Folk would strew it on the floor, dear,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Long ago&mdash;long ago&mdash;long ago.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>"Sweet Marjoram! Sweet Marjoram!"</i></p>
+ <p class="i2"><i>(Sang the old dame standing on the kerb);</i></p>
+ <p><i>"You may hear a thousand ballads,</i></p>
+ <p><i>You may pick a thousand salads,</i></p>
+ <p class="i2"><i>Ere you light on such another herb."</i></p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+<hr />
+
+ <blockquote>"The recipients [of the medals] were:&mdash;Sergeant W.A.
+ Norris, D.C.M. and Military Private A. Trichney, M.M., andtootompPUF.
+ Medal ..." <i>Daily Paper.</i></blockquote>
+
+ <p>Private TRICHNEY'S second distinction was awarded presumably for
+ something extra good in the bombing line.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <blockquote>"Lord Beauchamp, opening an Economy Exhibition at Gloucester
+ on Saturday, said that among many interesting exhibits was one described
+ as 'Frocks for the twins from Uncle's pyjamas.' He hoped that the child
+ who sent this exhibit would get the prize it deserved."&mdash;<i>Daily
+ Mail.</i></blockquote>
+
+ <p>Uncle has probably seen to that.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page179" id="page179"></a>[pg 179]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter" style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/179.png"><img width="100%" src="images/179thumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <h2>THE BREAKING OF THE FETTERS.</h2>
+ </div>
+<hr />
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" id="page180"></a>[pg 180]</span>
+
+<h3>ELLA REEVE.</h3>
+
+ <p>One can't be too careful how one boasts, especially if there is the
+ chance of the boast being put quickly to the proof. In fact, it is better
+ perhaps not to boast at all.</p>
+
+ <p>I was sitting with a friend and a stranger in a London restaurant,
+ having joined their table for coffee. The stranger, on introduction,
+ turned out to be connected with the stage in some capacity as agent, and
+ among his regular clients were the managers of various big provincial
+ theatres, for whom he provided the leading lights of pantomime, or, as he
+ would call it, panto. Panto was indeed the mainstay of his business; it
+ was even the warp and woof of his life. He lived for panto, he thought
+ panto, and he talked panto. No one, according to him, had a more abysmal
+ knowledge of principal boys with adequate legs, principal (if that is
+ still the word) girls with sufficient voices, contralto fairy queens with
+ abundant bosoms, basso demon kings, Prince Dandinis, Widow Twankays, Ugly
+ Sisters, and all the other personages of this strange grease-paint
+ mythology of ours. Listening to him, I learned&mdash;as those who are
+ humble in spirit may learn of all men. I learned, for example, that Ugly
+ Sisters are at Christmas-time always Ugly Sisters, and very often use
+ again the same dialogue, merely transferring themselves from, say,
+ Glasgow to Wigan, or from Bristol to Dublin; and this will be their
+ destiny until they become such very old men that not even the kindly
+ British public will stand it any longer. England, it seems, is full of
+ performers who, touring the halls from March to December, are then
+ claimed for panto as her own, arriving a little before Christmas not less
+ regularly than the turkey; and the aim of all of them is as nearly as
+ possible to do the next Christmas what they did last Christmas.</p>
+
+ <p>Not only did my new acquaintance know all these people, their
+ capabilities and the lowest salary that could be offered to them with any
+ chance of acceptance, but he was also, it seemed, beloved by them all.
+ Between agent and client never in the history of the world had such
+ charming relations subsisted as between every pro. on his books and
+ himself.</p>
+
+ <p>It was then that Ella Reeve came in.</p>
+
+ <p>Accompanied by two expensive-looking men, whose ancestors had beyond
+ any doubt crossed the Red Sea with Moses, this new and glittering star,
+ who had but just "made good," or "got over," or "clicked" (my new
+ acquaintance used all these phrases indiscriminately when referring to
+ his own Herschellian triumphs as a watcher of the skies), walked
+ confidently to a distant table which was being held in reserve for her
+ party, and drew off her gloves with the happy anticipatory assurance of
+ one who is about to lunch a little too well. (All this, I should say,
+ happened before the War. I am reminded of it to-day by the circumstance
+ that I have just heard of the death of the agent whom I then met.)</p>
+
+ <p>The impact of the lady on this gentleman was terrific.</p>
+
+ <p>"Look, look!" he said. "That's Ella Reeve, one of my discoveries. She
+ was principal boy at Blackpool two years ago. I put her there. She got
+ fifteen pounds a week, and to-day she gets two hundred. I spotted her in
+ a chorus, asked her to call and see me, and this is the result. I made
+ her. There's nothing she wouldn't do for me, she's so grateful. If she
+ knew I was in the room she'd be over here in a jiffy."</p>
+
+ <p>Having told us all this, he, being a very normal man, told it again,
+ all the while craning his neck in the hope that his old client (she had
+ now, it seemed, passed out of his hands, having forsaken panto for London
+ and revue) might catch sight of his dear face. But she was far too much
+ occupied either with the lobster on her plate or with the yellow fluid,
+ strange to me, that moved restlessly in a long-stemmed shallow glass at
+ her side.</p>
+
+ <p>And then, being, as I say, not in any way an eccentric or exorbitant
+ character, the agent told it us a third time, with a digression here and
+ there as to the deep friendships that members of his profession could
+ form and cement if only they were decent fellows and not mere
+ money-grubbing machines out for nothing but their commission. "That's
+ what the wise man does," he concluded; "he makes real friends with his
+ clients, such as I did with Ella Reeve. The result is we never had any
+ hitches, and there's nothing she wouldn't do for me. She's a
+ darling!"</p>
+
+ <p>Getting a little tired of this, but obviously anything but unwilling
+ to shake the new star's slender hand and listen to the vivacious flow of
+ speech from such attractive lips, my friend said at last, "Well, as you
+ and she are such pals, and as she has only to know that you are here to
+ jump over the tables to get to you, why not send your card to her?"</p>
+
+ <p>The agent agreed, and we watched the waiter threading his way among
+ the tables towards that one at which the new and grateful star was seated
+ and hand the card to her.</p>
+
+ <p>The end of this story is so tragic that I should prefer not to tell
+ it.</p>
+
+ <p>Ella Reeve took the card, read it, laid it down, and resumed
+ conversation with her friends. She did not even glance in our
+ direction.</p>
+
+ <p>I felt sorry for the agent, whose mortification was very real, though
+ he made a brave effort to carry it off; and now that he is dead I feel
+ sorrier. As for Ella Reeve (which is not really her name, but one which
+ with great ingenuity I devised for her from the French: thus, <i>Elle
+ arrive</i>) I often see her, under her true style, in her triumphs, and I
+ always wonder whether her treatment of the agent, or his assurance of her
+ dependence on his cordiality, represents more nearly the truth. She looks
+ such a good sort. Some day, when the War is over, I must acquire a shiny
+ tall hat and a glossy shirt front and a youthful manner and get someone
+ to introduce me, and then, bit by bit, extract the truth.</p>
+
+ <p>Meanwhile the fact remains that it is dangerous to boast.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter" style="width:40%;">
+ <a href="images/180.png"><img width="100%" src="images/180thumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <p><i>Tommy (back from Blighty)</i>. "YUS, I GRANT YER A BIT O' LEAVE'S
+ ALL RIGHT. BUT IT'S AWFUL DEPRESSIN', TOO, AT HOME&mdash;NOTHIN' BUT
+ WAR&mdash;WAR! IT GIVES YER THE FAIR 'UMP."</p>
+ </div>
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">"JAPANESE POLITICS.</p>
+
+<p class="center">PRIME MINISTER'S ATTACK ON THE
+DIET."&mdash;<i>Daily Paper.</i></p>
+
+ <p>We wouldn't be the Food Controller in Japan for anything.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <blockquote>"Wanted situation as Groom Coachman or Coachman General;
+ disengaged early in March; can milk and care motor if
+ required."&mdash;<i>Irish Paper</i>.</blockquote>
+
+ <p>A modern improvement, we suppose, on "the cow with the iron tail."</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <blockquote>"At a special meeting of the Duma held to-day, the Minister
+ for Agriculture, M. Rittich, in reply to an urgent question on the
+ measures for supplying Petrograd, stated the supplies were sufficient for
+ the present. Difficulties in purchase are due to excessive building and
+ storing by individuals in the shape of rusks."&mdash;<i>Daily
+ Chronicle</i>.</blockquote>
+
+ <p>No authority for this remarkable statement is given, but we suspect
+ the <i>Russky Invalid</i>.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <blockquote>"A trifle of a trinket for his women-folk is the only saving
+ as an insurance for the poor against famine and starvation for a rainless
+ day."&mdash;<i>A Native Writer in "The Times of India."</i></blockquote>
+
+ <p>KIPLING was right, East is East and West is West.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <blockquote>"The undersigned has great pleasure in informing all the
+ ladies, gentlemen and the other travellers in the Station that a very
+ nice comfortable motor car can be obtained on hire from him for a walk in
+ or out of the Station for any period of time at very reasonable
+ charges."&mdash;<i>Peshawar Daily News</i>.</blockquote>
+
+ <p>The petrol shortage evidently extends to India.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <blockquote>"Ireland is accustomed to disappointment; she is accustomed
+ to what she signalises as betrayal, but her spirit remains unbroken, and
+ she goes on her way undaunted to seek, it may be by new methods and a new
+ road, her appointed gaol."&mdash;<i>Manchester Guardian.</i></blockquote>
+
+ <p>Irishmen may justifiably resent this cynicism on the part of an old
+ friend.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" id="page181"></a>[pg 181]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter" style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/181a.png"><img width="100%" src="images/181athumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <h3>A MODIFIED SALIENT.</h3>
+
+ <p><i>The Old 'Un (surveying recently called-up warrior).</i> "WELL,
+ JARGE, YOU'M STILL TURR'BLE FAT, BUT THE ARMY DO ZEEM TO 'AVE
+ REARRANGED IT, LIKE."</p>
+ </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>GOLD BRAID.</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Same old crossing, same old boat,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Same old dust round Rouen way,</p>
+ <p>Same old narsty one-franc note,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Same old "Mercy, sivvoo play;"</p>
+ <p>Same old scramble up the line,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Same old 'orse-box, same old stror,</p>
+ <p>Same old weather, wet or fine,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Same old blooming War.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4"><i>Ho Lor, it isn't a dream,</i></p>
+ <p class="i6"><i>It's just as it used to be, every bit;</i></p>
+ <p class="i4"><i>Same old whistle and same old bang,</i></p>
+ <p class="i6"><i>And me to stay 'ere till I'm 'it.</i></p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>'Twas up by Loos I got me first;</p>
+ <p class="i2">I just dropped gently, crawled a yard</p>
+ <p>And rested sickish, with a thirst&mdash;</p>
+ <p class="i2">The 'eat, I thought, and smoking 'ard ...</p>
+ <p>Then someone offers me a drink,</p>
+ <p class="i2">What poets call "the cooling draft,"</p>
+ <p>And seeing 'im I done a think:</p>
+ <p class="i2">"<i>Blighty</i>," I thinks&mdash;and laughed.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I'm not a soldier natural,</p>
+ <p class="i2">No more than most of us to-day;</p>
+ <p>I runs a business with a pal</p>
+ <p class="i2">(Meaning the Missis) Fulham way;</p>
+ <p>Greengrocery&mdash;the cabbages</p>
+ <p class="i2">And fruit and things I take meself,</p>
+ <p>And she has daffs and crocuses</p>
+ <p class="i2">A-smiling on a shelf.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Blighty," I thinks. The doctor knows;</p>
+ <p class="i2">'E talks of punctured damn-the-things.</p>
+ <p>It's me for Blighty. Down I goes;</p>
+ <p class="i2">I ain't a singer, but I sings;</p>
+ <p>"Oh, 'oo goes 'ome?" I sort of 'ums;</p>
+ <p class="i2">"Oh, 'oo's for dear old England's shores?"</p>
+ <p>And by-and-by Southampton comes&mdash;</p>
+ <p> "Blighty!" I says and roars.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I s'pose I thort I done my bit;</p>
+ <p class="i2">I s'pose I thort the War would stop;</p>
+ <p>I saw myself a-getting fit</p>
+ <p class="i2">With Missis at the little shop;</p>
+ <p>The same like as it used to be,</p>
+ <p class="i2">The same old markets, same old crowd.</p>
+ <p>The same old marrers, same old me,</p>
+ <p class="i2">But 'er as proud as proud....</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The regiment is where it was,</p>
+ <p class="i2">I'm in the same old ninth platoon;</p>
+ <p>New faces most, and keen becos</p>
+ <p class="i2">They 'ope the thing is ending soon;</p>
+ <p>I ain't complaining, mind, but still,</p>
+ <p class="i2">When later on some newish bloke</p>
+ <p>Stops one and laughs, "A blighty, Bill,"</p>
+ <p class="i2">I'll wonder, "Where's the joke?"</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Same old trenches, same old view,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Same old rats and just as tame,</p>
+ <p>Same old dug-outs, nothing new,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Same old smell, the very same,</p>
+ <p>Same old bodies out in front,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Same old <i>strafe</i> from 2 till 4,</p>
+ <p>Same old scratching, same old 'unt,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Same old bloody War.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4"><i>Ho Lor, it isn't a dream,</i></p>
+ <p class="i6"><i>It's just as it used to be, every bit;</i></p>
+ <p class="i4"><i>Same old whistle and same old bang</i></p>
+ <p class="i6"><i>And me out again to be 'it.</i></p>
+ <p class="i16">A.A.M.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+<hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter" style="width:33%;">
+ <a href="images/181b.png"><img width="100%" src="images/181bthumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ THE NEW POSTER.
+ </div>
+<hr />
+
+ <blockquote>"The important now development in the cotton situation is
+ that the ½ Prime Minister has consented to receive a
+ deputation."&mdash;<i>Manchester Guardian.</i></blockquote>
+
+ <p>All the same, he refused to adopt a ½ measure.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <blockquote>"The history of the development of the ¾eppelin is
+ well-known."&mdash;<i>Daily Chronicle.</i></blockquote>
+
+ <p>Particularly since our airmen ceased to give it any quarter.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>From an official notice of the sale of an enemy business:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <blockquote>"Lot 2. The goodwill of the business of the company attaching
+ to goods shipped from England to Nigeria, marked with the unregistered or
+ common-law trade-marks known as 'Eagle on Rocks' and 'Lion and
+ Flag.'"</blockquote>
+
+ <p>We are not surprised to hear of the "Eagle on Rocks" when it had the
+ "Lion and Flag" after it.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>[pg 182]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter" style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/182.png"><img width="100%" src="images/182thumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <h3>TILLERS OF THE SOIL.</h3>
+
+ STUDY OF URBAN DWELLERS PREPARING FOR THE WORST.
+ </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE JOY-RIDER AT THE FRONT.</h3>
+
+ <blockquote>(<i>Being a free version of Mr. BERNARD SHAW'S articles in
+ "The Daily Chronicle" on his visit to the seat of War</i>.)</blockquote>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Since the good man, RAMSAY MACDONALD, while touring in the East</p>
+ <p>Went out to shoot the tiger, that homicidal beast,</p>
+ <p>The most electrifying humanitarian stunt</p>
+ <p>Has been my khaki joy-ride along the British Front.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"It wasn't my own suggestion; I went as the Government's guest,</p>
+ <p>Invited to see how the brass-hats were running the show on the West;</p>
+ <p>I've never been sweet on soldiers, but I only went for a week,</p>
+ <p>And it gave me heaps of chances of studying war technique.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"If they really thought to convert me by the loan of a khaki suit,</p>
+ <p>Or by conferring upon me the right to claim a salute,</p>
+ <p>It wouldn't at all surprise me, for dullards have always tried</p>
+ <p>To bribe true men of genius to take the popular side.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Well, I went, I saw, I 'joy-rode,' and my verdict remains the same;</p>
+ <p>There's no use having a country unless she's always to blame;</p>
+ <p>For of all the appalling prospects that human life can lend</p>
+ <p>The worst is to be unable to play the candid friend.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Men talk of France, the Martyr; of her precious blood outpoured;</p>
+ <p>Of the innocent helpless victims of the brutal Hunnish horde;</p>
+ <p>Presuming, insensate idiots, to label as beast and brute</p>
+ <p>The race that has always held me in the very highest repute!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"While France has failed completely, at least in those later days,</p>
+ <p>To show appreciation of my Prefaces and Plays;</p>
+ <p>It wouldn't be therefore worthy of a genuine superman</p>
+ <p>To show undue compassion for the sorrows of 'Marianne.'</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"And as for the sheer destruction of noble and ancient fanes</p>
+ <p>Which the prejudiced Hun-hater indignantly arraigns,</p>
+ <p>The simple truth compels me in honesty to state</p>
+ <p>That the style of some ruined buildings was utterly second-rate.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"But to quit these trivial matters&mdash;let weaklings wail and weep,</p>
+ <p>The loss of a few cathedrals will never affect my sleep&mdash;</p>
+ <p>What lifts this Armageddon to an altitude sublime</p>
+ <p>Is the crowning fact that it gave me a perfectly glorious time.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"As an ultra-neutral observer I entered the battle zone</p>
+ <p>And emerged unmoved, unshaken, with a heart as cool as a stone;</p>
+ <p>No sight could touch or daunt me, no sound my soul untune;</p>
+ <p>From pity or tears or sorrow I still remained immune.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"I own that before my arrival I felt an occasional qualm</p>
+ <p>Lest the shock of the unexpected might shatter my wonted calm;</p>
+ <p>But it gave me the richest rapture to find I was wholly free</p>
+ <p>From the crude and vulgar emotions that harass the plain V.C.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"I inspected the great war-engine, and, instead of its going strong,</p>
+ <p>I saw that in each of its workings there was always something wrong;</p>
+ <p>In fact, with the old black powder and the obsolete Brown Bess</p>
+ <p>The chances of missing your target were infinitely less.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"The so-called arm of precision scores only by lucky hits,</p>
+ <p>Though the 'heavies' and high explosives may possibly blow you to bits;</p>
+ <p>I saw one corpse on my 'joy-ride,' the head had been blown away,</p>
+ <p>And the thought of this painless ending produced in me no dismay."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Now he's back in the finest feather from his holiday with the Staff,</i></p>
+ <p><i>And we're sure that no one will grudge him the meed of this epitaph:</i></p>
+ <p><i>"He went through the fiery furnace, but never a hair was missed</i></p>
+ <p><i>From the heels of our most colossal Arch-Super-Egotist."</i></p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">"GREAT WHITE SALE.</p>
+
+<p class="center">UNREPEATABLE BARGAINS IN LINGERIE."&mdash;<i>Daily Paper.</i></p>
+
+ <p>We respect this reticence.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <blockquote>"The public are responding but slowly to the appeal of the
+ Post Office to facilitate the delay of correspondence in London by using
+ the new numbered addresses."&mdash;<i>Daily Mail.</i></blockquote>
+
+ <p>If that is really the object, why hurry?</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>[pg 183]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter" style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/183.png"><img width="100%" src="images/183thumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <h2>CANCELLED</h2>
+
+ BY ORDER OF THE COMPETENT MILITARY AUTHORITY.
+ </div>
+<hr />
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" id="page184"></a>[pg 184]</span>
+
+<h3>ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.</h3>
+
+ <p><i>Monday, March 12th.</i>&mdash;Having declared war upon the
+ Government the Nationalists are seeking a suitable plan of campaign. The
+ Home Rule demand never obtained much support among the Irish farmers
+ until FINTAN LALOR hitched it on to the Land question, and ever since Mr.
+ WYNDHAM'S Land Purchase Act turned the tenants into prospective owners it
+ has been steadily losing momentum. Mr. GINNELL, who made his reputation
+ as a perverse species of cowboy, now witnesses with grim satisfaction the
+ efforts of his colleagues to borrow his policy and break up the grass
+ farms. It was rather hard on him that the Parliamentary printer should
+ have ruined one of his questions on the subject by making him say "that
+ the reason"&mdash;instead of the season&mdash;"for breaking this land is
+ passing away."</p>
+
+ <p>The HOME SECRETARY is regarded by those who do not know him intimately
+ as a somewhat austere person, but given the right atmosphere he can be as
+ lively as anybody. Questioned about the reopening of Ciro's, he betrayed
+ a minute acquaintance with the details of its programme. I was beginning
+ to wonder if he were related to that famous Early-Victorian family, the
+ Caves of Harmony, when his knowledge broke down. On being asked by his
+ old friend Mr. BUTCHER to define a cabaret-entertainment he was
+ nonplussed, and could only refer him to Colonel LOCKWOOD as a probable
+ authority.</p>
+
+ <p>No one was more delighted at Mr. BONAR LAW'S announcement of the
+ capture of Baghdad than the Member for Cockermouth, who knows the region
+ well. Mesopotamia may or may not be the Garden of Eden, but Baghdad was
+ at one time unquestionably the abode of BLISS.</p>
+
+ <p>Mr. CATHCART WASON was a little puzzled when Mr. FORSTER informed him
+ that the peeling of potatoes by Army cooks is strictly forbidden, "except
+ when the dietary of the troops makes it necessary." Why should there be
+ any exception at all, he wondered, until a neighbour, better informed
+ about the new meat-ration, whispered, "Sausages and <i>mashed</i>."</p>
+
+ <p>A grave statement by Mr. MACPHERSON as to the recent losses of the
+ Royal Flying Corps on the Western Front, and the increased activity of
+ the German airmen, created some natural depression, which might have been
+ more pronounced had not Mr. PEMBERTON-BILLING seized the occasion to
+ reiterate his charges of "Murder" already condemned as baseless by two
+ judicial tribunals. The House will do anything in reason, but it refuses
+ to accompany Mr. BILLING in his flights of imagination.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Tuesday, March 13th.</i>&mdash;In the Lords, the Bill to deprive
+ enemy peers of their titles was supported by Lord MIDLETON, who nobly
+ offered to sacrifice his Red Eagle on the altar of patriotism. On the
+ other hand Lord COURTNEY condemned it; but there is no truth in the story
+ that the Yellow Waistcoat which he habitually wears was originally
+ conferred upon him by the KAISER. It is, I understand, an example of
+ protective colouring, designed to ward off the attacks of the Yellow
+ Press.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Wednesday, March 14th.</i>&mdash;The explosive qualities of cotton
+ when suitably combined with other ingredients are well known. Of these
+ ingredients the Lancashire spirit is perhaps the most potent. Mr. AUSTEN
+ CHAMBERLAIN began his defence of the proposed Indian cotton duties with
+ an appeal to Imperial sentiment based upon what India had done and was
+ doing. The Maharajah of BIKANIR, seated in the Distinguished Strangers'
+ Gallery, listened with appreciation to the praises of his famous Camel
+ Corps. Then followed what might be called the Home Rule argument&mdash;we
+ could not refuse what the Indian people so much desired&mdash;delivered
+ with so much earnestness that Mr. JEREMIAH MACVEAGH loudly invited Mr.
+ CHAMBERLAIN to "come over and sit on these benches."</p>
+
+ <div class="figright" style="width:50%;">
+ <a href="images/184.png"><img width="100%" src="images/184thumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <p>MEGAPHONES FOR MINISTERS. A SUGGESTION FROM THE PRESS GALLERY.</p>
+ </div>
+ <p>But his best card was his last, when, after a tribute to Mr. ASQUITH'S
+ "loyalty to colleagues," which roused tremendous cheering from the
+ Liberals, he invited the late Prime Minister to cast his vote with the
+ Government. Mr. ASQUITH did even more, for at the end of a speech,
+ critical but not censorious, he suggested an amendment to the Resolution
+ which enabled his Free Trade followers to "save their face." A few
+ stalwarts from Lancashire insisted none the less on taking a division,
+ and were joined on general principles by the Nationalists and other
+ habitual malcontents. But India, the Government and Mr. ASQUITH had the
+ comfortable majority of 140.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Thursday, March 15th.</i>&mdash;Under the present rules of
+ procedure (the products of Irish obstruction in the past) the
+ Nationalists find it difficult to put their declaration of war against
+ the Government to much effect. Their best chance comes during the first
+ hour of the sitting, and their most useful weapon is the Supplementary
+ Question. No sooner has Mr. DUKE read the official reply to the inquiry
+ on the Paper than there comes a strident "Arising out of that, Mr.
+ SPEAKER-R." Fortunately the CHIEF SECRETARY possesses a Job-like
+ patience, and is rarely betrayed into any departure from his polite if
+ somewhat ponderous manner. To badger Mr. BIRRELL was an exciting pastime
+ rather like punching the ball. To heckle Mr. DUKE is like hammering a
+ sandbag.</p>
+
+ <p>It would be interesting to know how many Members of the House of
+ Commons have volunteered under the National Service scheme. I only know
+ of one; that is Dr. MACNAMARA, who modestly avowed the fact when
+ challenged by Mr. PRINGLE, though I doubt whether the Admiralty will
+ consent to dispense with his services. On the other hand I only know of
+ one who has not; and that is Mr. PRINGLE himself, who, on the same
+ challenge being put to him, replied, "No, and don't intend." There is
+ evidently someone, possibly Mr. HOGGE, who thinks Mr. PRINGLE'S present
+ services indispensable to the winning of the War.</p>
+
+ <p>The debate on the new Vote of Credit dragged along in a thin and
+ somnolent House until Mr. BONAR LAW woke it up with the startling news
+ that there had been a revolution in Russia, and that the TSAR had
+ abdicated. Everybody seemed pleased, including Mr. DEVLIN, who was quite
+ statesmanlike in his appreciation. But no one noticed that henceforward
+ we must rank the late Sir HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN among the prophets.
+ Addressing the Members of the Inter-parliamentary Conference assembled in
+ the Palace of Westminster on July 23rd, 1906, just after the dissolution
+ of Russia's first elected Parliament, he said, "<i>La Duma est morte;
+ vive la Duma!</i>" For a Prime Minister this outburst was regarded as a
+ little tactless; its essential wisdom has been justified by the
+ event.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Friday, March 16th.</i>&mdash;To-morrow being St. Patrick's Day,
+ Mr. BONAR LAW seized the opportunity to address a little homily to
+ Members from Ireland. Unless they mend their ways pretty soon they may
+ have to go back to their constituents and tackle the Sinn Feiners
+ themselves.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>WINGED VICTORY.</h3>
+
+<p class="center">"<i>Per ardua ad astra.</i>"</p>
+
+<p class="center">"One of our machines did not return."</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I like to think it did not fall to earth,</p>
+ <p class="i2">A wounded bird that trails a broken wing,</p>
+ <p>But to the heavenly blue that gave it birth</p>
+ <p class="i2">Faded in silence, a mysterious thing,</p>
+ <p>Cleaving its radiant course where honour lies,</p>
+ <p>Like a winged victory mounting to the skies.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The clouds received it and the pathless night;</p>
+ <p class="i2">Swift as a flame, its eager force unspent,</p>
+ <p>We saw no limit to its daring flight;</p>
+ <p class="i2">Only its pilot knew the way it went,</p>
+ <p>And how it pierced the maze of flickering stars</p>
+ <p>Straight to its goal in the red planet Mars.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>So to the entrance of that fiery gate,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Borne by no current, driven by no breeze,</p>
+ <p>Knowing no guide but some compelling fate,</p>
+ <p class="i2">Bold navigators of uncharted seas,</p>
+ <p>Courage and youth went proudly sweeping by,</p>
+ <p>To win the unchallenged freedom of the sky.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page185" id="page185"></a>[pg 185]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter" style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/185.png"><img width="100%" src="images/185thumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <p><i>Curate (to unfailing supporter).</i> "OH, MISS TOOTSBY, IT'S GOOD
+ TO SEE YOU HERE AGAIN. IT WOULDN'T SEEM LIKE A JUMBLE SALE WITHOUT
+ YOU."</p>
+ </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>HEART-TO-HEART TALKS.</h3>
+
+ <p>(<i>Enter PASHA and the Sultan of TURKEY.</i>)</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Sultan.</i> Then you want me to press the GERMAN KAISER to come
+ to Constantinople and pay me a visit. Is that it?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Enver.</i> Yes, your Majesty, that is about it. It would produce a
+ splendid effect on the populace and would electrify the soldiers.</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Sultan.</i> But I've already told you that I cordially dislike
+ this KAISER of yours. Wherever he goes he turns everything upside down,
+ and there's not a moment's peace or repose for anybody. He must have
+ reviews of troops morning, noon and night, and it's all quite useless,
+ for our Generals tell me that he doesn't really understand anything about
+ soldiers and their movements. You know they've had to keep him away from
+ the fighting, both in France and Russia, because he would insist on
+ giving the most absurd orders, and when things didn't go right
+ immediately he always broke out into shouting and cursing, and praying
+ and crying until his Staff felt so ashamed of him and themselves that
+ they didn't know which way to look. There's never any knowing what a man
+ like that will do. He's as likely as not to want to preach a sermon in
+ St. Sophia, or to ride his horse up the steps of the Palace.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Enver.</i> These are certainly faults, but they are the faults of
+ an enthusiastic nature.</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Sultan.</i> Well, I don't like that kind of enthusiastic
+ nature. I prefer something quieter. Besides, I am told that his behaviour
+ in the house and his table-manners are dreadful. He's quite capable, if
+ he doesn't like a dish, of throwing it at the attendants. Then he gets so
+ angry when people don't agree with him; the least contradiction makes him
+ purple, absolutely purple, with passion. My dear ENVER, you would have to
+ pretend you knew nothing about Turkey when you talked with him&mdash;at
+ any rate nothing in comparison with his knowledge&mdash;and I'm sure you
+ wouldn't like that; nobody would. No, I can't say the prospect of having
+ him here as my guest allures me, but of course, if you say it <i>must</i>
+ be done, I'm ready to sacrifice myself. Only I warn you it will spoil
+ everything for me to have him here prancing about in a Turkish
+ uniform.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Enver.</i> I didn't know your Majesty's feelings were so strong on
+ the subject. Perhaps it will not, after all, be necessary. I will see
+ what can be done.</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Sultan.</i> Yes, do, there's a good fellow. If I had to
+ entertain that man for a week I should suffer from indigestion for the
+ rest of my life.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Enver.</i> If possible we will see that your Majesty is spared such
+ an affliction. With your Majesty's leave I will now withdraw.</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Sultan.</i> Do by all means. No&mdash;stop; you haven't given
+ me any of the War news. I keep on asking for it, but nobody pays any
+ attention to my requests. Honestly, I don't see much use in being a
+ Sultan if one can't get anyone to do what one asks.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Enver.</i> Oh, you want to hear some War news, do you? Well, I may
+ as well tell you now as later. Baghdad's gone.</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Sultan.</i> What&mdash;captured?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Enver.</i> Yes, the infernal English have got it.</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Sultan.</i> I knew it was bound to happen. I told you so only
+ last Tuesday&mdash;at least, if it wasn't you it was somebody else.
+ "Baghdad," I said, "is sure to be captured. The English are in great
+ force, and if we don't watch it carefully they're sure to snatch it from
+ us." That's what I said; but you wouldn't have it. You were all so
+ cock-sure, and now where are you?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Enver.</i> Who can fight against treachery?</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Sultan.</i> Treachery? It's simply stupidity and incompetence.
+ You and your KAISER keep patting one another on the back, and then one
+ fine morning you wake up and discover that Baghdad has fallen. ENVER,
+ you'll find it rather difficult to explain this to the people. They know
+ my advice hasn't counted for anything in this; they'll put it all down to
+ you; and you can't murder them all, as you murdered poor old NAZIM.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Enver.</i> Silence, or&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Sultan.</i> Yes, I know, but I will not keep silence. Rather, I
+ will ask again, why have you sent my best regiments to help the Austrians
+ and Germans on their own fronts? Even I could have managed better than
+ that. And why are we fighting in this War at all? Answer me that.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Enver.</i> We fight for the greatness of Turkey.</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Sultan.</i> Well, we don't seem very successful. It was a good
+ deal bigger before we lost Erzerum and Baghdad...</p>
+
+ <p>(<i>Left wrangling.</i>)</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4>Conscience-Money?</h4>
+
+ <blockquote>"The Commissioners of Inland Revenue acknowledge the receipt
+ of first half of £100 note from 'Berlin.'"&mdash;<i>Daily
+ Paper.</i></blockquote>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <blockquote>"Half-a-dozen deer escaped from Hatfield Park some weeks ago
+ through a gate having been carelessly left open. A wholesale clearance of
+ vegetables followed in the district, and the damage was so serious that,
+ with the Marquis of Salisbury's approval, shooting parties of farmers
+ went out, and the raiders have now been run to
+ earth."&mdash;<i>Manchester Paper.</i></blockquote>
+
+ <p>It looks as if they were only rabbits, after all.</p>
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page186" id="page186"></a>[pg 186]</span>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>AT THE PLAY.</h3>
+
+<p class="center">"REMNANT."</p>
+
+ <p>I wish now that I had not been compelled to postpone my visit to the
+ Royalty, for I think the fall of Baghdad must have put me a bit above
+ myself. Anyhow, I was less moved than usual by the triumph of virtue and
+ the downing of vice; and permitted myself to wonder how a play like
+ <i>Remnant</i> ever found its way into the Royalty (of all theatres), and
+ what Mr. DENNIS EADIE (of all actors) was doing in this galley, this
+ melted-butter boat. And indeed there were moments when I could see that
+ Mr. EADIE himself shared my wonder, if I rightly interpreted certain
+ signs of indifference and detachment in his performance. I even suspected
+ a sinister intention in the title, though, of course, Messrs. MORTON and
+ NICCODEMI didn't really get their play off in the course of a bargain
+ sale of superannuated goods.</p>
+
+ <p>Apart from the Second Act, where Miss MARIE LÖHR (looking rather like
+ a nice Dutch doll) delivered the blunt gaucheries of <i>Remnant</i> with
+ a delightfully stolid naïveté, the design of the play and its simple
+ little devices might almost have been the work of amateurs. The sordid
+ quarrels between <i>Tony</i> and his preposterous mistress (whom I took
+ to be a model, till I found that he was only an artist in steam
+ locomotives) were extraordinarily lacking in subtlety. In all this
+ Bohemian business one looked in vain for a touch of the art of MURGER.
+ What would one not have given for something even distantly reminiscent of
+ the <i>Juliet</i> scene&mdash;"<i>et le pigeon chantait toujours</i>"?
+ And it wasn't as if this was supposed to be a sham Americanised
+ <i>quartier</i> of to-day. We were in the true period&mdash;under Louis
+ PHILIPPE. Indeed I know no other reason (costumes always excepted) why
+ the scene was the Paris of 1840. For the purposes of the play <i>Tony</i>
+ might just as well have been a British designer of tanks (London, 1916).
+ Nor was there anything even conventionally French about the girl
+ <i>Remnant</i>, who might have been born next-door to Bow Bells.</p>
+
+ <div class="figright" style="width:33%;">
+ <a href="images/186a.png"><img width="100%" src="images/186athumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <p>REMNANT BARGAIN DAY.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Tony</i> ... MR. DENNIS EADIE.</p>
+
+ <p>"<i>Remnant</i>" ... MISS MARIE LÖHR.</p>
+ </div>
+ <p>Miss MARIE LÖHR was the life and soul of the party. Her true comedy
+ manner, when she was serious, was always fascinating. She said with great
+ discretion her little Barriesque piece about the desirability of babies,
+ and she did all she knew to keep the sentiment from being too
+ sickly-sweet. Here she had strong assistance from Mr. EADIE as her lover
+ <i>Tony</i>; for, though he got a fine flash out of the green eye of
+ jealousy when he suspected his patron, <i>Jules</i>, of jumping his
+ love-claim, it was obvious at the end that the success of his
+ professional ambitions was far more to him than any affair of the heart.
+ And, after all, when <i>Remnant</i> complained of a curious
+ <i>bourdonnement</i> in her ears, and <i>Tony</i> had to reply solemnly,
+ "That which you hear is the beating of your heart to the music of your
+ soul," you could hardly expect a man with Mr. EADIE'S sense of humour to
+ throw much conviction into the statement.</p>
+
+ <p>Mr. C.M. LOWNE was a very passable <i>beau</i>, and made love to
+ <i>Remnant</i> with that rich fruitiness of voice of which he is a past
+ master. It was her business (as she explained to <i>Tony</i> when he
+ surprised their two faces within kissing distance of each other) to keep
+ <i>Jules</i> in good humour since <i>Tony's</i> chances depended upon his
+ patronage. But it couldn't have helped much to tell <i>Jules</i> with
+ such appalling candour that the shiver produced by his kiss was the same
+ kind as she had once felt when a rat ran over her face during sleep.
+ However, <i>Jules</i> was not a <i>beau</i> for nothing and could afford
+ this exceptional set-back to one of his many amours. There was, by the
+ way, an excellent little comedy scene between him and his wife, played by
+ Miss MURIEL POPE with a quiet humour as piquant as her gown.</p>
+
+ <p>As <i>Manon</i>, the querulous termagant that <i>Tony</i> had taken
+ for mistress, Miss HILDA MOORE was not very kindly served by her
+ part&mdash;so rudimentary that its highest flight was achieved when, with
+ a Parthian shot, she referred to <i>Tony</i> as a geni-ass.</p>
+
+ <p>I will not forecast a limited success for this play, for who would
+ dare to say that there is not always room in the broad British bosom for
+ yet another triumph of sentiment over ideas&mdash;I speak of the play
+ itself and not of the performance? If only for Miss LÖHR'S sake I could
+ wish that the best of fortune may attend it; for to have worn her hair as
+ she did in the Second Act, out of regard for the period, was a sacrifice
+ as fine as any that women have shown in the course of Armageddon (if I
+ may judge of them by their portraits in the Photographic Press), and she
+ ought to have her reward, bless her
+ heart!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;O.S.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">"GENERAL POST."</p>
+
+ <p>It would be easy to make fun of the exaggerations and
+ ultra-simplifications of Mr. TERRY'S new comedy. It is much pleasanter
+ (and juster) to dwell on its wholesomeness, its easy humour and its
+ effect of honest entertainment. Not a highbrow adventure, it is not to be
+ judged by highbrow standards. It is decently in key, and an exceptionally
+ clever cast carried it adroitly over any rough places. Remarkable, too,
+ as almost the first popular testimonial since the War began to the
+ too-much-taken-for-granted Territorials, who worked in the old days while
+ we scoffed and golfed. That's all to the good.</p>
+
+ <div class="figright" style="width:66%;">
+ <a href="images/186b.png"><img width="100%" src="images/186bthumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <p>THE TAILOR WHO DID NOT NEED TO PRESS HIS SUIT.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Sir Dennys Broughton</i> ... MR. NORMAN MCKINNEL.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Lady Broughton</i> ... MISS LILIAN BRAITHWAITE.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Edward Smith (tailor)</i> ... MR. GEORGE TULLY.</p>
+ </div>
+ <p>Our author's hero is an excellent provincial tailor, who is also keen
+ <i>Captain Smith</i> in the Sheffingham Terriers. As tailor his chief
+ customer, as soldier his contemptuous scandalised critic, is <i>Sir
+ Dennys Broughton</i>, whose wayward flapper daughter <i>Betty</i> is in
+ the early fierce stages of revolt against the stuffiness of life at
+ Grange Court, meets <i>Smith</i> over some boys' club work, and, finding
+ brains and dreams in him (a formidable contrast to her loafing brother),
+ falls into passionate first-love. <i>Smith</i> is just as badly if more
+ soberly hit, and recognising the impossibility of the situation (quite
+ apart from demonstrations by the alarmed <i>Broughtons</i>) decides to
+ take his tape and shears to his London house of business. The date of all
+ this being about the time of the misguided <i>Panther's</i> fateful leap
+ on Agadir.</p>
+
+ <p>Act II. brings us to the second year of the War. Young
+ <i>Broughton</i>, puppy no longer, is gloriously in it, and has just been
+ gazetted to a Territorial regiment whose Colonel bears the not uncommon
+ name of Smith. Our tailor, of course, and a rattling fine soldier too.
+ Having discovered this latter fact and also formed a remarkably cordial
+ relationship apparently in a single day, the enthusiastic cub subaltern
+ (distemper and snobbishness over and done with) motors up his C.O., who
+ is visiting his brother and partner, and brings him in to Grange Court on
+ the way. <i>Sir Dennys</i>, now a brassarded private and otherwise a
+ converted man, is still confoundedly embarrassed, and stands anything but
+ easy in the presence of his youngster's Colonel. <i>Lady Broughton</i>,
+ least malleable of the group, is frankly appalled by this new
+ <i>mésalliance</i>. Perhaps Mr. TERRY'S version of blue-blooded insolence
+ and fatuity is for his stage purpose rather crudely coloured, but who
+ shall say <span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" id="page187"></a>[pg
+ 187]</span> that the doctrine that a man in khaki who has been an
+ elementary schoolmaster or a tailor is a man for a' that, is quite
+ universally accepted in the best circles even in this year of grace?
+ <i>Betty</i>, now a grown girl in the cynical stage, revenges herself
+ with feline savagery on the knight of the shears for the imagined slight
+ of his defection.</p>
+
+ <p>Act III. is dated 19? just after peace is declared. The tailor is not
+ (as I half expected) back in his shop, but a <i>Brigadier-General Smith,
+ V.C.</i>, is being invested with the freedom of Sheffingham and is making
+ a spirited attack on the defences of <i>Betty</i>. She puts up enough of
+ a fight to ensure a good Third Act, and capitulates charmingly to the
+ delight, now, of all the <i>Broughton</i> household&mdash;butler
+ included. I hope Mr. TERRY is right and that the places taken in this
+ great war game of <i>General Post</i> and the values registered will have
+ permanence.</p>
+
+ <p>I won't deny that the excellent moral of the play goes far to disarm
+ one's critical faculty. Why not confess that one lost one's heart to the
+ nicest tailor since <i>Evan Harrington</i>? Indeed, Mr. TULLY (always, I
+ find, quite admirable in characterisation, and that no mere matter of
+ outward trick, but duly charged with feeling) made just such a decent,
+ lovable, sideless officer as it has been the pride of the nation of
+ shopkeepers to produce in the day of challenge. Whoever was it dared cast
+ Mr. MCKINNEL for the part of a weak kindly old ass of a baronet, without
+ any ruggedness or violence in his composition? Congratulations to the
+ unknown perspicacious hero and to Mr. MCKINNEL! Miss MADGE TITHERADGE
+ flapped prettily as a flapper; bit cleanly and cruelly in her biting
+ mood; surrendered most engagingly. This is less than justice. She used
+ her queer caressing voice and her reserves of emotional power to fine
+ effect. Miss LILIAN BRAITHWAITE made her <i>Lady Broughton</i> nearly
+ credible and less "unsympathetic" than was just. Mr. DANIELL is new to
+ me. He played one of those difficult foil parts with a really nice
+ discretion.</p>
+
+ <p>The audience was genuinely pleased. It dragged from the author a
+ becomingly modest acknowledgment. He <i>did</i> owe a great deal to his
+ players, but a writer of stage plays need not be ashamed of that. T.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter" style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/187.png"><img width="100%" src="images/187thumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <p><i>Ethel (playing at grown-ups).</i> "IS YOUR HUSBAND IN THE WAR,
+ MRS. BROWN?" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Mabel.</i> "OH YES, OF
+ COURSE, MRS. SMITH."</p>
+
+ <p><i>Ethel.</i> "IS HE IN FRANCE?" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+ <i>Mabel.</i> "NO, HE'S IN THE WAR LOAN."</p>
+ </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE PLOT PRECAUTIONARY.</h3>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>The KAISER addresses his Transatlantic Faithful.</i>)</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">Ye stalwart Huns and strident,</p>
+ <p class="i8">Who can't come home again,</p>
+ <p class="i4">Because base Albion's trident,</p>
+ <p class="i8">Though largely on the wane,</p>
+ <p>Still occupies successfully the surface of the main;</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">Give ear, my gallant fellows,</p>
+ <p class="i8">While I the truth declare;</p>
+ <p class="i4">Britain's expiring bellows</p>
+ <p class="i8">Will shortly rend the air;</p>
+ <p>Wiping the earth up then will be a simplified affair.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">But, while at home our Hunnish</p>
+ <p class="i8">Valour obtains the day,</p>
+ <p class="i4">It must be yours to punish</p>
+ <p class="i8">The craven U.S.A.,</p>
+ <p>Debouching on them unawares from Sinaloa way.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">I make the rough suggestion,</p>
+ <p class="i8">And it shall be your care</p>
+ <p class="i4">To solve the minor question</p>
+ <p class="i8">Of how and when and where,</p>
+ <p>Aided by Gen. CARRANZA, the party with the hair.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">Some pesos and centavos</p>
+ <p class="i8">He will of course demand</p>
+ <p class="i4">Before he leads his bravos</p>
+ <p class="i8">Across the Rio Grande;</p>
+ <p>Offer the fellow all he wants&mdash;in German notes of hand.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">Meanwhile the Hyphenated,</p>
+ <p class="i8">Busy with bomb and knife,</p>
+ <p class="i4">Will likewise hand the hated</p>
+ <p class="i8">Gringos a taste of strife,</p>
+ <p>Starting with Colonel ROOSEVELT and the Editor of <i>Life</i>.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">These are, in brief, the vistas</p>
+ <p class="i8">That swim before my ken;</p>
+ <p class="i4">So tell the Carranzistas</p>
+ <p class="i8">To up and act like men;</p>
+ <p>And say the money's coming on, but do not mention when.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">Bid them with sword and fire wreck</p>
+ <p class="i8">The pale Pacific West;</p>
+ <p class="i4">And tell SYLVESTER VIERECK</p>
+ <p class="i8">And BARTHOLDT and the rest</p>
+ <p>To call the Lagerbund to arms and jump on WILSON'S chest.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">There'll be some opposition&mdash;</p>
+ <p class="i8">That I can quite foresee;</p>
+ <p class="i4">But bear in mind your mission</p>
+ <p class="i8">Must primarily be</p>
+ <p>To keep the swine-dog Yankees from jumping on to <i>me</i>!</p>
+ <p class="i16">ALGOL.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4>Our Commercial Stylists.</h4>
+
+<p class="center">"&mdash;, SONS &amp; CO., LTD.,</p>
+
+<p class="center">ARE SHOWING A DELIGHTFUL RANGE OF CORSETS,
+EMBRACING THE MOST APPROVED MODELS."&mdash;<i>Glasgow Herald.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Dover: Gas up 5d. a 1,000.</p>
+ <p>Tunbridge Wells: Gas up 2d. a 1,000.</p>
+ <p>Lord Selborne is up again, after a chill."&mdash;<i>Evening News.</i></p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>Good, but how much?</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page188" id="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span>
+
+<h3>OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.</h3>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerics.</i>)</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Snare</i> (SECKER) impressed me as a tale emphatically
+ prededicate to the footlights. Actually, by the way, Mr. RAFAEL SABATINI
+ has dedicated it "to LEON M. LEON, who told me this story"&mdash;which,
+ of course, only strengthens my belief. Anyhow, it has every mark of the
+ romantic drama&mdash;a picturesque setting, that of the Peninsular War,
+ rich in possibilities for the scenic and sartorial arts; and a strongly
+ emotional plot, leading up to a situation that could be relied upon to
+ bring down the house. I shall, of course, not tell you the plot. It
+ contains a jealous husband, an injudicious wife, a hero and heroine, a
+ villain (of foreign extraction) and a god in the machine, who is none
+ other than our IRON DUKE himself. And the situation in the last Act
+ offers as pretty a piece of table-turning as any audience need desire. I
+ wish I could explain how the DUKE plays with his enemies, and
+ finally&mdash;but no, I said I wouldn't, and I will keep my word. Two
+ little carpings, however. Surely it is wrong to speak of "catch
+ half-penny" journalism in the time of WELLINGTON. My impression is that
+ the journalists of those days caught at least fourpence by their wares.
+ And I confess to an emotion of disappointment when the heroine bounced up
+ at the court-martial and said that the hero couldn't have committed the
+ murder because he was "in her arms" at the time. Of course he hadn't
+ been; and I very much doubt whether any Court would have believed her for
+ two minutes. But leading ladies love saying it, so I suppose the very
+ out-worn device will have to be retained in the stage version. I look
+ forward to this with much pleasure.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>That clever lady, ELINOR MORDAUNT, has collected into the volume that
+ she calls <i>Before Midnight</i> (CASSELL) a series of short stories of a
+ psychic (though not always ghostly) character, which, while not very
+ eerie, or on the same high level, are at their best both original and
+ impressive. The first of them, which affords excuse for a
+ highly-intriguing cover-picture, is at once the most spooksome and the
+ least satisfactory. That is to say that, though it opens with a genuine
+ and quite horrible thrill, the "explanation" is obscure and tame. Far
+ more successful, to my mind, is "The Vision," a delicate little idyll of
+ a Midland schoolmarm, to whom is shown the death of Adonis and the
+ lamenting of his goddess-lover. The writing of this touches real beauty
+ (the high-fantastic, instead of the merely high-falutin', which in such
+ connection would have been so fatally easy). To sum up, though one at
+ least of these "dreams before midnight" may quite possibly become a
+ nightmare after it, I fancy that, to all lovers of the occult, the game
+ will be found well worth the bed-room candle.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>There are qualities in <i>The Bird of Life</i>, by GERTRUDE VAUGHAN
+ (CHAPMAN AND HALL), which cause me to look forward to this lady's future
+ work with very considerable interest. In the present novel she sets out
+ the life story of <i>Rachel</i> up to a point boldly given as being
+ beyond the conclusion of the War, in which, by the way, both her husband
+ and the man whom she ought to have married are killed on the same day.
+ The first eighty-four pages of the book raised my hopes very high. They
+ describe with great simplicity and sympathy the thoughts and feelings,
+ the romances and difficulties, of an affectionate and lonely little girl
+ living with her <i>Uncle Matthew</i> and her <i>Aunt Elizabeth</i>, and
+ loving them both with a childlike fervour. There is no exaggeration; the
+ writing goes true to its mark, and the effect designed by the writer is
+ admirably well made. Then <i>Uncle Matthew</i> dies and <i>Rachel</i>
+ finds a new home in the Vicarage of <i>Mr. Venning</i>, a family man if
+ ever there was one, for he has fifteen children. From this point the
+ interest is slightly diluted, and the excellence of the book diminishes.
+ One does not recognise in the more mature <i>Rachel</i> the girl one had
+ expected to find after one's initiation into the secrets of her baby
+ mind. She marries <i>Edward Venning</i>, and finds too late that he is,
+ like his father, made up of convention and narrowness. She plans a
+ disappearance, and leaves some of her belongings on the edge of a
+ bottomless tarn. Then, being hypothetically dead, she begins to live her
+ life in her own way. Later on she returns to <i>Edward</i>, "on approval
+ for six months"; but this period was apparently not sufficient to break
+ the chain that bound her to Another, and, the War intervening, she is
+ left almost doubly widowed. I feel that I have not quite done justice to
+ Miss VAUGHAN'S book, but, on the other hand, I am sure that she has not
+ quite done justice to her unquestionable talent.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>A volume entitled <i>Friends of France: The Field Service of the
+ American Ambulance</i> (SMITH, ELDER) has appeared in a happy hour to
+ remind one, if that were necessary, that in the great nation that awaits
+ Mr. WILSON'S call there have always been found some eager to give their
+ services and, if need be, life itself to prove their love for the other
+ great Republic. I don't think either you or I will grudge such an
+ affection at this date, founded historically though it may be on a mutual
+ dislike of ourselves, and consequently it is a very pleasant impression
+ that is produced by this record of American efficiency and courage in Red
+ Cross work on the French front. This being clearly remembered one need
+ not be afraid to admit that in detail the book will be of interest mainly
+ to the friends of those concerned, since the method of multiple
+ authorship adopted necessarily involves overlapping, and a good deal of
+ the volume is given up to monotonous, though undoubtedly well-earned,
+ "tributes and citations" from the French authorities. Neither is the bulk
+ of the matter, most generously illustrated though it is, particularly
+ intriguing, for by now one is sufficiently familiar with accounts of the
+ removal of wounded under fire and the sort of work at which these four
+ hundred American University men proved themselves so adept at
+ half-a-dozen points between Flanders and Alsace. Americans, long at odds
+ with "ruthlessness" (and at last forced to the inevitable logical
+ conclusion in regard to it), may well be glad to be able to point,
+ amongst other creditable things, to this history of service given without
+ hesitation in acknowledgment of their debt to the civilisation of the Old
+ World; and we also shall be no less glad to remember it.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>It is perhaps natural that in <i>Winnowed Memories</i> (CASSELL), by
+ Field-Marshal Sir EVELYN WOOD, V.C., one should look at first to see what
+ references they contain to modern events. On these matters, as on all
+ others covered by this volume, we are told nothing that is not
+ invigorating and to the point, and the tributes here paid to the fighting
+ qualities of our armies of to-day form a fitting conclusion to a book
+ that is full of sound sense and good cheer. Sir EVELYN has had a vast
+ experience and enjoys an evergreen vigour. What is rarer still, he has a
+ kindly nature that admits no trace of the disappointments he must from
+ time to time have suffered. As everyone knows, he was always an advocate
+ of Compulsory Universal Service for Home Defence, but he casts no stone
+ at those who so long and parlously delayed to learn their lesson. Like
+ the true soldier that he is, he seems to have no time or taste for those
+ recriminations which are best left to small political fry. And I rejoice
+ that in a book of such authority the note is largely one of happiness and
+ hope.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+ <p>"Owing to congestion on the railways there is a food shortage in
+ Petrograd, which has led some of the less irresponsible citizens to
+ demonstrate during the session of the Council of the Empire and the
+ Duma."&mdash;<i>Daily Sketch.</i></p>
+
+ <p>Subsequent news shows that "less irresponsible" was not a misprint but
+ a prophecy.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter" style="width:50%;">
+ <a href="images/188.png"><img width="100%" src="images/188thumb.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ <p><i>Sympathetic Newsboy (to proprietor of Coffee Stall.)</i> "WOT YER
+ TRYIN' TO DO WIV THE OLD 'OTEL, GUVNER? TAKIN' IT 'OME FOR FEAR OF
+ 'AVIN' IT COMMANDEERED?"</p>
+ </div>
+<hr />
+
+ <blockquote>"It is claimed that about thirty Merman firms construct the
+ Diesel motors originally used for submarines."&mdash;<i>Daily
+ Telegraph.</i></blockquote>
+
+ <p>We wish these motors a speedy return to the fishy scenes of their
+ origin.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+ <blockquote>"Several eligible sires for workmen's dwellings, of which
+ some 300 are needed, have been selected by the Southport Town Planning
+ Committee."&mdash;<i>Daily Paper.</i></blockquote>
+
+ <p>They must not be confused with "the rude forefathers of the hamlet"
+ mentioned by GRAY.</p>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14455 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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