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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/22993-8.txt b/22993-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9c33de --- /dev/null +++ b/22993-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1983 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, +March 8, 1916, by Various, Edited by Owen Seaman + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, March 8, 1916 + + +Author: Various + +Editor: Owen Seaman + +Release Date: October 14, 2007 [eBook #22993] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI, +VOL. 150, MARCH 8, 1916*** + + +E-text prepared by Jane Hyland, Jonathan Ingram, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 22993-h.htm or 22993-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/9/22993/22993-h/22993-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/9/22993/22993-h.zip) + + + + + +PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI + +VOL. 150 + +MARCH 8, 1916 + + + + + + + +CHARIVARIA. + +Germany is declared to have built a submarine that can go to the United +States and back. Future insults therefore will be delivered by hand. + + *** + +Municipal fishshops are to be established in Germany. They will be +closely associated, it is understood, with the Overseas News Agency, and +will make a speciality of supplying a fish diet to sailors who are +unfortunately prevented by circumstances from visiting the high seas. + + *** + +In his lecture before the Royal Institute last week Dr. E. G. RUSSELL +told his audience that there are 80,000,000 micro-organisms in a +tablespoonful of rich cucumber soil. If we substitute German casualties +for micro-organisms and deduct the average monthly wastage as shown by +the private lists from the admitted official total of available +effectives--but we are treading on Mr. BELLOC'S preserves. + + *** + +The Government has announced itself as "satisfied with the measures +taken to prevent Canadian nickel from reaching the Germans." Except, of +course, in oblong pellets of insignificant size. + + *** + +Answering a question of Sir ARTHUR MARKHAM in the House of Commons last +week, Mr. TENNANT said, "If there was a large force of troops in Egypt, +as to which it is undesirable that I should make any statement, it is +quite conceivable that the presence of a hundred and seventeen Generals +might be necessary." After all, if every one of them were just a +Brigadier-General, they wouldn't require more than half-a-million men to +keep them occupied. + + *** + +Naval inspectors of cookery, it is officially announced, will hereafter +wear a narrow stripe of white cloth on their cuff. This is a simplified +form of the ancient heraldic emblem of the cook's guild, which was a +hair _frizzé naiant_ in a dish of soup _maigre_. + + *** + +All kinds of cleaning and washing are to be dearer, and a patriotic +movement is already on foot among the younger set to do away with these +luxuries altogether in the interests of patriotic economy. + + *** + +As a reward of its efforts to save the lives of war-horses, the +R.S.P.C.A. has now been officially recognized by the A.V.C. Some +hindrance to their work is however feared as the result of strong +protests lodged by the Westphalen Pie-makers' Association of Rotterdam, +which the Government, in its anxiety not to deal harshly with the +neutrals, is said to be carefully considering. + + *** + +The owners of certain proprietary whiskeys have decided to put them up +sixpence a bottle. In response to this move the owners of certain +proprietary sixpences have decided not to put them down. + + *** + +A correspondent of _The Times_ states that large numbers of Owls have +taken to visiting the trenches in Flanders. The War Office, strangely +enough, professes to know nothing of the circumstance. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: THE ROYAL GONDOLIERS. + +WE UNDERSTAND THAT OUR COURTEOUS ALLIES IN VENICE HAVE OFFERED TO SUPPLY +FLOATING FACILITIES FOR OUR TROOPS IN THE FLOODED TRENCHES OF FLANDERS.] + + * * * * * + +For Conscientious Objectors. + + "VARICOSE VEINS.--We stock all sizes, in best quality + only."--_Advt. in Irish Paper._ + + * * * * * + +British Frightfulness. + + "A young woman was fried as a spy in London the other + day."--_Sunday Pictorial._ + + * * * * * + +A Leap-Year Reminder. + + "February 29, 1916.--Last day for single men."--_Liverpool Daily + Post._ + + * * * * * + + "We ... are no haters of peace. We want it more than anything in + the world--except the triumph of evil."--_Star._ + +"A fallen star," we fear. + + * * * * * + + "Mr. Lloyd George said that Cabinet Ministers had agreed to take + one-fourth of their salaries in Exchequer bombs." + + _Provincial Paper._ + +The times call for strong measures, but we think this is going a little +too far. + + * * * * * + +TEUTON OVERTURES. + +As seen through Teuton Eyes. + + These English--who can know their ways? + When, flushed with triumphs large and many, + We condescend with tactful signs + To hint of peace on generous lines + They answer in a flippant phrase + That they're "not taking any." + + When from our conquering High-Seas Ark + (Detained at home by stress of weather) + We loosed the emblematic dove, + Conveying overtures of love, + Back came the bird with that remark, + Minus its best tail feather. + + They said they never wanted war; + Yet, when we talk of war's abating, + And name the price for them to pay, + They have the curious nerve to say + That, when they please, and not before, + They'll do their own dictating. + + How can you deal with minds so slow, + With men who give no indication + That we by any further shock + Into their heads can hope to knock + Enough intelligence to know + That they're a beaten nation? + + Odd that we cannot make it clear + That we have won; and even odder + That other markets seem to jump, + While our exchange is on the slump, + And everything's starvation-dear + (Excepting cannon-fodder). O. S. + + * * * * * + +RECONSTRUCTION. + +In that dim happy past, the Summer of 1913, I first saw him idly seated +in a deck-chair on the firm sands of----, on the East Coast. A quiet +detached figure amid a crowd of joyous children. Hard by a boy and girl +were building a moated fortress, but, alas! the swiftly incoming tide +eroded its foundations until the frowning battlements tottered to +destruction. + +Turning, the children faced him. He smiled. + +"D'you know this one, Jacky?" he ventured. + +"He's Dick," the little maid protested, "and I'm Betty." + +"Now we're introduced, do you know this one?" he asked again. + +Straightaway he plunged into the new game, moving back to where a smooth +stretch of sand lay invitingly. Immediately two minute shapes were +etched with his stick on its surface. + +"What's those?" + +"Hairpins, of course! You _always_ start with hairpins. And this," +indicating a narrow oblong, "why, this must be that silver tray +someone's always leaving her hairpins lying about on. Now for the +hair-brushes--two of those--" (unerringly symmetrical)--"then the +comb--" (equipped with most effective sand-teeth)--"then a powder-box? +Well, a very little one----" + +As fast as he thought of them, fresh articles (or their symbols) came +into being. There was no pause. "The shoe-horn, the button-hook, oh! and +a clothes-brush----" + +Immediately following the last hair of the clothes-brush a rectangle put +in an appearance around these assorted objects. + +"Mummy's dressing-table," asserted Master Dick authoritatively. + +"Sound man! What else do we want?" + +The children suggested alternately and in chorus the completion of the +plan. An armchair with cushions incredibly soft, a fire-place pokered +and tonged, a wardrobe (disproportionately enormous), two colossal +hat-boxes, and detail after detail, with finally the door, the key-hole +and the key. + + * * * * * + +The little hamlet somewhere in France had been shelled spasmodically for +months. Possibly there was something faintly familiar in the seated +figure of that Captain of Engineers that caught my eye; one did not +often come across Captains of Engineers sitting on _débris_ in the +village street. He squatted on a pile of granular masonry before a +rudely prepared space surrounded by three small ragged children gazing +round-eyed at something he was drawing with half a Nilgiri cane in the +powdered rubble. I paused to look, and there arose before me the picture +of a man with a boy and girl on a bygone day in happy England. + +"On commence avec le sel," he was explaining as he indicated the shape +of a salt-cellar. "Eh b'en, après ça quat' assiettes, des couteaux, des +fourchettes----" All the appurtenances of a homely table were quickly +put in. "Et puis la table, n'est-ce pas? Et surtout faut pas oublier +quelqu'chose à manger, eh, Jeanne?" + +"Non, monsieur." But the little girl was busy pointing to where a small +brown bird pecked fruitlessly in the dust. "Regardez, donc, le p'tit +oiseau; il n'a pas mangé, c'lui là." + +"Y a pas grande chose à manger; les Boches, vous savez, ont passé par +ici," added one of the two boys quite impersonally. + +The Captain of Engineers continued quickly, "Maintenant il faut mettre +le--" he paused for the word--"le--table-cloth." The children grasped +his meaning from the comprehensive gesture. Rapidly he outlined chairs, +a delightful baby's cradle, a clock with cuckoo complete, a fire-place, +until at length a complete pictorial inventory had been made of the +contents of the living-room of just such a cottage as had obviously been +buried beneath the rubbish heap upon which he sat. Those children of the +stricken country-side entered with keenness into the spirit of the +make-believe. The little girl, searching for an appropriate stone to +place on the imaginary table for imaginary bread, thrust her hand down +among the _débris_ and, withdrawing it, exposed a relic. It was the +faded remnant of a baby's shoe, grotesque in the autumn sunshine. + +"Oui, par exemple, les Boches ont passé par ici," said the little boy as +impersonally as before. + + * * * * * + +In a Good Cause. + +An auction of stamps will be held on the 13th and 14th of March at 47, +Leicester Square, in aid of the National Philatelic War Fund, the +proceeds to be given to the Societies of the British Red Cross and St. +John of Jerusalem. Collectors should seize this chance, as the Allies +may shortly be arranging to modify the map of the world. + + * * * * * + + "The year 1914 showed a drop of 441 million eggs in the year." + _Trade Paper._ + +Taking our population as 46 millions this means 9-1/2 eggs dropped per +head in the year. Under the influence of the thrift campaign a great +effort is being made to drop only half an egg per head this year, but +should there be a General Election there may be a rise in the drop. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: WHO PAYS? + +THE FATHER. "WE ARE MAKING TERRIBLE SACRIFICES." + +THE SON. "YES, FATHER, BUT I AM VERY BRAVE; I CAN BEAR THEM."] + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Visitor._ "AND WHAT DID YOU DO WHEN THE SHELL STRUCK +YOU?" + +_Bored Tommy._ "SENT MOTHER A POSTCARD TO HAVE MY BED AIRED."] + + * * * * * + +THE GREAT MAN. + +Every Saturday, about four P.M., I am to be found worshipping at the +Shrine of the Open Mind. Once within its portals I put off the subfuse +vestments of J. Watson, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, and become simply Uncle +James. This alone is a tonic. To-day as I ascended the steps of the +temple there floated down to me the voices of the priestesses chanting, +evidently in a kind of frenzy, and to the air of a famous Scottish reel, +this rhyme---- + + "Daddy is a Sergeant, a Sergeant, a Sergeant! + Daddy is a Sergeant, a Sergeant of Police." + +So I opened the nursery door and went in. An uncle has no honour in his +own country, and my two small nieces assaulted me immediately. Phyllis +dragged me to a chair, while Lillah shrieked unrelentingly in my ear +that Daddy was a sergeant. + +"So the special constables have seen that your father is a born +policeman?" I said as I sat down. + +"The _special_ ones," nodded Phyllis with profound pride. + +"Magnificent," I murmured. "He has at last justified his choice of the +law as a profession." + +"Tell us," said Lillah, with the air with which one speaks of a +self-made man who has just appeared in the Honours List--"tell us how +Daddy started." + +"He went to the Bar," I said. + +"Bar?" echoed Lillah. + +"Why, yes," I said; "it's a place where people wait." + +"Like a station?" + +"Only the trains don't always come in. Anyway, on one side of the bar +are a lot of young men waiting for something to turn up, and on the +other a lot of old men writing autobiographies." + +"But aren't there any middling-olders?" This is Phyllistian for men of +middle age. + +"Not allowed," I said. "At the Bar you are either a junior or a +reminiscer." + +"What's that?" + +"It's an illness that attacks people who aren't really famous." + +Phyllis stared. "Like measles?" + +I nodded. + +"Oh," cried Lillah eagerly, "do the reminiscers go all pink?" + +"They ought to," said I. + +There was a silence. The round eyes of Phyllis were full of suspicion. + +"Daddy said," she remarked slowly, "that he did law." + +"So he does," I answered. + +"Well, what's that, then?" + +Small girls ask questions in two words which wise men must write books +to answer. + +"The law," I answered warily, "gives reasons for things that are +unreasonable." + +"Like what?" said Phyllis. + +I laughed a little uneasily. This was getting difficult. + +"Oh--er--things like getting married," I said, "and refraining from +shooting little girls who ask questions." + +I admit that this sort of joke is the last infirmity of an uncle's +otherwise noble mind. They regarded me sadly. + +Then Lillah turned to Phyllis with a detached air. "Uncle James is being +grand," she said, "because he doesn't know what law is." + +"Don't you?" said Phyllis. + +"Perhaps not," I murmured feebly. The nursery makes very small beer of +the cynic. There was a moment's silence. + +"You've told us wrong," said Phyllis sternly. "Daddy isn't ever wrong." + +"So he's risen from his bar to be a sergeant," added Lillah, with the +air of one finishing a story with a moral. + +I'm afraid I chuckled. It was in very bad taste, of course, but I +couldn't help it. I suppose George is one of the most egregious +Micawbers of the English Bar, whereas I---- why, I remember noticing a +brief on the mantelpiece in my chambers only last month. + +"Poor Uncle James," said Phyllis in her best drawing-room tones, +"perhaps if you tried very hard----" + +They had mistaken my laughter for that bitter disappointed kind you get +in the theatres. + +"I know," said Lillah; "we'll play Germans, and Uncle James can pretend +he's a sergeant." + +Yes, they were sorry for me. The table was pushed into the window and +became a waterworks of importance. + +The invidious part of the alien enemy fell to Lillah. It was admitted +that she could glare best. "Besides," said Phyllis, "Lillah can make +growly noises come up from her tummy." + +The complete Hun, as you perceive. + +Phyllis became a "special," while I was her sergeant, the star part of +the piece. But the show was a frost, though Lillah gave an excellent +imitation, with the aid of a toy spider, of a Hun inserting bacilli into +the nation's _aqua pura_. Yes, I'm afraid I was the failure. I couldn't +get to grips with my part, and the whole thing was so obviously a +charity performance, with Phyllis ordering herself sternly about to try +and help me through. + +We were halfway through the second house when a well-known step was +heard on the stairs. + +Lillah turned, her eyes ablaze with worship. Phyllis trembled with +excitement. As I sat down I couldn't help thinking that we grown-ups are +just a little absurd. There is more than one thinks in the relativity of +things. + +Adoration? George was never going to get anything like it again in this +world. My mind mused on ambition. Why, the CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER +himself---- + +The door-handle turned and I heard the small voice of Phyllis in my ear. + +"Mummie says," she whispered, "we can't all be great." + +Nice little maid! + +Then we all lined up to receive the Sergeant. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Mother._ "NO, BETTY DARLING, I CAN'T BUTTON YOUR BOOTS +FOR YOU. NOW YOU HAVE A LITTLE SISTER YOU MUST LEARN TO DO THINGS FOR +YOURSELF." + +_Betty._ "SHALL I _ALWAYS_ HAVE TO DO FINGS FOR MYSELF?" + +_Mother._ "YES, DARLING." _Betty._ "THEN I DON'T FINK +I SHALL LIKE LIFE."] + + * * * * * + +"TURKISH COMMUNIQUE. + + Constantinople, Saturday.--On the Canadian front there were + outpost duels and local fighting at several points. These + skirmishes are still going on."--_Evening Paper._ + +Forthcoming volume by Sir MAX AITKEN--_Canada in Turkey._ + + * * * * * + +From a description of a new enemy aeroplane:-- + + "The whole machine is armoured, and the supper part is shaped + like a reversed roof." _Provincial Paper._ + +Trust the Germans for looking after the commissariat. + + * * * * * + +AN EMBARGO ON INK. + +Great Public Meeting. + +Mr Runciman, President of the Board of Trade, having stated that the +Government was following up its restrictions on the importation of paper +by drastic new rules concerning our supplies of ink, a public meeting of +protest was immediately called. Mr. T. P. O'Notor, M.P., took the chair, +and he was supported by many of the most illustrious ink-men of the day. + +The Chairman, having first read a number of letters apologising for +absence, one of which was, of course, from Lord Southbluff, who +specialises in this epistolary form, proceeded to pour scorn on the +Board of Trade's decision. How can the Board of Trade, he asked +pointedly, know its business as well as we do? If it hopes, by +curtailing the supplies of ink that come to England, to make room for +the more important necessaries of life, it is mistaken. There is nothing +more important than ink. (Cheers.) Without ink what are we? (A voice: +"Not much.") Without ink, how can advertisements be written? (Cries of +"Shame!") Among all forms of human endeavour none was nobler than +putting one word after another. (Applause.) That is what SHAKSPEARE did. +(Hear, hear.) Always with the assistance of ink. (Cheers.) And what +would England be like without SHAKSPEARE? (Renewed cheers.) Had Mr. +RUNCIMAN thought of that? He (the speaker) would venture to say he had +not. In any case ink must be saved. (Loud applause.) + +Mr. Harry Austinson, Editor of _The English Revue_, rose to protest +against the Board of Trade action. To put an embargo upon ink was, he +held, nothing less than an outrage. Ink was the life-blood of British +liberty, and he for one would never hesitate to spill the last drop, +either in his own select periodical or in a Sunday paper for the masses. +The mere fact that the feeling against ink was inaugurated by a Member +of the Government automatically proved it wrong. No good could come from +such a corrupt agglomeration of salary-seekers as the Coalition +Ministry. Speaking as one who knew Germany from within, he would say +that to put any obstacle in the way of the public expression of opinion +in England was to help the foe. (Hear, hear.) + +Mr. Bernold Pennit said that the Government's action paralysed him. For +years he had been in the habit of writing his ten thousand words a day. +It did not much matter what they were about; the point was that they +were written. Otherwise he could not keep in good health. Where another +man might do Swedish exercises, ride, walk, eat or play golf, he, Mr. +Pennit, wrote. (Hear, hear.) It might be an attack on British stupidity; +it might be a eulogy of Mr. ASQUITH; it might be a description of the +arrival of a ton of coal at an auctioneer's private residence in Handley +and its transference to the cellar and the discovery that there was one +hundredweight one stone short. Whatever the theme, there were ten +thousand words in any case, and unless he could write them daily he was +lost. The tragic thing was that he could write only in ink and with his +own hand. (Sensation.) Before meddling with ink there were all sorts of +things for the Government to forbid. Golf balls, for one. He wished to +express his complete dissatisfaction with Mr. RUNCIMAN's insane +proposal. (Cheers.) + +Mr. Bolaire Hillock thought that a great deal too much fuss was being +made about ink. The Board of Trade was, of course, an ass; that goes +without saying (_ça va sans dire_); but it is childish of literary men to +come there and pretend to be nonplussed. Let them rather show themselves +superior to such trumpery legislation. As an old campaigner he could +tell them what to do. When he was an artilleryman in France, and writing +a series of articles on the Reformation at the same time, he mixed an +excellent substitute for ink out of the ashes of his pipe and claret. +There were countless things that could be utilised, including blacking, +seethed mushrooms, boiled ash-buds, and the juice of the pickled walnut. +With such resources as these we intended to go on writing and drawing +diagrams long after Mr. RUNCIMAN was forgotten. (Loud cheers.) + +Lord Penge said that one of the purest pleasures of life was writing to +_The Times_, and how could that be done if there was no ink? Some people +doubtless could use pencil; but he personally could not. Others had +typewriters or dictated to typists, but that was beyond him. To him +there were few delights more complete than to dip his pen in the +forbidden fluid and begin, "Sir." (Applause.) + +The Rev. R. Trampbell said that not during his whole career as a +clergyman of the Church of England could he remember a more monstrous +proposal than this one to reduce the supply of ink. To him ink was more +precious than radium, for it enabled him to express his thoughts and +thus come into intimate relationship with his fellow-beings. It might be +within the knowledge of the meeting that he was in the habit of +contributing every week an article on the War to the Sunday papers. It +was not on tactics, but on some subject of spiritual interest connected +with the War, and he had reason to believe that thousands, he might say +millions, of his fellow-countrymen and fellow-countrywomen found it +helpful. Was that to cease? England had too few inspired teachers for +this article to be lightly disposed of. He felt sure that he had the +great weight of his beloved Church of England at the back of him when he +uttered this protest. + +Mr. Chester Gilbertson said that neither the restriction on ink or paper +would worry him. There was nothing he couldn't write _with_, and nothing +he couldn't write _on_. He had written many of his best articles with a +piece of chalk on one of his black coats, and many of his worst on cab +and railway-carriage windows with a diamond ring which he had compelled +a commercial traveller to relinquish. (Cheers.) Rather than not express +an opinion on whatever was forward, he would carve his views on a rock +and himself carry the rock to the printing office. (Loud cheers.) The +Runcimen of this world were created purely in order to be defied. + +Mr. Bernard Jaw said that of course for the Government to pretend that +the cargo space now occupied by ink was needed for something else was +rubbish. The Government's real reason was that they were terrified of +the critics and thought to muzzle them in this way. But he for one--and +he knew for a fact that the Government dreaded his genius acutely and +would give much if they could still the blistering accuracy of his +pen--he for one would not be daunted. + +At this point a special messenger arrived bearing a letter for the +Chairman, who, after reading it, asked leave to put the meeting in +possession of its terms, as it somewhat altered the situation. It was, +in fact, from the Board of Trade, and stated that, owing to a misprint, +the recent decision concerning ink had been misunderstood. It was not +ink that was to be restricted, but zinc. (Cheers.) In the circumstances +perhaps they might adjourn. + +The meeting then broke up peaceably, although Mr. Bernard Jaw did his +best to collect an audience for a new speech on the monstrosity of +interfering with zinc. + + * * * * * + + "Count Bernstorff finds that the Washington Government has left + him in the air. Seemingly he is at sea."--_Morning Post._ + +As was said of a nobler character, "the elements are so mixed up in +him." + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Jones (left at home to mind the children)._ "IF THE +PAPER'S ANYTHING TO GO BY, WE MARRIED MEN WILL ALL BE IN THE ARMY BY +JULY. IT SEEMS A LONG TIME TO WAIT."] + + * * * * * + +THE EXPERT ADVISER. + +I met him near the entrance of the Institute, where I was waiting to see +the Superintendent. He approached with light, nervous steps, and his +haggard eyes met mine questioningly. + +"A fine morning," I remarked. + +"It is," he agreed; "and if you would be good enough to tell me the day +of the week--" + +"It's Saturday," I said, wondering a little. + +"I--I feared so," he said and clutched me by the arm. "Listen. This is +the day when I have to make up my five columns--seven hundred lines, +brevier type. It is my destiny to give advice, and you can have it +without the asking. Take, for example, the Rhode Island Rabbit--a noble +strain and rich in phosphates. Plant out at the beginning of April in a +mixture consisting of two parts road-grit, two parts table-scraps, and a +deed of assignment, and by the end of October they will be throwing up +magnificent clusters of yellow blossom. The Magellan Lop-eared is also +hardy and prolific, though pugnacious if reared under glass. In the +absence of a specified agreement a dose of tartaric acid that has been +well stewed with the mutton left over from Sunday will usually put +matters straight. Snip off shoots that show signs of becoming broody, +and give a mash of middlings at quarter-day. + +"We now come to the Light Sussex Long-furred Goatlings. These can be +kept in hutches, which may be obtained at any oil-shop at about +fivepence per pint. Grasp firmly by the wings when lifting, and explain +the matter to your solicitor. Short-haired Pouters should be housed in +kennels which have been thoroughly disinfected with peat-moss, +cod-liver-oil emulsion and a good face-powder. A little boracic ointment +rubbed well into the roots before breakfast is also to be commended. +With regard to the Squirrel-tailed Borzois, during the period of weaning +try bicarbonate of soda, one scruple; sal volatile, one drachm; to be +taken every calendar month from date of contract." + +A large, genial man, with an official manner--he was, I discovered, the +under-superintendent--approached, and the haggard man moved rapidly +away. + +"A painful case," I observed. + +"Very," said the large man. "Journalist of the name of Criddle--Jabez +Wilberforce Criddle. He used to run the Gardening section of _The Sunday +Helio_. Then the chap that was responsible for the 'Legal Advice' was +called up, and Criddle got his column as well as his own. Next, the +'Poultry Gossip' man went, and they gave Criddle that, and when a week +later the 'Cookery Notes' woman took up V.A.D. work he got her share +too. He struggled along gamely enough until 'Auntie Gladys,' who ran +'Our Baby' column, became a tram-conductress; but, when they passed him +that, his mind went, and the proprietors sent him here." + +I inquired as to the possibilities of recovery. + +"There is hope," said the large man, "that the trouble may not last +beyond the duration of the War. But we shan't feel that we've made a +fair start until we've cured him of getting up in the night and tapping +his artificial teeth with a button-hook. He fancies he's dictating +'Answers to Correspondents.'" + + * * * * * + +Clerical Candour. + + "In order to satisfy my mind I spent over two hours in a certain + cinema ... Frankly I was disappointed. I saw nothing which could + in any way be called indecent." + + _The Rev. F. H. GILLINGHAM, in "The Weekly Dispatch."_ + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: AN UNEASY CONSCIENCE. + +"WELL, I'M OFF TO MY DRESSMAKER'S. I CAN'T SIT HERE ANY LONGER BEING +ECONOMISED AT BY THAT GIRL'S CLOTHES."] + + * * * * * + +THE WORLD SET FREE. + +(_An awful prospect._) + + Long, long ago, when I had not attested, + I prized the liberties of this proud race, + The right of speech, from haughty rulers wrested, + The right to put one's neighbours in their place; + I liked to argue and I loved to pass + Slighting remarks on Robert, who's an ass, + To hint that Henry's manners were no class, + Or simply say I did not like his face. + + But things are changed. To-day I had a tussle + With some low scion of an upstart line; + Meagre his intellect, absurd his muscle, + I should have strafed him in the days long syne; + I took a First, and he could hardly parse; + I have more eloquence but he more stars; + Yet (so insane the ordinance of Mars) + I must say "Yessir," and salute the swine. + + And it was hard when that abrupt Staff-Major + Up to the firing-line one evening came + (Unknown his motive, probably a wager), + And said quite rudely, "You are much to blame; + Those beggars yonder you should enfilade." + I fingered longingly a nice grenade; + I said those beggars were our First Brigade, + But might not call him any kind of name. + + Yet not for ever shall the bard be muted + By stars and stripes, but freely, as of yore, + When swords are sheathed and I'm civilian-suited, + I shall have speech with certain of my corps, + Speak them the insults which I now but brood: + "Pompous," "incompetent," "too fond of food," + And fiercely taste the bliss of being rude + And unrestrained by Articles of War. + + That will be great; but what if such intentions + Are likewise present in the Tenth Platoon? + What if some labourer of huge dimensions + Meet me defenceless in a Tube saloon, + And hiss his catalogue of unpaid scores, + How oft I criticised his forming fours, + Or prisoned him behind the Depôt doors, + Or kept him digging on the Fourth of June? + + Painful. And then, when all these arméd millions + Unknot with zest the military noose, + Will the whole world be full of wroth civilians, + Each one exulting in a tongue let loose? + And who shall picture or what bard shall pen + The crowning horror which awaits us then-- + That civil warfare of uncivil men + In one great Armageddon of abuse? + + * * * * * + +A Pluralist. + +The writer of a letter appearing in _The Daily Mail_ signs herself "Wife +of Group 41." + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR. + +JOHN BULL (_to himself_). "TELL YOU WHAT IT IS, MY FRIEND--YOU'VE BEEN +DOING YOURSELF TOO WELL. IF YOU MEAN TO WIN THIS WAR YOU'VE GOT TO SEE +WHAT YOU CAN DO WITHOUT."] + + * * * * * + +FRANK. + +In my first formal introduction to Frank he appeared, together with his +clothing and various belongings, as an item in a list of things to be +taken over. I knew him already by reputation, and I remembered some of +the occasions when he had appeared on parade. Also I knew that two +successive Company Commanders had managed in turn to exchange him with +some unsuspecting newly appointed O.C. Company for something more +tractable. This last process, indeed, accounted for my having to take +him over instead of the mild creature with the duck-waddle action which +my predecessor had ridden or, let me say, sat. + +It became then my lot to take over Frank, or, to put it more correctly, +I was issued with him. That is part of the military principle of fixing +responsibility. Things are not issued to you; you are issued with them, +and you alone are accountable. I was issued with Frank and all his +harness and appointments and, incidentally, his parlour tricks. This was +the formal introduction. I didn't meet him at close range until later. +When I was issued with him I didn't even know his name. No previous +owner had ever thought of asking it, and had they asked they would not +have believed that a horse could be called Frank. On general principles +it seems wrong, but on nearer acquaintance I found that Frank was +exactly the name for him. The great thing about him was that if he +thought a thing he said it. + +For example, when I first mounted him he thought he would prefer to +remain in the stable where he had been for the best part of a week. He +said so quite candidly. I am nothing very great as a handler of wild +animals, and he gave me three minutes made up of every action in his +_repertoire_--no limited one. At the end of it I very kindly dismounted. +I didn't want him to think I was not intelligent enough to understand +what he meant, and moreover I hated the idea of marring our first +meeting by refusing so unmistakable a request. So he was led back to his +quarters and the incident closed, if not with mutual goodwill at least +with some degree of satisfaction fairly evenly distributed among the +parties. + +It was, I remember, on the next morning that the Mess Sergeant noticed a +shortage of lump sugar in one of the basins. I mention this merely +because it fixes in my mind the first day on which I had a comfortable +ride. Frank started out in a good temper and came home at his best pace, +hoping to get some more sugar. That, at least, is how I read his +meaning, and I pursued my policy of not misunderstanding him. After this +he developed a parlour trick which made me quite fond of him. When I +went to the stable he would put his nose round to the side pocket whore +I kept the sugar. He always got some, and he knew there would always be +some more when he got home. + +Thus it became necessary to instruct him in topography. He quickly +learned that certain turnings led to the camp, and I was reduced to +subterfuges to prove to him that they did not. It was essential to go +over every road at various times in opposite directions. That confused +him, and though I disliked the deception I had to resort to it, with the +result that Frank finally accepted me at my own fictitious valuation as +a person who did not properly know his own mind. + +But it took him some time to get into my ways. Once we spent twenty +minutes on a small stretch of road leading from the parade ground to a +railway bridge. I wanted to cross the bridge and Frank did not. I took +him towards the bridge and he took me back towards the camp. This +happened thirteen times. At the fourteenth there was a variation; he +changed his mind and we crossed the bridge. During the twenty minutes, I +remember, we had a further slight disagreement about a stick. I was glad +I had brought it, and he was not. But on the other side of the bridge we +let bygones be bygones. Frank had his moods, but he was always a +gentleman. + +He was also a soldier. His strong point really was that he was excellent +on parade. He would look round, grasp the formation at a glance, and +drop into his place. He was never more happy than when route-marching; +never more unhappy than when compelled to break out of the line. Indeed, +so much did he enjoy column of route that when off duty with two or +three other horses he would play at route-marching, taking up a position +in Indian file and avoiding any sort of arrangement which brought him +abreast of his companions. + +At last we had to part. I don't know the right way to express this. +Possibly I was reissued without him; I am not sure what the process was. +At any rate we separated, he remaining at the camp and I proceeding on +duty to the Depôt. I said good-bye to him and he nuzzled for the last +time at my side pocket. Having munched the sugar, he turned to the more +serious business of his manger. I think this must have been his way of +concealing his emotion. + + * * * * * + +RAG-TIME IN THE TRENCHES. + + Roll up, rally up! + Stroll up, sally up! + Take a tupp'ny ticket out, and help to tote the tally up! + Come and see the Raggers in their "Mud and Slush" revoo. + (Haven't got no money? Well, a cigarette'll do). + Come and hear O'Leary in his great tin-whistle stunt; + See our beauty chorus with the Sergeant in the front; + Come and hear our gaggers + In their "Lonely Tommy" song; + Come and see the Raggers, + We're the bongest of the bong. + + Roll up, rally up! + Stroll up, sally up! + Show is just commencing and we've got to ring the ballet up. + Hear our swell orchestra keeping all the fun alive, + Tooting on his whistle while they dance the Dug-out Dive. + Come and see Spud Murphy with his double-ration smile, + ('Tisn't much for beauty, but it's PHYLLIS DARE for style); + Come and see our _scena_, + "How the section got C.B.;" + Bring a concertina + And we'll let you come in free. + + Roll up, rally up! + Stroll up, sally up! + First and last performance. If you want to see it, _allez_ up! + Come and sit where "Archibalds" won't get you in the neck + (If it's getting sultry you can take a pass-out check). + Come and hear the Corporal recite his only joke; + See the leading lady slipping out to have a smoke; + Sappers, cooks, flag-waggers, + Dhooly-wallahs too; + Come and hear the Raggers + In their "Mud and Slush" revoo. + + * * * * * + +Commercial Candour. + + "The perfume _par excellence_ ... unapproached and + unapproachable." _Advt. in Provincial Paper._ + + * * * * * + +"GERMAN FOOD CRISIS. + ATTEMPT TO CONGEAL THE TRUTH AS TO SHORTAGE."--_Buenos Ayres + Standard._ + +The Huns are so economical that they put even Truth into cold storage. + + * * * * * + + "Cheery messages come through from General Townshend. He is + sewing vegetable seeds and has asked for gramophone needles." + _Lloyd's Weekly News._ + +The ordinary kind being unsuited for such delicate stitchery. + + * * * * * + +ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT. + +_Tuesday, February_ 29th.--Mr. LLOYD GEORGE announced to-day that the +Members of the Cabinet had decided to take one-fourth of their salaries +in Exchequer Bonds. Murmurs of applause followed, and before they had +died away Mr. HOGGE launched his great joke. Leading up to it with the +remark that Exchequer Bonds can be sold the next day, he asked, "Would +it not be a good idea to call them the Laughing Stock?" Mr. HOGGE is not +one of the chartered jesters of the House so his _jeu d'ésprit_ just +caused "a laugh," as the reporters say, and nothing more. + +On the Third Beading of the Consolidated Fund Bill Sir JOHN SIMON +renewed his attack upon the Military Service Bill. The tribunals, he +declared, were disregarding the appeal of the widow's only son; the +Yellow Form, of which the late Home Secretary takes the same jaundiced +view as he did of the Yellow Press, was being sent out indiscriminately +to all whom it did not concern: the War Office had issued a misleading +poster; and everywhere men were being "bluffed" into the Army. He +himself would have been inundated with correspondence if he had not had +the happy inspiration of diverting the flood into Mr. TENNANT's +letter-box. Passionately he called upon the Government not to imitate +Germany's brutality. + +Mr. LONG, suave as usual, deprecated Sir JOHN SIMON'S ferocity, reminded +him that all cases of hardship could be considered by the Appeal +Tribunals, and promised to investigate the cases that had been +mentioned. "May I send in my list too?" asked Mr. WATT. But Mr. LONG, +unwilling to share the fate of Mr. TENNANT, suggested that the SECRETARY +FOR SCOTLAND would form a more appropriate dumping-ground for Mr. WATT'S +_dossier_. + +After Mr. SNOWDEN, Sir THOMAS WHITTAKER and Mr. LOUGH had reinforced Sir +JOHN SIMON'S case with added instances the Government found an +unexpected champion in Mr. HEALY. He was amazed to hear the late HOME +SECRETARY--"one of the Ministers who made the War"--gloating over the +inefficiency of the War Office at a moment when round Verdun was raging +a battle in which the fate of Paris, and perhaps of London, was +involved. Why had he not imitated the monumental silence of Mr. BURNS? +Instead, he, the suppressor of obscure Irish newspapers, had done more +to injure recruiting than any Connemara editor. + +I never expected to live to hear the Bank of England described in the +House of Commons as a useless institution. In Mr. HEALY'S opinion, "The +Old Lady of Threadneedle Street," like the other who lived in a shoe, +has too many children, and her attempt to get 190 of them exempted from +military service moved him in a moment of "vituperative irrelevance," as +Mr. PRINGLE subsequently described it, to say the rudest things about +her financial capacity. + +_Wednesday, March 1st._--Sir OWEN PHILLIPS, once Liberal Member for +Pembroke, returned to the House to-day as Unionist Member for Chester. +To signalise the capture of so gigantic a prize--he is 6ft. 6in. in his +stockinged feet--Lord EDMUND TALBOT and Sir G. YOUNGER, Unionist Whips, +conducted him to the Table; and as they are both of moderate height the +procession gave the effect of a _Mauretania_ going to her moorings in +charge of a couple of tugs. + +When Dr. MACNAMARA moved a Supplementary Estimate of £10 for the Navy, I +was reminded of PRAED'S lines "On seeing the SPEAKER asleep in his +chair":-- + + "Hume, no doubt, will be taking the sense Of the House on a + saving of thirteen pence." + +But there were differences. The £10 was not an ordinary "ten-pun' note" +but was a "token" representing something like four and a half millions +received by the Fleet for services rendered to Foreign Powers and +others; and Mr. WHITLEY, who was in the Chair, too so far from being +asleep, was intensely wide-awake. Members who sought to discuss Naval +policy generally were promptly pulled up, and the SECRETARY OF THE +ADMIRALTY, when in his third or fourth attempt to explain the Vote he +remarked hypothetically, "Suppose we were to sell a battleship----" was +himself called to order, Mr. WHITLEY evidently regarding such a +reduction of the Fleet as unpatriotic even in imagination. + +A vote for £37,000 to extend the British Consulate buildings at Cairo +united both sides of the House in criticism. Mr. ASHLEY thought what was +good enough for Lord CROMER should be good enough for his successor. Mr. +HOGGE, by a somewhat obscure process of reasoning, now understood why +the Germans were so anxious to get to Egypt. In vain Mr. LEWIS HARCOURT, +usually so persuasive, explained that they were now buying for £3 10s. a +metre land for which the owner wanted £12 a metre not long ago. Sir F. +BANBURY, shaking his _pince-nez_ at the Treasury Bench, retorted that +he might ask £5 for this pair of glasses, for which he had paid +half-a-crown (more war economy), but he would not expect to get it. + +A vote for £50,000, to complete the purchase of the estate of Colonel +HALL-WALKER, who has presented his racing stud to the Government, evoked +some opposition and much facetiousness. Mr. ACLAND, who proposed it, did +not help his case by remarking that personally he regarded racing as a +low form of sport. The fact that some of the horses have been leased by +the War Department to Lord LONSDALE for racing purposes "on sharing +terms" caused Mr. MCNEILL to inquire whether Mr. TENNANT would act as +the Ministerial tipster; and Mr. HOGGE, who displayed a knowledge of +racing which will, I fear, shock the unco' guid of East Edinburgh, +thought it ridiculous that Ministers should preach economy in the City +and start a racing stud at Westminster. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: IN HAPPY DAYS TO COME. _The Coalition Owners (Mr. ASQUITH +and Mr. BONAR LAW _) LEADING IN A WINNER.] + + * * * * * + +_Thursday, March 2nd.--Ariel_, Earl of DERBY, has not entirely left the +Earth for the Air. His head, at any rate, is not in the clouds, for his +speech on the working of his own scheme was full of practical wisdom. He +was not afraid of the exemptions that the tribunals might give if left +to themselves, but he was a little concerned about SIMON and his scratch +crew of pro-shirkers who seemed to be doing their little best to prevent +the country from getting men. + + * * * * * + +THE ELUSIVE ONES. + +A large number of claims for exemption from military service were made +before the Bouverie Street Tribunal at its sittings last week. + +Ike Feldmann (23) asked for exemption on the ground that he was an +agriculturalist and therefore excused under the Act. Questioned further, +he stated that at the present time he was employed in making artificial +onions for a firm of Bond Street milliners, but his uncle, who was +wealthy, had promised to buy him a farm as soon as the weather got +warmer. His application was rejected. + +William Smith (31) stated that he was the President, Treasurer and +Secretary of the Anglo-Chinese Industries Association, Limited, and +urged that unless he was exempted the company must inevitably go into +liquidation, there being no one else familiar with its business. +Answering a question by the Chairman, applicant stated that the company +was formed to do a general mercantile business, but that at the present +time its activities were confined to manicuring Pekingese pugs. Asked +whether this work could not be done by women, applicant stated that it +had been tried, but that women seemed to get on the nerves of the dogs, +causing their hair to fall out. The application was refused. + +An appeal was made on behalf of George W. Hopper (18), an employee of +the West End Delicacy Company, a concern engaged in the business of +supplying steak-and-kidney puddings to the large hotels. These +delicacies, the Secretary of the company explained, weighed about a ton +each, and Hopper was the only man who was strong enough to lift them out +of the ovens into the delivery wagon. + +_A Member of the Board._ That is just the kind of man they want in the +army. + +The Secretary of the company stated as an additional ground for +exemption that Hopper had a wooden leg and bronchitis. He was put back +one group to give time for medical treatment of leg. + +James Ponks (19), who appeared somewhat dazed at his surroundings, +explained in a confidential whisper that he was the caretaker of the +municipal macaroni beds in Regent's Park. Asked if he would not like to +fight for his country, he replied that he would, only MARTIN Luther had +appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to go into the dressed +poultry business. Referred to the Medical authorities. + +Jim Bounce (30) stated that he had a conscientious objection to +fighting. He didn't like the Germans, but recognised that they were his +spiritual brothers. + +_A Member of the Board._ Where did you get that cauliflower ear? + +Owing to the unsatisfactory nature of the applicant's reply his appeal +was refused. + +Arthur Small (35), proprietor of a fish and chips emporium, stated that +he was a widower and the sole support of his mother-in-law, two married +sisters-in-law, their husbands and their thirteen small children. + +_The Chairman._ It seems a clear case for exemption. + +Applicant hastened to explain that he did not ask for exemption as he +felt that his first duty was to his country. He would like, however, a +week in which to say good-bye to his relations by marriage. The request +was granted, the Chairman stating that the attitude of Small, who was +sacrificing everything for duty, did him the greatest credit. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: HAVEN. + +On the famous site of The Star and Garter Hotel at Richmond Hill, a Home +is to be built for Soldiers and Sailors totally disabled by the War. The +work has been undertaken by the British Women's Hospital, and, on its +completion, Her Majesty the Queen will present the building to the +British Red Cross Society, by whom it will be maintained. The cost of +construction will be £50,000. Mr. Punch can think of no cause which +should appeal more strongly to the gratitude of the nation and he begs +his generous readers to send gifts in aid of it to The Hon. Treasurer, +"Star and Garter" Building Fund, 21, Old Bond Street, W.] + + * * * * * + +A Smooth Passage. + + "In the Lords Viscount French took his sea but it was a quiet + affair."--_Morning Paper._ + + * * * * * + + "EMPLOYMENT as odd man offered to a disabled soldier in a very + good gentleman's household."--_Morning Paper._ + +As the above advertisement appeared several times we are afraid the +gentleman must have been regarded as almost too good to be true. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Bank Manager._ "Now please understand, Miss Jones, you +must make the books balance." _Miss Jones._ "Oh, Mr. Brown, how fussy +you are!"] + + * * * * * + +THE DUG-OUT DOMINIE. + + Some thirty years ago or more + He tried his hand at gerund-grinding, + But very speedily forswore + The _rôle_ before its ties grew binding; + He earned a living by his pen, + Paid court to Clio and Melpomene, + Until the War broke out, and then + Enlisted--as a dug-out dominie. + + Shortsighted, undersized and weak, + Intolerant yet self-distrusting, + There could not well have been a "beak" + Less fitted for the nice adjusting + Of his peculiar point of view + To that of forty-odd years later, + Less eager to acclaim the New, + Less apt for Georgian tastes to cater. + + He strove, 'tis true, to keep abreast + Of MASEFIELD'S grim poetic frenzy, + Sought Truth in WELLS, and did his best + To like the Oxford of MACKENZIE; + With YEATS he wandered in the Void, + Tasted of SHAW'S dramatic jalap, + Then turned with rapture unalloyed + To DICKENS, THACKERAY and TROLLOPE. + + Thus handicapped, thus fortified, + Behold him perilously faring + Into a world where all are tried + By boyhood's scrutiny unsparing; + Where ev'ry trick of gait or speech + Is most inexorably noted, + And masters, more than what they teach, + Are studied, criticised and quoted. + + His idols mostly left them cold-- + BAGEHOT, MATT. ARNOLD, SCOTT and MILTON; + But they were quick in taking hold + Of PRAED and J.K.S. and HILTON; + And once undoubtedly he scored + When, on a day of happy omen, + He introduced them to A. WARD, + The wisest of the tribe of showmen. + + But still his fervours left them calm-- + Emotion they considered freakish;-- + He felt with many an inward qualm + That he was thoroughly un-beakish; + His mood perplexed them; he was half + Provocative, half deferential, + Too anxious to provoke a laugh, + Too vague where logic was essential. + + So, struggling on to bridge the gaps + That seventeen from sixty sunder, + And causing at his best, perhaps, + A mild and intermittent wonder, + At least he recognised the truth + That there are other ways of earning + The sympathy of clear-eyed youth + Than by a mere parade of learning. + + And yet I think his pupils may + In after years, at camp or college, + Admit that in his rambling way + He added to their stock of knowledge; + And, as they ruefully recall + His "jaws" on CLAUSEWITZ and JOMINI, + On BALZAC, HEINE and JEAN PAUL, + Think kindly of their dug-out dominie. + + * * * * * + + "Hide-bound red tape rules the day." SIR F. MILNER'S _Letter to + "The Times."_ + +It is much more effective than ordinary unreinforced variety. + + * * * * * + +A Happy Family. + + "A milk deliverer 31 years of ago, who applied for exemption, + said his father was an Atheist, his mother was 'all the other + way about,' and his brother was a Socialist, and if he went away + there would be war at home. He considered that he should stay at + home to keep the peace."--_Western Evening Herald._ + +But a merciful tribunal, thinking that he was more likely to find it in +the trenches, only exempted him for a month. + + * * * * * + +THE NATIONAL SCAPE-GOAT ASSOCIATION. + +My companion had come into the compartment hurriedly just as the train +started. He was a small, middle-aged, sandy-haired man with a straggling +tufted beard, the sort of beard that looks as if it owed its origin +rather to forgetfulness than to any settled design. The expression on +his face and, indeed, over his whole body was a deprecating one. He +reminded me of a dog who has transgressed and begs humbly for +forgiveness. He had no newspaper, and accepted the offer of one of mine +with a deference of gratitude that struck me as excessive. Soon after +that we slid into a conversation about the War and made most of the +usual remarks. + +"It's wonderful," he said, "how the country maintains its financial +stability. Five millions a day, you know. It's a pretty big sum, and yet +nobody seems to feel it. Here we are, for instance, you and I, +travelling first-class." + +"My next season-ticket is going to be third-class," I said. "All +business has been hit very hard, and we've simply got to economise." + +"I daresay, I daresay," he said. "It may be so with some businesses. All +I know is my business hasn't gone off." + +"Shipowner?" I said. + +He gasped and shook his head emphatically. "Oh dear, no," he said. +"Nothing of that kind--wish I was. But you won't guess what I do, not if +I were to let you have a thousand guesses." His humility had vanished +and he looked almost triumphant. + +"I give it up at once," I said. "What are you?" + +"I," he said, "am the National Scape-Goat Association." + +"The _what_?" I said. + +He repeated his words. "I see you don't understand," he went on, "so +perhaps I'd better explain." + +"Yes," I said, "much better." + +"Well, it's this way," he said. "Have you ever written a book or been a +Candidate for a seat in the House of Commons?" + +I said I hadn't. + +"It doesn't matter," he said. "You'll understand what I mean. Take the +politician first. He issues an Address and makes speeches; in fact, does +things which make him known to thousands of people whom he doesn't know. +Do you follow me?" + +I said I did. + +"Well, then, somebody posts back his Election Address with 'This is +pitiful balderdash and most ungrammatical' written plainly at the bottom +of it. What would be your feelings if you got a thing like that?" + +"I shouldn't like it," I said. + +"Of course you wouldn't. You'd want to kick the writer, or at the very +least you'd want to write back to him and tell him what you thought of +him. But you can't do it, because of course he hasn't signed his name or +given any hint of his address. It's the same way with anonymous letters +of abuse. You can't answer them. So you 're done. You feel as if you'd +tried to walk up a step where there wasn't a step, and your temper +suffers. That's where the Association comes in. All you've got to do is +to write to us, enclosing fee. For half-a-guinea we send down to any +address in England one of our experts from the Assault-and-Battery +Department, and you're entitled to kick him once--we guarantee him +boot-proof, so you can kick as hard as you like. Or, if you prefer +writing to kicking, you can write to me as if I'd written the anonymous +letter or article or whatever it may be, and you can abuse me to your +heart's content for half-a-crown. For three shillings you can call me a +pro-German. Anyhow, the result is that your temper recovers and you feel +perfectly satisfied. It's well worth the money, isn't it? I'm thinking +of starting a Subscriptions' Department, to which you could write a +refusal of any application for money, even if you have to subscribe in +the end. It will give a man a pleasant glow to write to a clergyman, for +instance (I shall keep a dozen or so on the premises), and say he'll be +immortally jiggered if he'll subscribe to the Church Building Fund. But +the anonymous letter business will always be my chief source of profit. +Here's our prospectus, with all details. If you think any more of it +perhaps you'll let me know. I get out here. Good-bye." + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Kaiser (reading English news of wood-pulp +restrictions)._ "HIMMEL! THEY'LL THINK MORE THAN EVER OF THEIR PRECIOUS +'SCRAPS OF PAPER'!"] + + * * * * * + +Kipling Revised. + + "Men of all castes had rallied to the Flag, and truly we had + witnessed the truth of what the poet told us. 'The East is West + and the West is East.'" _Surrey Mirror._ + + * * * * * + + "Alfred Billinger and Albert Robson, miners ... were fined 20s. + each for trespassing in search of fame." _Provincial Paper._ + +Well, now they've got it. + + * * * * * + + "In the Metropolitan Police District the employment of special + constables has resulted in a saving of five-eighths of a + penny."--_Yorkshire Evening Post._ + +Very disappointing! Not even a whole copper. + + * * * * * + +From the report of a Dairyman's Association:-- + + "It further aims at insuring that the milk-supply for the city + and district shall, like Cæsar's wife, be beyond suspicion, and + it therefore enjoins on its members the necessity for taking + every possible care that the sanitary conditions prevailing at + the farms, in the dairies and during the transit of the milk to + the public shall leave nothing to be desired. In short, its + motto is, in these respects, '_Nilus secundus_'."--_Hampshire + Chronicle._ + +If they must use water in their milk we are glad to think that the Nile +is only their second choice. + + * * * * * + + "The Sunday schools must try to 'wangle'--that was, a project + their in-to 'wangle'--that was, to project their in-enlarged + task, and attempt to do what seemed impossible."--_Provincial + Paper._ + +We would not go so far as to say impossible, but they certainly seem to +have difficulties ahead. + + * * * * * + + "Good fish, fruit, and rabbit business for sale. No opposition + fish or rabbits."--_Bolton Journal._ + +It looks rather as if the fruit might disagree with you. + + * * * * * + +Under the heading, "Musical Instruments, etc.":-- + + "AMERICAN mammoth bronze turkey cockerels, strong, healthy, + grand stock birds; 20s. each."--_Glasgow Herald._ + +You should hear these musical instruments throw off "Yankee-doodle." + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Servant._ "I CAN'T GET THIS 'ERE TAIL LIGHT TO BURN, +SIR." + +_Country Doctor._ "OH, NEVER MIND. WE'RE ONLY GOING HOME, AND I'VE GOT +THE CONSTABLE SAFE IN BED WITH LUMBAGO."] + + * * * * * + +OUR BOOKING-OFFICE. + +(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._) + +Mr. Maurice Hewlett's latest volume, _Frey and His Wife_ (WARD, LOCK), +suffers from the defect of being in reality a long short story puffed +out to the dimensions of a short novel; and in consequence, even with +large type--most grateful to the reviewing eye; Heaven forbid I should +complain of that!--and a blank page between each chapter, it has +considerable difficulty in filling its volume. It is a tale of antique +Iceland and Norway. The first part, which is really padding and has +nothing whatever to do with _Frey_ or his matrimonial affairs, treats of +one _Ogmund_, who was called _Ogmund Dint_, for the very good reason +that he had been literally dinted as to the skull. It was done by a +gentleman named _Halward_. Everybody naturally expected _Ogmund_ to dint +back; but he was something of a conscientious objector in the matter of +face-to-face dinting, and being too proud for vulgar conflict he bided +his time till he could cut _Halward_'s throat with the minimum of +personal inconvenience. End of padding and appearance of _Frey_. There +is a picture of _Frey_ on the cover by Mr. MAURICE GREIFFENHAGEN. You +know already what the GREIFFENHAGEN vikings are like--high-coloured, +well developed and (if I dare say it) sometimes a trifle wooden. _Frey_ +indeed looked so very wooden that in my foolish ignorance I was tempted +to protest. But the astonishing fact is that Frey was not only wooden in +appearance, but in actuality. How then could he have for wife a slip of +a sixteen-year-old maid that you may have met before in Mr HEWLETT's +romances? This however is the real story, which (pardon me) I do not +mean to tell. If it is no tremendous matter, it will at least please an +idle hour, which will be almost time enough for you to enjoy every word +of it. + +_These Lynnekers_ (CASSELL) is yet another example of the "family" novel +whose increasing popularity I have lately noticed. It is a clever and +interesting story--the name of Mr. J. D. BERESFORD assured me in advance +that it would be--and, when it is finished, the characters go on living +and speaking in one's mind, which is, I suppose, a sound proof of their +vitality. Yet in a sense vitality was just what most of the _Lynneker_ +tribe chiefly lacked. They were an ancient and honourable house, +country-born to the third and fourth generation, and all of them far too +conventional and apathetic and fuss-hating ever to follow any but the +line of least resistance. All of them, that is, except _Dickie_, who was +the youngest of his father's numerous progeny, and in more senses than +one a sport. How _Dickie_ released himself from the shackles of family +tradition, how he grew up and bustled things about, and generally made a +real instead of a conventional success--this is the matter of the tale. +All the characters are well-drawn, and about _Dickie_ himself there is a +compelling virility that rushes you along in his rather tempestuous +wake. I am not sure that I altogether believe in his attitude towards +the question of sex. He appeared to think generally too little, and on +occasions remarkably too much, about it. Also the painful detail with +which the author lingers over the death of old _Canon Lynneker_ (that +attractive and human figure of ecclesiastical gentility) roused me to +resentment. When will our novelists learn that, as regards the physical +side of mortality, reticence is by far the better part of realism? This +marred a little my pleasure in a story for whose quality and workmanship +I should else have nothing but praise. + + * * * * * + +In _To Ruhleben--and Back_ (CONSTABLE), Mr. GEOFFREY PYKE has such a +fine yarn to spin of his foolhardy proceeding in walking right into the +eagle's beak as correspondent for an English newspaper, at the end of +September, 1914, and (after some months' solitary confinement in Berlin +and his transfer to the civilian prisoners' miserable internment camp at +Ruhleben) walking right out of it again, that one can forgive him for +spreading his elbows for a piece of expansive writing when he was safe +home. To tell the truth he writes extraordinarily well; one's only +feeling is that the simplest idiom would be best for such an amazing +narrative, and Mr. PYKE is too young and too clever (both charmingly +venial faults) to write simply. When I tell you that this persistent +youngster, hardly out of his teens, patiently worked out a plan of +escape which depended for its efficacy on an optical illusion (the +precise secret of which he does not give away), and with his friend, Mr. +EDWARD FALK, a District Commissioner from Nigeria, part tramped, part +_bummel-zugged_ the two hundred and fifty miles or so from Ruhleben to +the Dutch frontier, disguised as tourists, with a kit openly bought at +WERTHEIM's, living, when marketing became too dangerous, on potatoes and +other roots burglariously digged from the fields at dark, you will +gather that this is some adventure. But I am afraid the publication will +not assist any other prisoners at Ruhleben to escape. It is pleasant to +note that the Commandant of the Camp, VON TAUBB, was a sportsman and +none too thickly tarred with the brush of Prussian efficiency; and that +the Governor, GRAF SCHWERIN, threatened resignation if a no-smoking +order, sent from headquarters, were insisted on. Indeed, the fact that +our young friend was not shot out of hand must stand as a small entry on +the credit side, not inconveniently crowded, of Prussia's account in the +recording angel's ledger. + + * * * * * + +In _A Frenchwoman's Notes on the War_ (CONSTABLE) Mademoiselle CLAIRE DE +PRATZ discourses pleasantly and patriotically of sundry effects of the +War on French life and character. She is excusably proud of the part +which her fellow-countrywomen have played. The women of France seem to +have accomplished to admiration what we in England are only beginning to +understand. Quietly, almost automatically, Frenchwomen have slipped into +the men's vacant places and carried on the work of the country. The +industry and resourcefulness of the average Frenchwoman are proverbial, +but the author ascribes the peculiar readiness they have displayed at +the present time largely to compulsory military service, as well as to +the Frenchman's habit of discussing his work with his wife and daughters +and awakening their interest in it. Thus, when the local paperhanger was +called to the colours his wife repapered the author's country cottage +"quite as efficiently"; and thrilling indeed is the account of the +gallantry of one intrepid woman who, when the German Staff entered an +important town (from which the Mayor and Municipal Council had fled), +resisted their demand for a large war ransom. Widow of a former Senator +of the Department, she "alone remained, the sole representative of +officialdom." "We want to see the Mayor," said the invaders. "_Le Maire? +C'est moi!_" was the reply. "Then kindly direct us to some members of +the Municipal Council." "_Le Conseil Municipal? C'est moi!_" We are told +that the Teutonic officials were amazed--and no wonder. But in the end +they were forced to go without the money, and the town and its defender +were left in peace. I commend _A Frenchwoman's Notes on the War_ as a +most inspiriting record of what women can do; though the author +magnanimously admits that, "for the callings of the coal-heaver and the +furniture-remover," men, even in France, are still indispensable. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: A PEACE WEDDING. + +UNIQUE SOCIAL FUNCTION WHICH TOOK PLACE AT LITTLE PUDDLETHORPE, HERTS, +LAST WEEK.] + + * * * * * + +For novels which require a guide to conduct me through them I confess +weariness, but in _That Woman from Java_ (HURST AND BLACKETT) I found +the glossary less fatiguing hero. Things were going badly for _Mrs. +Hamilton_ in the divorce case, "_Hamilton v. Hamilton_, co-respondent +_King_," when the judge broke down. That might have happened to any +judge, but, although I can follow the judicial _Bruce_ quite easily to +his sick bed, I cannot believe that he would, on his recovery, have +refrained from finding out how the case ended. Apparently being in love +with _Mrs. Hamilton_, he did not dare to enquire what happened; but a +more plausible explanation of his unenterprising conduct seems to be +that he had only to act like an ordinary man and the rather sandy +foundations on which E. HARDINGHAM QUINN's story are built would have +collapsed. Here in fact we have a tale in which the main complications +are caused by the characters behaving with a total lack of what the +Americans call horse-sense. But if you can get by this difficulty you +will admire, as I did, the reticence with which the troubles of the much +misunderstood heroine are told, and also admit that the colour of Java +has been vividly conveyed. + + * * * * * + +Save the Mark! + +Germany's last word:-- + + "_Kriegsvermoegenszuwachssteuergesetz._" + +And a very pretty word too. But it does not surprise us to learn from +the German Press that the Legislature will probably have to devote at +least three weeks to the discussion of the subject which it defines. + + * * * * * + +From a book catalogue:-- + + "_The Royal Marriage Market of Europe._ By Princess Radziwill. + With eight half-ton illustrations." + +It is thought that these must be portraits of German princesses taken +before the War had deprived them of their usual supply of butter. + + * * * * * + + "ARTIST, Academy Exhibitor, paints gentlemen's residences." + +_Sunday Paper._ + +Another result, no doubt, of the exigencies of War, but rather hard on +the ordinary house-decorator. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI, VOL. +150, MARCH 8, 1916*** + + +******* This file should be named 22993-8.txt or 22993-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/9/22993 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, March 8, 1916</p> +<p>Author: Various</p> +<p>Editor: Owen Seaman</p> +<p>Release Date: October 14, 2007 [eBook #22993]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI, VOL. 150, MARCH 8, 1916***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Jane Hyland, Jonathan Ingram,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="pg" /> + + <h1>PUNCH,<br /> + OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.</h1> + + <h2>Vol. 150.</h2> + <hr class="full" /> + + <h2>March 8th, 1916.</h2> + <hr class="full" /> + + +<h2>CHARIVARIA.</h2> + +<p>Germany is declared to have built a submarine that can go to the United +States and back. Future insults therefore will be delivered by hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>Municipal fishshops are to be established in Germany. They will be +closely associated, it is understood, with the Overseas News Agency, and +will make a speciality of supplying a fish diet to sailors who are +unfortunately prevented by circumstances from visiting the high seas.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>In his lecture before the Royal Institute last week Dr. E. G. <span class="smcap">Russell</span> +told his audience that there are 80,000,000 micro-organisms in a +tablespoonful of rich cucumber soil. If we substitute German casualties +for micro-organisms and deduct the average monthly wastage as shown by +the private lists from the admitted official total of available +effectives—but we are treading on Mr. <span class="smcap">Belloc's</span> preserves.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>The Government has announced itself as "satisfied with the measures +taken to prevent Canadian nickel from reaching the Germans." Except, of +course, in oblong pellets of insignificant size.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>Answering a question of Sir <span class="smcap">Arthur Markham</span> in the House of Commons last +week, Mr. <span class="smcap">Tennant</span> said, "If there was a large force of troops in Egypt, +as to which it is undesirable that I should make any statement, it is +quite conceivable that the presence of a hundred and seventeen Generals +might be necessary." After all, if every one of them were just a +Brigadier-General, they wouldn't require more than half-a-million men to +keep them occupied.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>Naval inspectors of cookery, it is officially announced, will hereafter +wear a narrow stripe of white cloth on their cuff. This is a simplified +form of the ancient heraldic emblem of the cook's guild, which was a +hair <i>frizzé naiant</i> in a dish of soup <i>maigre</i>.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>All kinds of cleaning and washing are to be dearer, and a patriotic +movement is already on foot among the younger set to do away with these +luxuries altogether in the interests of patriotic economy.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>As a reward of its efforts to save the lives of war-horses, the +R.S.P.C.A. has now been officially recognized by the A.V.C. Some +hindrance to their work is however feared as the result of strong +protests lodged by the Westphalen Pie-makers' Association of Rotterdam, +which the Government, in its anxiety not to deal harshly with the +neutrals, is said to be carefully considering.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>The owners of certain proprietary whiskeys have decided to put them up +sixpence a bottle. In response to this move the owners of certain +proprietary sixpences have decided not to put them down.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>A correspondent of <i>The Times</i> states that large numbers of Owls have +taken to visiting the trenches in Flanders. The War Office, strangely +enough, professes to know nothing of the circumstance.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 50%;"> +<a href="images/161.png"><img width="100%" src="images/161.png" alt="" /></a> + +<h3>THE ROYAL GONDOLIERS.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">"We understand that our courteous Allies in Venice have offered to supply +floating facilities for our troops in the flooded trenches of Flanders."</span></p> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>For Conscientious Objectors.</h3> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Varicose Veins</span>.—We stock all sizes, in best quality +only."—<i>Advt. in Irish Paper</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>British Frightfulness.</h3> + +<blockquote><p>"A young woman was fried as a spy in London the other +day."—<i>Sunday Pictorial</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>A Leap-Year Reminder.</h3> + +<blockquote><p>"February 29, 1916.—Last day for single men."—<i>Liverpool Daily +Post</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"We ... are no haters of peace. We want it more than anything in +the world—except the triumph of evil."—<i>Star</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>"A fallen star," we fear.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"Mr. Lloyd George said that Cabinet Ministers had agreed to take +one-fourth of their salaries in Exchequer bombs."— +<i>Provincial Paper</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The times call for strong measures, but we think this is going a little +too far.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>TEUTON OVERTURES.</h2> + +<p><span class="smcap">As seen through Teuton Eyes.</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">These English—who can know their ways?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When, flushed with triumphs large and many,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">We condescend with tactful signs</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To hint of peace on generous lines</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They answer in a flippant phrase</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That they're "not taking any."</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When from our conquering High-Seas Ark</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Detained at home by stress of weather)</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">We loosed the emblematic dove,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Conveying overtures of love,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Back came the bird with that remark,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Minus its best tail feather.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They said they never wanted war;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yet, when we talk of war's abating,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And name the price for them to pay,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">They have the curious nerve to say</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That, when they please, and not before,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">They'll do their own dictating.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How can you deal with minds so slow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With men who give no indication</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That we by any further shock</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Into their heads can hope to knock</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Enough intelligence to know</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That they're a beaten nation?</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Odd that we cannot make it clear</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That we have won; and even odder</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That other markets seem to jump,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">While our exchange is on the slump,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And everything's starvation-dear</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Excepting cannon-fodder).</span><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">O. S.</span> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>RECONSTRUCTION.</h2> + +<p>In that dim happy past, the Summer of 1913, I first saw him idly seated +in a deck-chair on the firm sands of——, on the East Coast. A quiet +detached figure amid a crowd of joyous children. Hard by a boy and girl +were building a moated fortress, but, alas! the swiftly incoming tide +eroded its foundations until the frowning battlements tottered to +destruction.</p> + +<p>Turning, the children faced him. He smiled.</p> + +<p>"D'you know this one, Jacky?" he ventured.</p> + +<p>"He's Dick," the little maid protested, "and I'm Betty."</p> + +<p>"Now we're introduced, do you know this one?" he asked again.</p> + +<p>Straightaway he plunged into the new game, moving back to where a smooth +stretch of sand lay invitingly. Immediately two minute shapes were +etched with his stick on its surface.</p> + +<p>"What's those?"</p> + +<p>"Hairpins, of course! You <i>always</i> start with hairpins. And this," +indicating a narrow oblong, "why, this must be that silver tray +someone's always leaving her hairpins lying about on. Now for the +hair-brushes—two of those—" (unerringly symmetrical)—"then the +comb—" (equipped with most effective sand-teeth)—"then a powder-box? +Well, a very little one——"</p> + +<p>As fast as he thought of them, fresh articles (or their symbols) came +into being. There was no pause. "The shoe-horn, the button-hook, oh! and +a clothes-brush——"</p> + +<p>Immediately following the last hair of the clothes-brush a rectangle put +in an appearance around these assorted objects.</p> + +<p>"Mummy's dressing-table," asserted Master Dick authoritatively.</p> + +<p>"Sound man! What else do we want?"</p> + +<p>The children suggested alternately and in chorus the completion of the +plan. An armchair with cushions incredibly soft, a fire-place pokered +and tonged, a wardrobe (disproportionately enormous), two colossal +hat-boxes, and detail after detail, with finally the door, the key-hole +and the key.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The little hamlet somewhere in France had been shelled spasmodically for +months. Possibly there was something faintly familiar in the seated +figure of that Captain of Engineers that caught my eye; one did not +often come across Captains of Engineers sitting on <i>débris</i> in the +village street. He squatted on a pile of granular masonry before a +rudely prepared space surrounded by three small ragged children gazing +round-eyed at something he was drawing with half a Nilgiri cane in the +powdered rubble. I paused to look, and there arose before me the picture +of a man with a boy and girl on a bygone day in happy England.</p> + +<p>"On commence avec le sel," he was explaining as he indicated the shape +of a salt-cellar. "Eh b'en, après ça quat' assiettes, des couteaux, des +fourchettes——" All the appurtenances of a homely table were quickly +put in. "Et puis la table, n'est-ce pas? Et surtout faut pas oublier +quelqu'chose à manger, eh, Jeanne?"</p> + +<p>"Non, monsieur." But the little girl was busy pointing to where a small +brown bird pecked fruitlessly in the dust. "Regardez, donc, le p'tit +oiseau; il n'a pas mangé, c'lui là."</p> + +<p>"Y a pas grande chose à manger; les Boches, vous savez, ont passé par +ici," added one of the two boys quite impersonally.</p> + +<p>The Captain of Engineers continued quickly, "Maintenant il faut mettre +le—" he paused for the word—"le—table-cloth." The children grasped +his meaning from the comprehensive gesture. Rapidly he outlined chairs, +a delightful baby's cradle, a clock with cuckoo complete, a fire-place, +until at length a complete pictorial inventory had been made of the +contents of the living-room of just such a cottage as had obviously been +buried beneath the rubbish heap upon which he sat. Those children of the +stricken country-side entered with keenness into the spirit of the +make-believe. The little girl, searching for an appropriate stone to +place on the imaginary table for imaginary bread, thrust her hand down +among the <i>débris</i> and, withdrawing it, exposed a relic. It was the +faded remnant of a baby's shoe, grotesque in the autumn sunshine.</p> + +<p>"Oui, par exemple, les Boches ont passé par ici," said the little boy as +impersonally as before.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>In a Good Cause.</h3> + +<p>An auction of stamps will be held on the 13th and 14th of March at 47, +Leicester Square, in aid of the National Philatelic War Fund, the +proceeds to be given to the Societies of the British Red Cross and St. +John of Jerusalem. Collectors should seize this chance, as the Allies +may shortly be arranging to modify the map of the world.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"The year 1914 showed a drop of 441 million eggs in the year." +<i>Trade Paper</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Taking our population as 46 millions this means 9½ eggs dropped per +head in the year. Under the influence of the thrift campaign a great +effort is being made to drop only half an egg per head this year, but +should there be a General Election there may be a rise in the drop.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 90%;"> +<a href="images/163.png"><img width="90%" src="images/163.png" alt="" /></a> + +<h3>WHO PAYS?</h3> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Father.</span> "WE ARE MAKING TERRIBLE SACRIFICES."</p> +<p><span class="smcap">The Son.</span> "YES, FATHER, BUT I AM VERY BRAVE; I CAN BEAR THEM."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/164.png"><img width="100%" src="images/164.png" alt="" /></a> + +<p><i>Visitor.</i> "<span class="smcap">And what did you do when the shell struck you</span>?"</p> +<p><i>Bored Tommy.</i> "<span class="smcap">Sent mother a postcard to have my bed aired</span>."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>THE GREAT MAN.</h2> + +<p>Every Saturday, about four <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, I am to be found worshipping at the +Shrine of the Open Mind. Once within its portals I put off the subfuse +vestments of J. Watson, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, and become simply Uncle +James. This alone is a tonic. To-day as I ascended the steps of the +temple there floated down to me the voices of the priestesses chanting, +evidently in a kind of frenzy, and to the air of a famous Scottish reel, +this rhyme——</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Daddy is a Sergeant, a Sergeant, a Sergeant!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Daddy is a Sergeant, a Sergeant of Police."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>So I opened the nursery door and went in. An uncle has no honour in his +own country, and my two small nieces assaulted me immediately. Phyllis +dragged me to a chair, while Lillah shrieked unrelentingly in my ear +that Daddy was a sergeant.</p> + +<p>"So the special constables have seen that your father is a born +policeman?" I said as I sat down.</p> + +<p>"The <i>special</i> ones," nodded Phyllis with profound pride.</p> + +<p>"Magnificent," I murmured. "He has at last justified his choice of the +law as a profession."</p> + +<p>"Tell us," said Lillah, with the air with which one speaks of a +self-made man who has just appeared in the Honours List—"tell us how +Daddy started."</p> + +<p>"He went to the Bar," I said.</p> + +<p>"Bar?" echoed Lillah.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," I said; "it's a place where people wait."</p> + +<p>"Like a station?"</p> + +<p>"Only the trains don't always come in. Anyway, on one side of the bar +are a lot of young men waiting for something to turn up, and on the +other a lot of old men writing autobiographies."</p> + +<p>"But aren't there any middling-olders?" This is Phyllistian for men of +middle age.</p> + +<p>"Not allowed," I said. "At the Bar you are either a junior or a +reminiscer."</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"It's an illness that attacks people who aren't really famous."</p> + +<p>Phyllis stared. "Like measles?"</p> + +<p>I nodded.</p> + +<p>"Oh," cried Lillah eagerly, "do the reminiscers go all pink?"</p> + +<p>"They ought to," said I.</p> + +<p>There was a silence. The round eyes of Phyllis were full of suspicion.</p> + +<p>"Daddy said," she remarked slowly, "that he did law."</p> + +<p>"So he does," I answered.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's that, then?"</p> + +<p>Small girls ask questions in two words which wise men must write books +to answer.</p> + +<p>"The law," I answered warily, "gives reasons for things that are +unreasonable."</p> + +<p>"Like what?" said Phyllis.</p> + +<p>I laughed a little uneasily. This was getting difficult.</p> + +<p>"Oh—er—things like getting married," I said, "and refraining from +shooting little girls who ask questions."</p> + +<p>I admit that this sort of joke is the last infirmity of an uncle's +otherwise noble mind. They regarded me sadly.</p> + +<p>Then Lillah turned to Phyllis with a detached air. "Uncle James is being +grand," she said, "because he doesn't know what law is."</p> + +<p>"Don't you?" said Phyllis.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," I murmured feebly. The nursery makes very small beer of +the cynic. There was a moment's silence.</p> + +<p>"You've told us wrong," said Phyllis sternly. "Daddy isn't ever wrong."</p> + +<p>"So he's risen from his bar to be a sergeant," added Lillah, with the +air of one finishing a story with a moral.</p> + +<p>I'm afraid I chuckled. It was in very bad taste, of course, but I +couldn't help it. I suppose George is one of the most egregious +Micawbers of the English Bar, whereas I—— why, I remember noticing a +brief on the mantelpiece in my chambers only last month.</p> + +<p>"Poor Uncle James," said Phyllis in her best drawing-room tones, +"perhaps if you tried very hard——"</p> + +<p>They had mistaken my laughter for that bitter disappointed kind you get +in the theatres.</p> + +<p>"I know," said Lillah; "we'll play Germans, and Uncle James can pretend +he's a sergeant."</p> + +<p>Yes, they were sorry for me. The table was pushed into the window and +became a waterworks of importance.</p> + +<p>The invidious part of the alien enemy fell to Lillah. It was admitted +that she could glare best. "Besides," said Phyllis, "Lillah can make +growly noises come up from her tummy."</p> + +<p>The complete Hun, as you perceive.</p> + +<p>Phyllis became a "special," while I was her sergeant, the star part of +the piece. But the show was a frost, though Lillah gave an excellent +imitation, with the aid of a toy spider, of a Hun inserting bacilli into +the nation's <i>aqua pura</i>. Yes, I'm afraid I was the failure. I couldn't +get to grips with my part, and the whole thing was so obviously a +charity performance, with Phyllis ordering herself sternly about to try +and help me through.</p> + +<p>We were halfway through the second house when a well-known step was +heard on the stairs.</p> + +<p>Lillah turned, her eyes ablaze with worship. Phyllis trembled with +excitement. As I sat down I couldn't help thinking that we grown-ups are +just a little absurd. There is more than one thinks in the relativity of +things.</p> + +<p>Adoration? George was never going to get anything like it again in this +world. My mind mused on ambition. Why, the <span class="smcap">Chancellor of the Exchequer</span> +himself——</p> + +<p>The door-handle turned and I heard the small voice of Phyllis in my ear.</p> + +<p>"Mummie says," she whispered, "we can't all be great."</p> + +<p>Nice little maid!</p> + +<p>Then we all lined up to receive the Sergeant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/165.png"><img width="100%" src="images/165.png" alt="" /></a> + +<p><i>Mother.</i> "<span class="smcap">No, Betty darling, I can't button your boots +for you. Now you have a little sister you must learn to do things for +yourself</span>."</p> + +<p><i>Betty.</i> "<span class="smcap">Shall I <i>always</i> have to do fings for myself</span>?"</p> + +<p><i>Mother</i>. "<span class="smcap">Yes, darling</span>."</p> +<p><i>Betty.</i> "<span class="smcap">Then I don't fink +I shall like life.</span>"</p></div> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +"<span class="smcap">turkish communiqué</span>. + +<blockquote><p>Constantinople, Saturday.—On the Canadian front there were +outpost duels and local fighting at several points. These +skirmishes are still going on."—<i>Evening Paper</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Forthcoming volume by Sir <span class="smcap">Max Aitken</span>—<i>Canada in Turkey</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>From a description of a new enemy aeroplane:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"The whole machine is armoured, and the supper part is shaped +like a reversed roof." <i>Provincial Paper</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Trust the Germans for looking after the commissariat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>AN EMBARGO ON INK.</h2> + +<p><span class="smcap">Great Public Meeting.</span></p> + +<p>Mr. Runciman, President of the Board of Trade, having stated that the +Government was following up its restrictions on the importation of paper +by drastic new rules concerning our supplies of ink, a public meeting of +protest was immediately called. Mr. T. P. O'Notor, M.P., took the chair, +and he was supported by many of the most illustrious ink-men of the day.</p> + +<p>The Chairman, having first read a number of letters apologising for +absence, one of which was, of course, from Lord Southbluff, who +specialises in this epistolary form, proceeded to pour scorn on the +Board of Trade's decision. How can the Board of Trade, he asked +pointedly, know its business as well as we do? If it hopes, by +curtailing the supplies of ink that come to England, to make room for +the more important necessaries of life, it is mistaken. There is nothing +more important than ink. (Cheers.) Without ink what are we? (A voice: +"Not much.") Without ink, how can advertisements be written? (Cries of +"Shame!") Among all forms of human endeavour none was nobler than +putting one word after another. (Applause.) That is what <span class="smcap">Shakspeare</span> did. +(Hear, hear.) Always with the assistance of ink. (Cheers.) And what +would England be like without <span class="smcap">Shakspeare</span>? (Renewed cheers.) Had Mr. +<span class="smcap">Runciman</span> thought of that? He (the speaker) would venture to say he had +not. In any case ink must be saved. (Loud applause.)</p> + +<p>Mr. Harry Austinson, Editor of <i>The English Revue</i>, rose to protest +against the Board of Trade action. To put an embargo upon ink was, he +held, nothing less than an outrage. Ink was the life-blood of British +liberty, and he for one would never hesitate to spill the last drop, +either in his own select periodical or in a Sunday paper for the masses. +The mere fact that the feeling against ink was inaugurated by a Member +of the Government automatically proved it wrong. No good could come from +such a corrupt agglomeration of salary-seekers as the Coalition +Ministry. Speaking as one who knew Germany from within, he would say +that to put any obstacle in the way of the public expression of opinion +in England was to help the foe. (Hear, hear.)</p> + +<p>Mr. Bernold Pennit said that the Government's action paralysed him. For +years he had been in the habit of writing his ten thousand words a day. +It did not much matter what they were about; the point was that they +were written. Otherwise he could not keep in good health. Where another +man might do Swedish exercises, ride, walk, eat or play golf, he, Mr. +Pennit, wrote. (Hear, hear.) It might be an attack on British stupidity; +it might be a eulogy of Mr. <span class="smcap">Asquith</span>; it might be a description of the +arrival of a ton of coal at an auctioneer's private residence in Handley +and its transference to the cellar and the discovery that there was one +hundredweight one stone short. Whatever the theme, there were ten +thousand words in any case, and unless he could write them daily he was +lost. The tragic thing was that he could write only in ink and with his +own hand. (Sensation.) Before meddling with ink there were all sorts of +things for the Government to forbid. Golf balls, for one. He wished to +express his complete dissatisfaction with Mr. <span class="smcap">Runciman</span>'s insane +proposal. (Cheers.)</p> + +<p>Mr. Bolaire Hillock thought that a great deal too much fuss was being +made about ink. The Board of Trade was, of course, an ass; that goes +without saying (<i>ça va sans dire</i>); but it is childish of literary men to +come there and pretend to be nonplussed. Let them rather show themselves +superior to such trumpery legislation. As an old campaigner he could +tell them what to do. When he was an artilleryman in France, and writing +a series of articles on the Reformation at the same time, he mixed an +excellent substitute for ink out of the ashes of his pipe and claret. +There were countless things that could be utilised, including blacking, +seethed mushrooms, boiled ash-buds, and the juice of the pickled walnut. +With such resources as these we intended to go on writing and drawing +diagrams long after Mr. <span class="smcap">Runciman</span> was forgotten. (Loud cheers.)</p> + +<p>Lord Penge said that one of the purest pleasures of life was writing to +<i>The Times</i>, and how could that be done if there was no ink? Some people +doubtless could use pencil; but he personally could not. Others had +typewriters or dictated to typists, but that was beyond him. To him +there were few delights more complete than to dip his pen in the +forbidden fluid and begin, "Sir." (Applause.)</p> + +<p>The Rev. R. Trampbell said that not during his whole career as a +clergyman of the Church of England could he remember a more monstrous +proposal than this one to reduce the supply of ink. To him ink was more +precious than radium, for it enabled him to express his thoughts and +thus come into intimate relationship with his fellow-beings. It might be +within the knowledge of the meeting that he was in the habit of +contributing every week an article on the War to the Sunday papers. It +was not on tactics, but on some subject of spiritual interest connected +with the War, and he had reason to believe that thousands, he might say +millions, of his fellow-countrymen and fellow-countrywomen found it +helpful. Was that to cease? England had too few inspired teachers for +this article to be lightly disposed of. He felt sure that he had the +great weight of his beloved Church of England at the back of him when he +uttered this protest.</p> + +<p>Mr. Chester Gilbertson said that neither the restriction on ink or paper +would worry him. There was nothing he couldn't write <i>with</i>, and nothing +he couldn't write <i>on</i>. He had written many of his best articles with a +piece of chalk on one of his black coats, and many of his worst on cab +and railway-carriage windows with a diamond ring which he had compelled +a commercial traveller to relinquish. (Cheers.) Rather than not express +an opinion on whatever was forward, he would carve his views on a rock +and himself carry the rock to the printing office. (Loud cheers.) The +Runcimen of this world were created purely in order to be defied.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bernard Jaw said that of course for the Government to pretend that +the cargo space now occupied by ink was needed for something else was +rubbish. The Government's real reason was that they were terrified of +the critics and thought to muzzle them in this way. But he for one—and +he knew for a fact that the Government dreaded his genius acutely and +would give much if they could still the blistering accuracy of his +pen—he for one would not be daunted.</p> + +<p>At this point a special messenger arrived bearing a letter for the +Chairman, who, after reading it, asked leave to put the meeting in +possession of its terms, as it somewhat altered the situation. It was, +in fact, from the Board of Trade, and stated that, owing to a misprint, +the recent decision concerning ink had been misunderstood. It was not +ink that was to be restricted, but zinc. (Cheers.) In the circumstances +perhaps they might adjourn.</p> + +<p>The meeting then broke up peaceably, although Mr. Bernard Jaw did his +best to collect an audience for a new speech on the monstrosity of +interfering with zinc.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"Count Bernstorff finds that the Washington Government has left +him in the air. Seemingly he is at sea."—<i>Morning Post</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>As was said of a nobler character, "the elements are so mixed up in +him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/167.png"><img width="100%" src="images/167.png" alt="" /></a> + +<p><i>Jones (left at home to mind the children).</i> "<span class="smcap">If the +paper's anything to go by, we married men will all be in the Army by +July. It seems a long time to wait.</span>"</p></div> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>THE EXPERT ADVISER.</h2> + +<p>I met him near the entrance of the Institute, where I was waiting to see +the Superintendent. He approached with light, nervous steps, and his +haggard eyes met mine questioningly.</p> + +<p>"A fine morning," I remarked.</p> + +<p>"It is," he agreed; "and if you would be good enough to tell me the day +of the week—"</p> + +<p>"It's Saturday," I said, wondering a little.</p> + +<p>"I—I feared so," he said and clutched me by the arm. "Listen. This is +the day when I have to make up my five columns—seven hundred lines, +brevier type. It is my destiny to give advice, and you can have it +without the asking. Take, for example, the Rhode Island Rabbit—a noble +strain and rich in phosphates. Plant out at the beginning of April in a +mixture consisting of two parts road-grit, two parts table-scraps, and a +deed of assignment, and by the end of October they will be throwing up +magnificent clusters of yellow blossom. The Magellan Lop-eared is also +hardy and prolific, though pugnacious if reared under glass. In the +absence of a specified agreement a dose of tartaric acid that has been +well stewed with the mutton left over from Sunday will usually put +matters straight. Snip off shoots that show signs of becoming broody, +and give a mash of middlings at quarter-day.</p> + +<p>"We now come to the Light Sussex Long-furred Goatlings. These can be +kept in hutches, which may be obtained at any oil-shop at about +fivepence per pint. Grasp firmly by the wings when lifting, and explain +the matter to your solicitor. Short-haired Pouters should be housed in +kennels which have been thoroughly disinfected with peat-moss, +cod-liver-oil emulsion and a good face-powder. A little boracic ointment +rubbed well into the roots before breakfast is also to be commended. +With regard to the Squirrel-tailed Borzois, during the period of weaning +try bicarbonate of soda, one scruple; sal volatile, one drachm; to be +taken every calendar month from date of contract."</p> + +<p>A large, genial man, with an official manner—he was, I discovered, the +under-superintendent—approached, and the haggard man moved rapidly +away.</p> + +<p>"A painful case," I observed.</p> + +<p>"Very," said the large man. "Journalist of the name of Criddle—Jabez +Wilberforce Criddle. He used to run the Gardening section of <i>The Sunday +Helio</i>. Then the chap that was responsible for the 'Legal Advice' was +called up, and Criddle got his column as well as his own. Next, the +'Poultry Gossip' man went, and they gave Criddle that, and when a week +later the 'Cookery Notes' woman took up V.A.D. work he got her share +too. He struggled along gamely enough until 'Auntie Gladys,' who ran +'Our Baby' column, became a tram-conductress; but, when they passed him +that, his mind went, and the proprietors sent him here."</p> + +<p>I inquired as to the possibilities of recovery.</p> + +<p>"There is hope," said the large man, "that the trouble may not last +beyond the duration of the War. But we shan't feel that we've made a +fair start until we've cured him of getting up in the night and tapping +his artificial teeth with a button-hook. He fancies he's dictating +'Answers to Correspondents.'"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>Clerical Candour.</h3> + +<blockquote><p>"In order to satisfy my mind I spent over two hours in a certain +cinema ... Frankly I was disappointed. I saw nothing which could +in any way be called indecent."</p> + +<p><i>The Rev. F. H. <span class="smcap">Gillingham</span>, in "The Weekly Dispatch."</i></p></blockquote><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/168.png"><img width="100%" src="images/168.png" alt="" /></a> + +<h3>AN UNEASY CONSCIENCE.</h3> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Well, I'm off to my dressmaker's. I can't sit here any longer being +economised at by that girl's clothes</span>."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>THE WORLD SET FREE.</h2> + +<p> +(<i>An awful prospect</i>.)<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Long, long ago, when I had not attested,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I prized the liberties of this proud race,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The right of speech, from haughty rulers wrested,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The right to put one's neighbours in their place;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">I liked to argue and I loved to pass</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Slighting remarks on Robert, who's an ass,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To hint that Henry's manners were no class,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or simply say I did not like his face.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But things are changed. To-day I had a tussle</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With some low scion of an upstart line;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Meagre his intellect, absurd his muscle,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I should have strafed him in the days long syne;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">I took a First, and he could hardly parse;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">I have more eloquence but he more stars;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Yet (so insane the ordinance of Mars)</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I must say "Yessir," and salute the swine.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And it was hard when that abrupt Staff-Major</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Up to the firing-line one evening came</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Unknown his motive, probably a wager),</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And said quite rudely, "You are much to blame;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Those beggars yonder you should enfilade."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">I fingered longingly a nice grenade;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">I said those beggars were our First Brigade,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But might not call him any kind of name.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet not for ever shall the bard be muted</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By stars and stripes, but freely, as of yore,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When swords are sheathed and I'm civilian-suited,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I shall have speech with certain of my corps,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Speak them the insults which I now but brood:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Pompous," "incompetent," "too fond of food,"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And fiercely taste the bliss of being rude</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And unrestrained by Articles of War.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That will be great; but what if such intentions</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Are likewise present in the Tenth Platoon?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">What if some labourer of huge dimensions</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Meet me defenceless in a Tube saloon,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And hiss his catalogue of unpaid scores,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">How oft I criticised his forming fours,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Or prisoned him behind the Depôt doors,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or kept him digging on the Fourth of June?</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Painful. And then, when all these arméd millions</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Unknot with zest the military noose,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Will the whole world be full of wroth civilians,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Each one exulting in a tongue let loose?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And who shall picture or what bard shall pen</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The crowning horror which awaits us then—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That civil warfare of uncivil men</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In one great Armageddon of abuse?</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>A Pluralist.</h3> + +<p>The writer of a letter appearing in <i>The Daily Mail</i> signs herself "Wife +of Group 41."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 85%;"> +<a href="images/169.png"><img width="85%" src="images/169.png" alt="" /></a> + +<h3>THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">John Bull</span> (<i>to himself</i>). "TELL YOU WHAT IT IS, MY FRIEND—YOU'VE BEEN +DOING YOURSELF TOO WELL. IF YOU MEAN TO WIN THIS WAR YOU'VE GOT TO SEE +WHAT YOU CAN DO WITHOUT."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p></div> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>FRANK.</h2> + +<p>In my first formal introduction to Frank he appeared, together with his +clothing and various belongings, as an item in a list of things to be +taken over. I knew him already by reputation, and I remembered some of +the occasions when he had appeared on parade. Also I knew that two +successive Company Commanders had managed in turn to exchange him with +some unsuspecting newly appointed O.C. Company for something more +tractable. This last process, indeed, accounted for my having to take +him over instead of the mild creature with the duck-waddle action which +my predecessor had ridden or, let me say, sat.</p> + +<p>It became then my lot to take over Frank, or, to put it more correctly, +I was issued with him. That is part of the military principle of fixing +responsibility. Things are not issued to you; you are issued with them, +and you alone are accountable. I was issued with Frank and all his +harness and appointments and, incidentally, his parlour tricks. This was +the formal introduction. I didn't meet him at close range until later. +When I was issued with him I didn't even know his name. No previous +owner had ever thought of asking it, and had they asked they would not +have believed that a horse could be called Frank. On general principles +it seems wrong, but on nearer acquaintance I found that Frank was +exactly the name for him. The great thing about him was that if he +thought a thing he said it.</p> + +<p>For example, when I first mounted him he thought he would prefer to +remain in the stable where he had been for the best part of a week. He +said so quite candidly. I am nothing very great as a handler of wild +animals, and he gave me three minutes made up of every action in his +<i>repertoire</i>—no limited one. At the end of it I very kindly dismounted. +I didn't want him to think I was not intelligent enough to understand +what he meant, and moreover I hated the idea of marring our first +meeting by refusing so unmistakable a request. So he was led back to his +quarters and the incident closed, if not with mutual goodwill at least +with some degree of satisfaction fairly evenly distributed among the +parties.</p> + +<p>It was, I remember, on the next morning that the Mess Sergeant noticed a +shortage of lump sugar in one of the basins. I mention this merely +because it fixes in my mind the first day on which I had a comfortable +ride. Frank started out in a good temper and came home at his best pace, +hoping to get some more sugar. That, at least, is how I read his +meaning, and I pursued my policy of not misunderstanding him. After this +he developed a parlour trick which made me quite fond of him. When I +went to the stable he would put his nose round to the side pocket whore +I kept the sugar. He always got some, and he knew there would always be +some more when he got home.</p> + +<p>Thus it became necessary to instruct him in topography. He quickly +learned that certain turnings led to the camp, and I was reduced to +subterfuges to prove to him that they did not. It was essential to go +over every road at various times in opposite directions. That confused +him, and though I disliked the deception I had to resort to it, with the +result that Frank finally accepted me at my own fictitious valuation as +a person who did not properly know his own mind.</p> + +<p>But it took him some time to get into my ways. Once we spent twenty +minutes on a small stretch of road leading from the parade ground to a +railway bridge. I wanted to cross the bridge and Frank did not. I took +him towards the bridge and he took me back towards the camp. This +happened thirteen times. At the fourteenth there was a variation; he +changed his mind and we crossed the bridge. During the twenty minutes, I +remember, we had a further slight disagreement about a stick. I was glad +I had brought it, and he was not. But on the other side of the bridge we +let bygones be bygones. Frank had his moods, but he was always a +gentleman.</p> + +<p>He was also a soldier. His strong point really was that he was excellent +on parade. He would look round, grasp the formation at a glance, and +drop into his place. He was never more happy than when route-marching; +never more unhappy than when compelled to break out of the line. Indeed, +so much did he enjoy column of route that when off duty with two or +three other horses he would play at route-marching, taking up a position +in Indian file and avoiding any sort of arrangement which brought him +abreast of his companions.</p> + +<p>At last we had to part. I don't know the right way to express this. +Possibly I was reissued without him; I am not sure what the process was. +At any rate we separated, he remaining at the camp and I proceeding on +duty to the Depôt. I said good-bye to him and he nuzzled for the last +time at my side pocket. Having munched the sugar, he turned to the more +serious business of his manger. I think this must have been his way of +concealing his emotion.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>RAG-TIME IN THE TRENCHES.</h2> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Roll up, rally up!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Stroll up, sally up!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Take a tupp'ny ticket out, and help to tote the tally up!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Come and see the Raggers in their "Mud and Slush" revoo.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Haven't got no money? Well, a cigarette'll do).</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Come and hear O'Leary in his great tin-whistle stunt;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See our beauty chorus with the Sergeant in the front;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Come and hear our gaggers</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In their "Lonely Tommy" song;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Come and see the Raggers,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">We're the bongest of the bong.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Roll up, rally up!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Stroll up, sally up!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Show is just commencing and we've got to ring the ballet up.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hear our swell orchestra keeping all the fun alive,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tooting on his whistle while they dance the Dug-out Dive.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Come and see Spud Murphy with his double-ration smile,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">('Tisn't much for beauty, but it's <span class="smcap">Phyllis Dare</span> for style);</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Come and see our <i>scena</i>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"How the section got C.B.;"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bring a concertina</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And we'll let you come in free.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Roll up, rally up!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Stroll up, sally up!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">First and last performance. If you want to see it, <i>allez</i> up!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Come and sit where "Archibalds" won't get you in the neck</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(If it's getting sultry you can take a pass-out check).</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Come and hear the Corporal recite his only joke;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See the leading lady slipping out to have a smoke;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sappers, cooks, flag-waggers,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Dhooly-wallahs too;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Come and hear the Raggers</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In their "Mud and Slush" revoo.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>Commercial Candour.</h3> + +<blockquote><p>"The perfume <i>par excellence</i> ... unapproached and +unapproachable." <i>Advt. in Provincial Paper</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"GERMAN FOOD CRISIS.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Attempt to congeal the truth as to shortage</span>."—<i>Buenos Ayres +Standard</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The Huns are so economical that they put even Truth into cold storage.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"Cheery messages come through from General Townshend. He is +sewing vegetable seeds and has asked for gramophone needles." +<i>Lloyd's Weekly News</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The ordinary kind being unsuited for such delicate stitchery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.</h2> + +<p><i>Tuesday, February</i> 29th.—Mr. <span class="smcap">Lloyd George</span> announced to-day that the +Members of the Cabinet had decided to take one-fourth of their salaries +in Exchequer Bonds. Murmurs of applause followed, and before they had +died away Mr. <span class="smcap">Hogge</span> launched his great joke. Leading up to it with the +remark that Exchequer Bonds can be sold the next day, he asked, "Would +it not be a good idea to call them the Laughing Stock?" Mr. <span class="smcap">Hogge</span> is not +one of the chartered jesters of the House so his <i>jeu d'ésprit</i> just +caused "a laugh," as the reporters say, and nothing more.</p> + +<p>On the Third Beading of the Consolidated Fund Bill Sir <span class="smcap">John Simon</span> +renewed his attack upon the Military Service Bill. The tribunals, he +declared, were disregarding the appeal of the widow's only son; the +Yellow Form, of which the late Home Secretary takes the same jaundiced +view as he did of the Yellow Press, was being sent out indiscriminately +to all whom it did not concern: the War Office had issued a misleading +poster; and everywhere men were being "bluffed" into the Army. He +himself would have been inundated with correspondence if he had not had +the happy inspiration of diverting the flood into Mr. <span class="smcap">Tennant</span>'s +letter-box. Passionately he called upon the Government not to imitate +Germany's brutality.</p> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Long</span>, suave as usual, deprecated Sir <span class="smcap">John Simon's</span> ferocity, reminded +him that all cases of hardship could be considered by the Appeal +Tribunals, and promised to investigate the cases that had been +mentioned. "May I send in my list too?" asked Mr. <span class="smcap">Watt</span>. But Mr. <span class="smcap">Long</span>, +unwilling to share the fate of Mr. <span class="smcap">Tennant</span>, suggested that the <span class="smcap">Secretary +for Scotland</span> would form a more appropriate dumping-ground for Mr. <span class="smcap">Watt's</span> +<i>dossier</i>.</p> + +<p>After Mr. <span class="smcap">Snowden</span>, Sir <span class="smcap">Thomas Whittaker</span> and Mr. <span class="smcap">Lough</span> had reinforced Sir +<span class="smcap">John Simon's</span> case with added instances the Government found an +unexpected champion in Mr. <span class="smcap">Healy</span>. He was amazed to hear the late <span class="smcap">Home +Secretary</span>—"one of the Ministers who made the War"—gloating over the +inefficiency of the War Office at a moment when round Verdun was raging +a battle in which the fate of Paris, and perhaps of London, was +involved. Why had he not imitated the monumental silence of Mr. <span class="smcap">Burns</span>? +Instead, he, the suppressor of obscure Irish newspapers, had done more +to injure recruiting than any Connemara editor.</p> + +<p>I never expected to live to hear the Bank of England described in the +House of Commons as a useless institution. In Mr. <span class="smcap">Healy's</span> opinion, "The +Old Lady of Threadneedle Street," like the other who lived in a shoe, +has too many children, and her attempt to get 190 of them exempted from +military service moved him in a moment of "vituperative irrelevance," as +Mr. <span class="smcap">Pringle</span> subsequently described it, to say the rudest things about +her financial capacity.</p> + +<p><i>Wednesday, March 1st.</i>—Sir <span class="smcap">Owen Phillips</span>, once Liberal Member for +Pembroke, returned to the House to-day as Unionist Member for Chester. +To signalise the capture of so gigantic a prize—he is 6ft. 6in. in his +stockinged feet—Lord <span class="smcap">Edmund Talbot</span> and Sir G. <span class="smcap">Younger</span>, Unionist Whips, +conducted him to the Table; and as they are both of moderate height the +procession gave the effect of a <i>Mauretania</i> going to her moorings in +charge of a couple of tugs.</p> + +<p>When Dr. <span class="smcap">Macnamara</span> moved a Supplementary Estimate of £10 for the Navy, I +was reminded of <span class="smcap">Praed's</span> lines "On seeing the <span class="smcap">Speaker</span> asleep in his +chair":—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Hume, no doubt, will be taking the sense Of the House on a +saving of thirteen pence."</p></blockquote> + +<p>But there were differences. The £10 was not an ordinary "ten-pun' note" +but was a "token" representing something like four and a half millions +received by the Fleet for services rendered to Foreign Powers and +others; and Mr. <span class="smcap">Whitley</span>, who was in the Chair, too so far from being +asleep, was intensely wide-awake. Members who sought to discuss Naval +policy generally were promptly pulled up, and the <span class="smcap">Secretary of the +Admiralty</span>, when in his third or fourth attempt to explain the Vote he +remarked hypothetically, "Suppose we were to sell a battleship——" was +himself called to order, Mr. <span class="smcap">Whitley</span> evidently regarding such a +reduction of the Fleet as unpatriotic even in imagination.</p> + +<p>A vote for £37,000 to extend the British Consulate buildings at Cairo +united both sides of the House in criticism. Mr. <span class="smcap">Ashley</span> thought what was +good enough for Lord <span class="smcap">Cromer</span> should be good enough for his successor. Mr. +<span class="smcap">Hogge</span>, by a somewhat obscure process of reasoning, now understood why +the Germans were so anxious to get to Egypt. In vain Mr. <span class="smcap">Lewis Harcourt</span>, +usually so persuasive, explained that they were now buying for £3 10s. a +metre land for which the owner wanted £12 a metre not long ago. Sir <span class="smcap">F. +Banbury</span>, shaking his <i>pince-nez</i> at the Treasury Bench, retorted that +he might ask £5 for this pair of glasses, for which he had paid +half-a-crown (more war economy), but he would not expect to get it.</p> + +<p>A vote for £50,000, to complete the purchase of the estate of Colonel +<span class="smcap">Hall-Walker</span>, who has presented his racing stud to the Government, evoked +some opposition and much facetiousness. Mr. <span class="smcap">Acland</span>, who proposed it, did +not help his case by remarking that personally he regarded racing as a +low form of sport. The fact that some of the horses have been leased by +the War Department to Lord <span class="smcap">Lonsdale</span> for racing purposes "on sharing +terms"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> caused Mr. <span class="smcap">McNeill</span> to inquire whether Mr. <span class="smcap">Tennant</span> would act as +the Ministerial tipster; and Mr. <span class="smcap">Hogge</span>, who displayed a knowledge of +racing which will, I fear, shock the unco' guid of East Edinburgh, +thought it ridiculous that Ministers should preach economy in the City +and start a racing stud at Westminster.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 50%;"> +<a href="images/171.png"><img width="100%" src="images/171.png" alt="" /></a> + +<h3>IN HAPPY DAYS TO COME. </h3> +<p><i>The Coalition Owners (Mr. <span class="smcap">Asquith</span> +and Mr. </i><span class="smcap"><i>Bonar Law </i>) leading in a winner</span>.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>Thursday, March 2nd.—Ariel</i>, Earl of <span class="smcap">Derby</span>, has not entirely left the +Earth for the Air. His head, at any rate, is not in the clouds, for his +speech on the working of his own scheme was full of practical wisdom. He +was not afraid of the exemptions that the tribunals might give if left +to themselves, but he was a little concerned about <span class="smcap">Simon</span> and his scratch +crew of pro-shirkers who seemed to be doing their little best to prevent +the country from getting men.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>THE ELUSIVE ONES.</h2> + +<p>A large number of claims for exemption from military service were made +before the Bouverie Street Tribunal at its sittings last week.</p> + +<p>Ike Feldmann (23) asked for exemption on the ground that he was an +agriculturalist and therefore excused under the Act. Questioned further, +he stated that at the present time he was employed in making artificial +onions for a firm of Bond Street milliners, but his uncle, who was +wealthy, had promised to buy him a farm as soon as the weather got +warmer. His application was rejected.</p> + +<p>William Smith (31) stated that he was the President, Treasurer and +Secretary of the Anglo-Chinese Industries Association, Limited, and +urged that unless he was exempted the company must inevitably go into +liquidation, there being no one else familiar with its business. +Answering a question by the Chairman, applicant stated that the company +was formed to do a general mercantile business, but that at the present +time its activities were confined to manicuring Pekingese pugs. Asked +whether this work could not be done by women, applicant stated that it +had been tried, but that women seemed to get on the nerves of the dogs, +causing their hair to fall out. The application was refused.</p> + +<p>An appeal was made on behalf of George W. Hopper (18), an employee of +the West End Delicacy Company, a concern engaged in the business of +supplying steak-and-kidney puddings to the large hotels. These +delicacies, the Secretary of the company explained, weighed about a ton +each, and Hopper was the only man who was strong enough to lift them out +of the ovens into the delivery wagon.</p> + +<p><i>A Member of the Board.</i> That is just the kind of man they want in the +army.</p> + +<p>The Secretary of the company stated as an additional ground for +exemption that Hopper had a wooden leg and bronchitis. He was put back +one group to give time for medical treatment of leg.</p> + +<p>James Ponks (19), who appeared somewhat dazed at his surroundings, +explained in a confidential whisper that he was the caretaker of the +municipal macaroni beds in Regent's Park. Asked if he would not like to +fight for his country, he replied that he would, only <span class="smcap">Martin</span> Luther had +appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to go into the dressed +poultry business. Referred to the Medical authorities.</p> + +<p>Jim Bounce (30) stated that he had a conscientious objection to +fighting. He didn't like the Germans, but recognised that they were his +spiritual brothers.</p> + +<p><i>A Member of the Board</i>. Where did you get that cauliflower ear?</p> + +<p>Owing to the unsatisfactory nature of the applicant's reply his appeal +was refused.</p> + +<p>Arthur Small (35), proprietor of a fish and chips emporium, stated that +he was a widower and the sole support of his mother-in-law, two married +sisters-in-law, their husbands and their thirteen small children.</p> + +<p><i>The Chairman</i>. It seems a clear case for exemption.</p> + +<p>Applicant hastened to explain that he did not ask for exemption as he +felt that his first duty was to his country. He would like, however, a +week in which to say good-bye to his relations by marriage. The request +was granted, the Chairman stating that the attitude of Small, who was +sacrificing everything for duty, did him the greatest credit.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 50%;"> +<a href="images/172.png"><img width="100%" src="images/172.png" alt="" /></a> +</div> + +<h3>HAVEN.</h3> + +<p>On the famous site of The Star and Garter Hotel at Richmond Hill, a Home +is to be built for Soldiers and Sailors totally disabled by the War. The +work has been undertaken by the British Women's Hospital, and, on its +completion, Her Majesty the Queen will present the building to the +British Red Cross Society, by whom it will be maintained. The cost of +construction will be £50,000. Mr. Punch can think of no cause which +should appeal more strongly to the gratitude of the nation and he begs +his generous readers to send gifts in aid of it to The Hon. Treasurer, +"Star and Garter" Building Fund, 21, Old Bond Street, W.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>A Smooth Passage.</h3> + +<blockquote><p>"In the Lords Viscount French took his sea but it was a quiet +affair."—<i>Morning Paper</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Employment</span> as odd man offered to a disabled soldier in a very +good gentleman's household."—<i>Morning Paper</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>As the above advertisement appeared several times we are afraid the +gentleman must have been regarded as almost too good to be true.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/173.png"><img width="100%" src="images/173.png" alt="" /></a> + +<p><i>Bank Manager</i>. "Now please understand, Miss Jones, you +must make the books balance." <i>Miss Jones</i>. "Oh, Mr. Brown, how fussy +you are!"</p></div> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>THE DUG-OUT DOMINIE.</h2> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some thirty years ago or more</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He tried his hand at gerund-grinding,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But very speedily forswore</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The <i>rôle</i> before its ties grew binding;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He earned a living by his pen,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Paid court to Clio and Melpomene,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Until the War broke out, and then</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Enlisted—as a dug-out dominie.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shortsighted, undersized and weak,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Intolerant yet self-distrusting,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There could not well have been a "beak"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Less fitted for the nice adjusting</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of his peculiar point of view</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To that of forty-odd years later,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Less eager to acclaim the New,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Less apt for Georgian tastes to cater.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He strove, 'tis true, to keep abreast</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of <span class="smcap">Masefield's</span> grim poetic frenzy,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sought Truth in <span class="smcap">Wells</span>, and did his best</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To like the Oxford of <span class="smcap">MacKenzie</span>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With <span class="smcap">Yeats</span> he wandered in the Void,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tasted of <span class="smcap">Shaw's</span> dramatic jalap,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then turned with rapture unalloyed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To <span class="smcap">Dickens, Thackeray</span> and <span class="smcap">Trollope</span>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thus handicapped, thus fortified,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Behold him perilously faring</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Into a world where all are tried</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By boyhood's scrutiny unsparing;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where ev'ry trick of gait or speech</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Is most inexorably noted,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And masters, more than what they teach,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Are studied, criticised and quoted.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His idols mostly left them cold—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Bagehot, Matt. Arnold, Scott</span> and <span class="smcap">Milton</span>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But they were quick in taking hold</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of <span class="smcap">Praed</span> and J.K.S. and <span class="smcap">Hilton</span>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And once undoubtedly he scored</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When, on a day of happy omen,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He introduced them to A. <span class="smcap">Ward</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The wisest of the tribe of showmen.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But still his fervours left them calm—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Emotion they considered freakish;—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He felt with many an inward qualm</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That he was thoroughly un-beakish;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His mood perplexed them; he was half</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Provocative, half deferential,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Too anxious to provoke a laugh,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Too vague where logic was essential.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So, struggling on to bridge the gaps</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That seventeen from sixty sunder,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And causing at his best, perhaps,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A mild and intermittent wonder,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At least he recognised the truth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That there are other ways of earning</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sympathy of clear-eyed youth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Than by a mere parade of learning.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And yet I think his pupils may</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In after years, at camp or college,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Admit that in his rambling way</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He added to their stock of knowledge;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And, as they ruefully recall</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">His "jaws" on <span class="smcap">Clausewitz</span> and <span class="smcap">Jomini</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On <span class="smcap">Balzac, Heine</span> and <span class="smcap">Jean Paul</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Think kindly of their dug-out dominie.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"Hide-bound red tape rules the day." <span class="smcap">Sir F. Milner's</span> <i>Letter to +"The Times."</i></p></blockquote> + +<p>It is much more effective than ordinary unreinforced variety.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3><b>A Happy Family</b>.</h3> + +<blockquote><p>"A milk deliverer 31 years of ago, who applied for exemption, +said his father was an Atheist, his mother was 'all the other +way about,' and his brother was a Socialist, and if he went away +there would be war at home. He considered that he should stay at +home to keep the peace."—<i>Western Evening Herald</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>But a merciful tribunal, thinking that he was more likely to find it in +the trenches, only exempted him for a month.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>THE NATIONAL SCAPE-GOAT ASSOCIATION.</h2> + +<p>My companion had come into the compartment hurriedly just as the train +started. He was a small, middle-aged, sandy-haired man with a straggling +tufted beard, the sort of beard that looks as if it owed its origin +rather to forgetfulness than to any settled design. The expression on +his face and, indeed, over his whole body was a deprecating one. He +reminded me of a dog who has transgressed and begs humbly for +forgiveness. He had no newspaper, and accepted the offer of one of mine +with a deference of gratitude that struck me as excessive. Soon after +that we slid into a conversation about the War and made most of the +usual remarks.</p> + +<p>"It's wonderful," he said, "how the country maintains its financial +stability. Five millions a day, you know. It's a pretty big sum, and yet +nobody seems to feel it. Here we are, for instance, you and I, +travelling first-class."</p> + +<p>"My next season-ticket is going to be third-class," I said. "All +business has been hit very hard, and we've simply got to economise."</p> + +<p>"I daresay, I daresay," he said. "It may be so with some businesses. All +I know is my business hasn't gone off."</p> + +<p>"Shipowner?" I said.</p> + +<p>He gasped and shook his head emphatically. "Oh dear, no," he said. +"Nothing of that kind—wish I was. But you won't guess what I do, not if +I were to let you have a thousand guesses." His humility had vanished +and he looked almost triumphant.</p> + +<p>"I give it up at once," I said. "What are you?"</p> + +<p>"I," he said, "am the National Scape-Goat Association."</p> + +<p>"The <i>what</i>?" I said.</p> + +<p>He repeated his words. "I see you don't understand," he went on, "so +perhaps I'd better explain."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, "much better."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's this way," he said. "Have you ever written a book or been a +Candidate for a seat in the House of Commons?"</p> + +<p>I said I hadn't.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't matter," he said. "You'll understand what I mean. Take the +politician first. He issues an Address and makes speeches; in fact, does +things which make him known to thousands of people whom he doesn't know. +Do you follow me?"</p> + +<p>I said I did.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, somebody posts back his Election Address with 'This is +pitiful balderdash and most ungrammatical' written plainly at the bottom +of it. What would be your feelings if you got a thing like that?"</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't like it," I said.</p> + +<p>"Of course you wouldn't. You'd want to kick the writer, or at the very +least you'd want to write back to him and tell him what you thought of +him. But you can't do it, because of course he hasn't signed his name or +given any hint of his address. It's the same way with anonymous letters +of abuse. You can't answer them. So you 're done. You feel as if you'd +tried to walk up a step where there wasn't a step, and your temper +suffers. That's where the Association comes in. All you've got to do is +to write to us, enclosing fee. For half-a-guinea we send down to any +address in England one of our experts from the Assault-and-Battery +Department, and you're entitled to kick him once—we guarantee him +boot-proof, so you can kick as hard as you like. Or, if you prefer +writing to kicking, you can write to me as if I'd written the anonymous +letter or article or whatever it may be, and you can abuse me to your +heart's content for half-a-crown. For three shillings you can call me a +pro-German. Anyhow, the result is that your temper recovers and you feel +perfectly satisfied. It's well worth the money, isn't it? I'm thinking +of starting a Subscriptions' Department, to which you could write a +refusal of any application for money, even if you have to subscribe in +the end. It will give a man a pleasant glow to write to a clergyman, for +instance (I shall keep a dozen or so on the premises), and say he'll be +immortally jiggered if he'll subscribe to the Church Building Fund. But +the anonymous letter business will always be my chief source of profit. +Here's our prospectus, with all details. If you think any more of it +perhaps you'll let me know. I get out here. Good-bye."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 50%;"> +<a href="images/174.png"><img width="100%" src="images/174.png" alt="" /></a> + +<p><i>Kaiser (reading English news of wood-pulp +restrictions).</i> <span class="smcap">"Himmel! They'll think more than ever of their precious +'scraps of paper'!"</span></p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3><b>Kipling Revised</b>.</h3> + +<blockquote><p>"Men of all castes had rallied to the Flag, and truly we had +witnessed the truth of what the poet told us. 'The East is West +and the West is East.'" <i>Surrey Mirror</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"Alfred Billinger and Albert Robson, miners ... were fined 20s. +each for trespassing in search of fame." <i>Provincial Paper.</i></p></blockquote> + +<p>Well, now they've got it.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"In the Metropolitan Police District the employment of special +constables has resulted in a saving of five-eighths of a +penny."—<i>Yorkshire Evening Post</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Very disappointing! Not even a whole copper.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>From the report of a Dairyman's Association:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"It further aims at insuring that the milk-supply for the city +and district shall, like Cæsar's wife, be beyond suspicion, and +it therefore enjoins on its members the necessity for taking +every possible care that the sanitary conditions prevailing at +the farms, in the dairies and during the transit of the milk to +the public shall leave nothing to be desired. In short, its +motto is, in these respects, '<i>Nilus secundus</i>.'"—<i>Hampshire +Chronicle</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>If they must use water in their milk we are glad to think that the Nile +is only their second choice.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"The Sunday schools must try to 'wangle'—that was, a project +their in-to 'wangle'—that was, to project their in-enlarged +task, and attempt to do what seemed impossible."—<i>Provincial +Paper</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>We would not go so far as to say impossible, but they certainly seem to +have difficulties ahead.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"Good fish, fruit, and rabbit business for sale. No opposition +fish or rabbits."—<i>Bolton Journal.</i></p></blockquote> + +<p>It looks rather as if the fruit might disagree with you.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Under the heading, "Musical Instruments, etc.":—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">American</span> mammoth bronze turkey cockerels, strong, healthy, +grand stock birds; 20s. each."—<i>Glasgow Herald</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>You should hear these musical instruments throw off "Yankee-doodle."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/175.png"><img width="100%" src="images/175.png" alt="" /></a> + +<p><i>Servant.</i> "<span class="smcap">I can't get this 'ere tail light to burn, +Sir."</span></p> + +<p><i>Country Doctor.</i> "<span class="smcap">Oh, never mind. We're only going home, and I've got +the constable safe in bed with lumbago</span>."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.</h2> + +<h3>(<i>By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks.</i>)</h3> + +<p>Mr. Maurice Hewlett's latest volume, <i>Frey and His Wife</i> (<span class="smcap">Ward, Lock</span>), +suffers from the defect of being in reality a long short story puffed +out to the dimensions of a short novel; and in consequence, even with +large type—most grateful to the reviewing eye; Heaven forbid I should +complain of that!—and a blank page between each chapter, it has +considerable difficulty in filling its volume. It is a tale of antique +Iceland and Norway. The first part, which is really padding and has +nothing whatever to do with <i>Frey</i> or his matrimonial affairs, treats of +one <i>Ogmund</i>, who was called <i>Ogmund Dint</i>, for the very good reason +that he had been literally dinted as to the skull. It was done by a +gentleman named <i>Halward</i>. Everybody naturally expected <i>Ogmund</i> to dint +back; but he was something of a conscientious objector in the matter of +face-to-face dinting, and being too proud for vulgar conflict he bided +his time till he could cut <i>Halward</i>'s throat with the minimum of +personal inconvenience. End of padding and appearance of <i>Frey</i>. There +is a picture of <i>Frey</i> on the cover by Mr. <span class="smcap">Maurice Greiffenhagen</span>. You +know already what the <span class="smcap">Greiffenhagen</span> vikings are like—high-coloured, +well developed and (if I dare say it) sometimes a trifle wooden. <i>Frey</i> +indeed looked so very wooden that in my foolish ignorance I was tempted +to protest. But the astonishing fact is that Frey was not only wooden in +appearance, but in actuality. How then could he have for wife a slip of +a sixteen-year-old maid that you may have met before in Mr <span class="smcap">Hewlett</span>'s +romances? This however is the real story, which (pardon me) I do not +mean to tell. If it is no tremendous matter, it will at least please an +idle hour, which will be almost time enough for you to enjoy every word +of it.</p> + +<p><i>These Lynnekers</i> (<span class="smcap">Cassell</span>) is yet another example of the "family" novel +whose increasing popularity I have lately noticed. It is a clever and +interesting story—the name of Mr. J. D. <span class="smcap">Beresford</span> assured me in advance +that it would be—and, when it is finished, the characters go on living +and speaking in one's mind, which is, I suppose, a sound proof of their +vitality. Yet in a sense vitality was just what most of the <i>Lynneker</i> +tribe chiefly lacked. They were an ancient and honourable house, +country-born to the third and fourth generation, and all of them far too +conventional and apathetic and fuss-hating ever to follow any but the +line of least resistance. All of them, that is, except <i>Dickie</i>, who was +the youngest of his father's numerous progeny, and in more senses than +one a sport. How <i>Dickie</i> released himself from the shackles of family +tradition, how he grew up and bustled things about, and generally made a +real instead of a conventional success—this is the matter of the tale. +All the characters are well-drawn, and about <i>Dickie</i> himself there is a +compelling virility that rushes you along in his rather tempestuous +wake. I am not sure that I altogether believe in his attitude towards +the question of sex. He appeared to think generally too little, and on +occasions remarkably too much, about it. Also the painful detail with +which the author lingers over the death of old <i>Canon Lynneker</i> (that +attractive and human figure of ecclesiastical gentility) roused me to +resentment. When will our novelists learn that, as regards the physical +side of mortality, reticence is by far the better part of realism? This +marred a little my pleasure in a story for whose quality and workmanship +I should else have nothing but praise.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In <i>To Ruhleben—and Back</i> (<span class="smcap">Constable</span>), Mr. <span class="smcap">Geoffrey Pyke</span> has such a +fine yarn to spin of his foolhardy proceed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>ing in walking right into the +eagle's beak as correspondent for an English newspaper, at the end of +September, 1914, and (after some months' solitary confinement in Berlin +and his transfer to the civilian prisoners' miserable internment camp at +Ruhleben) walking right out of it again, that one can forgive him for +spreading his elbows for a piece of expansive writing when he was safe +home. To tell the truth he writes extraordinarily well; one's only +feeling is that the simplest idiom would be best for such an amazing +narrative, and Mr. <span class="smcap">Pyke</span> is too young and too clever (both charmingly +venial faults) to write simply. When I tell you that this persistent +youngster, hardly out of his teens, patiently worked out a plan of +escape which depended for its efficacy on an optical illusion (the +precise secret of which he does not give away), and with his friend, Mr. +<span class="smcap">Edward Falk</span>, a District Commissioner from Nigeria, part tramped, part +<i>bummel-zugged</i> the two hundred and fifty miles or so from Ruhleben to +the Dutch frontier, disguised as tourists, with a kit openly bought at +<span class="smcap">Wertheim</span>'s, living, when marketing became too dangerous, on potatoes and +other roots burglariously digged from the fields at dark, you will +gather that this is some adventure. But I am afraid the publication will +not assist any other prisoners at Ruhleben to escape. It is pleasant to +note that the Commandant of the Camp, <span class="smcap">Von Taubb</span>, was a sportsman and +none too thickly tarred with the brush of Prussian efficiency; and that +the Governor, <span class="smcap">Graf Schwerin</span>, threatened resignation if a no-smoking +order, sent from headquarters, were insisted on. Indeed, the fact that +our young friend was not shot out of hand must stand as a small entry on +the credit side, not inconveniently crowded, of Prussia's account in the +recording angel's ledger.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In <i>A Frenchwoman's Notes on the War</i> (<span class="smcap">Constable</span>) Mademoiselle <span class="smcap">Claire de +Pratz</span> discourses pleasantly and patriotically of sundry effects of the +War on French life and character. She is excusably proud of the part +which her fellow-countrywomen have played. The women of France seem to +have accomplished to admiration what we in England are only beginning to +understand. Quietly, almost automatically, Frenchwomen have slipped into +the men's vacant places and carried on the work of the country. The +industry and resourcefulness of the average Frenchwoman are proverbial, +but the author ascribes the peculiar readiness they have displayed at +the present time largely to compulsory military service, as well as to +the Frenchman's habit of discussing his work with his wife and daughters +and awakening their interest in it. Thus, when the local paperhanger was +called to the colours his wife repapered the author's country cottage +"quite as efficiently"; and thrilling indeed is the account of the +gallantry of one intrepid woman who, when the German Staff entered an +important town (from which the Mayor and Municipal Council had fled), +resisted their demand for a large war ransom. Widow of a former Senator +of the Department, she "alone remained, the sole representative of +officialdom." "We want to see the Mayor," said the invaders. "<i>Le Maire? +C'est moi!</i>" was the reply. "Then kindly direct us to some members of +the Municipal Council." "<i>Le Conseil Municipal? C'est moi!</i>" We are told +that the Teutonic officials were amazed—and no wonder. But in the end +they were forced to go without the money, and the town and its defender +were left in peace. I commend <i>A Frenchwoman's Notes on the War</i> as a +most inspiriting record of what women can do; though the author +magnanimously admits that, "for the callings of the coal-heaver and the +furniture-remover," men, even in France, are still indispensable.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 50%;"> +<a href="images/176.png"><img width="100%" src="images/176.png" alt="" /></a> + +<h3>A PEACE WEDDING.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Unique social function which took place at Little Puddlethorpe, Herts, +last week.</span></p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>For novels which require a guide to conduct me through them I confess +weariness, but in <i>That Woman from Java</i> (<span class="smcap">Hurst and Blackett</span>) I found +the glossary less fatiguing hero. Things were going badly for <i>Mrs. +Hamilton</i> in the divorce case, "<i>Hamilton v. Hamilton</i>, co-respondent +<i>King</i>," when the judge broke down. That might have happened to any +judge, but, although I can follow the judicial <i>Bruce</i> quite easily to +his sick bed, I cannot believe that he would, on his recovery, have +refrained from finding out how the case ended. Apparently being in love +with <i>Mrs. Hamilton</i>, he did not dare to enquire what happened; but a +more plausible explanation of his unenterprising conduct seems to be +that he had only to act like an ordinary man and the rather sandy +foundations on which <span class="smcap">E. Hardingham Quinn</span>'s story are built would have +collapsed. Here in fact we have a tale in which the main complications +are caused by the characters behaving with a total lack of what the +Americans call horse-sense. But if you can get by this difficulty you +will admire, as I did, the reticence with which the troubles of the much +misunderstood heroine are told, and also admit that the colour of Java +has been vividly conveyed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3><b>Save the Mark!</b></h3> + +<p>Germany's last word:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<i>Kriegsvermoegenszuwachssteuergesetz.</i>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>And a very pretty word too. But it does not surprise us to learn from +the German Press that the Legislature will probably have to devote at +least three weeks to the discussion of the subject which it defines.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>From a book catalogue:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<i>The Royal Marriage Market of Europe.</i> By Princess Radziwill. +With eight half-ton illustrations."</p></blockquote> + +<p>It is thought that these must be portraits of German princesses taken +before the War had deprived them of their usual supply of butter.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Artist</span>, Academy Exhibitor, paints gentlemen's residences."</p> + +<p><i>Sunday Paper.</i><br /> +</p></blockquote> + +<p>Another result, no doubt, of the exigencies of War, but rather hard on +the ordinary house-decorator.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="pg" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI, VOL. 150, MARCH 8, 1916***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 22993-h.txt or 22993-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/9/22993">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/9/9/22993</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, March 8, 1916 + + +Author: Various + +Editor: Owen Seaman + +Release Date: October 14, 2007 [eBook #22993] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI, +VOL. 150, MARCH 8, 1916*** + + +E-text prepared by Jane Hyland, Jonathan Ingram, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 22993-h.htm or 22993-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/9/22993/22993-h/22993-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/9/22993/22993-h.zip) + + + + + +PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI + +VOL. 150 + +MARCH 8, 1916 + + + + + + + +CHARIVARIA. + +Germany is declared to have built a submarine that can go to the United +States and back. Future insults therefore will be delivered by hand. + + *** + +Municipal fishshops are to be established in Germany. They will be +closely associated, it is understood, with the Overseas News Agency, and +will make a speciality of supplying a fish diet to sailors who are +unfortunately prevented by circumstances from visiting the high seas. + + *** + +In his lecture before the Royal Institute last week Dr. E. G. RUSSELL +told his audience that there are 80,000,000 micro-organisms in a +tablespoonful of rich cucumber soil. If we substitute German casualties +for micro-organisms and deduct the average monthly wastage as shown by +the private lists from the admitted official total of available +effectives--but we are treading on Mr. BELLOC'S preserves. + + *** + +The Government has announced itself as "satisfied with the measures +taken to prevent Canadian nickel from reaching the Germans." Except, of +course, in oblong pellets of insignificant size. + + *** + +Answering a question of Sir ARTHUR MARKHAM in the House of Commons last +week, Mr. TENNANT said, "If there was a large force of troops in Egypt, +as to which it is undesirable that I should make any statement, it is +quite conceivable that the presence of a hundred and seventeen Generals +might be necessary." After all, if every one of them were just a +Brigadier-General, they wouldn't require more than half-a-million men to +keep them occupied. + + *** + +Naval inspectors of cookery, it is officially announced, will hereafter +wear a narrow stripe of white cloth on their cuff. This is a simplified +form of the ancient heraldic emblem of the cook's guild, which was a +hair _frizze naiant_ in a dish of soup _maigre_. + + *** + +All kinds of cleaning and washing are to be dearer, and a patriotic +movement is already on foot among the younger set to do away with these +luxuries altogether in the interests of patriotic economy. + + *** + +As a reward of its efforts to save the lives of war-horses, the +R.S.P.C.A. has now been officially recognized by the A.V.C. Some +hindrance to their work is however feared as the result of strong +protests lodged by the Westphalen Pie-makers' Association of Rotterdam, +which the Government, in its anxiety not to deal harshly with the +neutrals, is said to be carefully considering. + + *** + +The owners of certain proprietary whiskeys have decided to put them up +sixpence a bottle. In response to this move the owners of certain +proprietary sixpences have decided not to put them down. + + *** + +A correspondent of _The Times_ states that large numbers of Owls have +taken to visiting the trenches in Flanders. The War Office, strangely +enough, professes to know nothing of the circumstance. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: THE ROYAL GONDOLIERS. + +WE UNDERSTAND THAT OUR COURTEOUS ALLIES IN VENICE HAVE OFFERED TO SUPPLY +FLOATING FACILITIES FOR OUR TROOPS IN THE FLOODED TRENCHES OF FLANDERS.] + + * * * * * + +For Conscientious Objectors. + + "VARICOSE VEINS.--We stock all sizes, in best quality + only."--_Advt. in Irish Paper._ + + * * * * * + +British Frightfulness. + + "A young woman was fried as a spy in London the other + day."--_Sunday Pictorial._ + + * * * * * + +A Leap-Year Reminder. + + "February 29, 1916.--Last day for single men."--_Liverpool Daily + Post._ + + * * * * * + + "We ... are no haters of peace. We want it more than anything in + the world--except the triumph of evil."--_Star._ + +"A fallen star," we fear. + + * * * * * + + "Mr. Lloyd George said that Cabinet Ministers had agreed to take + one-fourth of their salaries in Exchequer bombs." + + _Provincial Paper._ + +The times call for strong measures, but we think this is going a little +too far. + + * * * * * + +TEUTON OVERTURES. + +As seen through Teuton Eyes. + + These English--who can know their ways? + When, flushed with triumphs large and many, + We condescend with tactful signs + To hint of peace on generous lines + They answer in a flippant phrase + That they're "not taking any." + + When from our conquering High-Seas Ark + (Detained at home by stress of weather) + We loosed the emblematic dove, + Conveying overtures of love, + Back came the bird with that remark, + Minus its best tail feather. + + They said they never wanted war; + Yet, when we talk of war's abating, + And name the price for them to pay, + They have the curious nerve to say + That, when they please, and not before, + They'll do their own dictating. + + How can you deal with minds so slow, + With men who give no indication + That we by any further shock + Into their heads can hope to knock + Enough intelligence to know + That they're a beaten nation? + + Odd that we cannot make it clear + That we have won; and even odder + That other markets seem to jump, + While our exchange is on the slump, + And everything's starvation-dear + (Excepting cannon-fodder). O. S. + + * * * * * + +RECONSTRUCTION. + +In that dim happy past, the Summer of 1913, I first saw him idly seated +in a deck-chair on the firm sands of----, on the East Coast. A quiet +detached figure amid a crowd of joyous children. Hard by a boy and girl +were building a moated fortress, but, alas! the swiftly incoming tide +eroded its foundations until the frowning battlements tottered to +destruction. + +Turning, the children faced him. He smiled. + +"D'you know this one, Jacky?" he ventured. + +"He's Dick," the little maid protested, "and I'm Betty." + +"Now we're introduced, do you know this one?" he asked again. + +Straightaway he plunged into the new game, moving back to where a smooth +stretch of sand lay invitingly. Immediately two minute shapes were +etched with his stick on its surface. + +"What's those?" + +"Hairpins, of course! You _always_ start with hairpins. And this," +indicating a narrow oblong, "why, this must be that silver tray +someone's always leaving her hairpins lying about on. Now for the +hair-brushes--two of those--" (unerringly symmetrical)--"then the +comb--" (equipped with most effective sand-teeth)--"then a powder-box? +Well, a very little one----" + +As fast as he thought of them, fresh articles (or their symbols) came +into being. There was no pause. "The shoe-horn, the button-hook, oh! and +a clothes-brush----" + +Immediately following the last hair of the clothes-brush a rectangle put +in an appearance around these assorted objects. + +"Mummy's dressing-table," asserted Master Dick authoritatively. + +"Sound man! What else do we want?" + +The children suggested alternately and in chorus the completion of the +plan. An armchair with cushions incredibly soft, a fire-place pokered +and tonged, a wardrobe (disproportionately enormous), two colossal +hat-boxes, and detail after detail, with finally the door, the key-hole +and the key. + + * * * * * + +The little hamlet somewhere in France had been shelled spasmodically for +months. Possibly there was something faintly familiar in the seated +figure of that Captain of Engineers that caught my eye; one did not +often come across Captains of Engineers sitting on _debris_ in the +village street. He squatted on a pile of granular masonry before a +rudely prepared space surrounded by three small ragged children gazing +round-eyed at something he was drawing with half a Nilgiri cane in the +powdered rubble. I paused to look, and there arose before me the picture +of a man with a boy and girl on a bygone day in happy England. + +"On commence avec le sel," he was explaining as he indicated the shape +of a salt-cellar. "Eh b'en, apres ca quat' assiettes, des couteaux, des +fourchettes----" All the appurtenances of a homely table were quickly +put in. "Et puis la table, n'est-ce pas? Et surtout faut pas oublier +quelqu'chose a manger, eh, Jeanne?" + +"Non, monsieur." But the little girl was busy pointing to where a small +brown bird pecked fruitlessly in the dust. "Regardez, donc, le p'tit +oiseau; il n'a pas mange, c'lui la." + +"Y a pas grande chose a manger; les Boches, vous savez, ont passe par +ici," added one of the two boys quite impersonally. + +The Captain of Engineers continued quickly, "Maintenant il faut mettre +le--" he paused for the word--"le--table-cloth." The children grasped +his meaning from the comprehensive gesture. Rapidly he outlined chairs, +a delightful baby's cradle, a clock with cuckoo complete, a fire-place, +until at length a complete pictorial inventory had been made of the +contents of the living-room of just such a cottage as had obviously been +buried beneath the rubbish heap upon which he sat. Those children of the +stricken country-side entered with keenness into the spirit of the +make-believe. The little girl, searching for an appropriate stone to +place on the imaginary table for imaginary bread, thrust her hand down +among the _debris_ and, withdrawing it, exposed a relic. It was the +faded remnant of a baby's shoe, grotesque in the autumn sunshine. + +"Oui, par exemple, les Boches ont passe par ici," said the little boy as +impersonally as before. + + * * * * * + +In a Good Cause. + +An auction of stamps will be held on the 13th and 14th of March at 47, +Leicester Square, in aid of the National Philatelic War Fund, the +proceeds to be given to the Societies of the British Red Cross and St. +John of Jerusalem. Collectors should seize this chance, as the Allies +may shortly be arranging to modify the map of the world. + + * * * * * + + "The year 1914 showed a drop of 441 million eggs in the year." + _Trade Paper._ + +Taking our population as 46 millions this means 9-1/2 eggs dropped per +head in the year. Under the influence of the thrift campaign a great +effort is being made to drop only half an egg per head this year, but +should there be a General Election there may be a rise in the drop. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: WHO PAYS? + +THE FATHER. "WE ARE MAKING TERRIBLE SACRIFICES." + +THE SON. "YES, FATHER, BUT I AM VERY BRAVE; I CAN BEAR THEM."] + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Visitor._ "AND WHAT DID YOU DO WHEN THE SHELL STRUCK +YOU?" + +_Bored Tommy._ "SENT MOTHER A POSTCARD TO HAVE MY BED AIRED."] + + * * * * * + +THE GREAT MAN. + +Every Saturday, about four P.M., I am to be found worshipping at the +Shrine of the Open Mind. Once within its portals I put off the subfuse +vestments of J. Watson, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, and become simply Uncle +James. This alone is a tonic. To-day as I ascended the steps of the +temple there floated down to me the voices of the priestesses chanting, +evidently in a kind of frenzy, and to the air of a famous Scottish reel, +this rhyme---- + + "Daddy is a Sergeant, a Sergeant, a Sergeant! + Daddy is a Sergeant, a Sergeant of Police." + +So I opened the nursery door and went in. An uncle has no honour in his +own country, and my two small nieces assaulted me immediately. Phyllis +dragged me to a chair, while Lillah shrieked unrelentingly in my ear +that Daddy was a sergeant. + +"So the special constables have seen that your father is a born +policeman?" I said as I sat down. + +"The _special_ ones," nodded Phyllis with profound pride. + +"Magnificent," I murmured. "He has at last justified his choice of the +law as a profession." + +"Tell us," said Lillah, with the air with which one speaks of a +self-made man who has just appeared in the Honours List--"tell us how +Daddy started." + +"He went to the Bar," I said. + +"Bar?" echoed Lillah. + +"Why, yes," I said; "it's a place where people wait." + +"Like a station?" + +"Only the trains don't always come in. Anyway, on one side of the bar +are a lot of young men waiting for something to turn up, and on the +other a lot of old men writing autobiographies." + +"But aren't there any middling-olders?" This is Phyllistian for men of +middle age. + +"Not allowed," I said. "At the Bar you are either a junior or a +reminiscer." + +"What's that?" + +"It's an illness that attacks people who aren't really famous." + +Phyllis stared. "Like measles?" + +I nodded. + +"Oh," cried Lillah eagerly, "do the reminiscers go all pink?" + +"They ought to," said I. + +There was a silence. The round eyes of Phyllis were full of suspicion. + +"Daddy said," she remarked slowly, "that he did law." + +"So he does," I answered. + +"Well, what's that, then?" + +Small girls ask questions in two words which wise men must write books +to answer. + +"The law," I answered warily, "gives reasons for things that are +unreasonable." + +"Like what?" said Phyllis. + +I laughed a little uneasily. This was getting difficult. + +"Oh--er--things like getting married," I said, "and refraining from +shooting little girls who ask questions." + +I admit that this sort of joke is the last infirmity of an uncle's +otherwise noble mind. They regarded me sadly. + +Then Lillah turned to Phyllis with a detached air. "Uncle James is being +grand," she said, "because he doesn't know what law is." + +"Don't you?" said Phyllis. + +"Perhaps not," I murmured feebly. The nursery makes very small beer of +the cynic. There was a moment's silence. + +"You've told us wrong," said Phyllis sternly. "Daddy isn't ever wrong." + +"So he's risen from his bar to be a sergeant," added Lillah, with the +air of one finishing a story with a moral. + +I'm afraid I chuckled. It was in very bad taste, of course, but I +couldn't help it. I suppose George is one of the most egregious +Micawbers of the English Bar, whereas I---- why, I remember noticing a +brief on the mantelpiece in my chambers only last month. + +"Poor Uncle James," said Phyllis in her best drawing-room tones, +"perhaps if you tried very hard----" + +They had mistaken my laughter for that bitter disappointed kind you get +in the theatres. + +"I know," said Lillah; "we'll play Germans, and Uncle James can pretend +he's a sergeant." + +Yes, they were sorry for me. The table was pushed into the window and +became a waterworks of importance. + +The invidious part of the alien enemy fell to Lillah. It was admitted +that she could glare best. "Besides," said Phyllis, "Lillah can make +growly noises come up from her tummy." + +The complete Hun, as you perceive. + +Phyllis became a "special," while I was her sergeant, the star part of +the piece. But the show was a frost, though Lillah gave an excellent +imitation, with the aid of a toy spider, of a Hun inserting bacilli into +the nation's _aqua pura_. Yes, I'm afraid I was the failure. I couldn't +get to grips with my part, and the whole thing was so obviously a +charity performance, with Phyllis ordering herself sternly about to try +and help me through. + +We were halfway through the second house when a well-known step was +heard on the stairs. + +Lillah turned, her eyes ablaze with worship. Phyllis trembled with +excitement. As I sat down I couldn't help thinking that we grown-ups are +just a little absurd. There is more than one thinks in the relativity of +things. + +Adoration? George was never going to get anything like it again in this +world. My mind mused on ambition. Why, the CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER +himself---- + +The door-handle turned and I heard the small voice of Phyllis in my ear. + +"Mummie says," she whispered, "we can't all be great." + +Nice little maid! + +Then we all lined up to receive the Sergeant. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Mother._ "NO, BETTY DARLING, I CAN'T BUTTON YOUR BOOTS +FOR YOU. NOW YOU HAVE A LITTLE SISTER YOU MUST LEARN TO DO THINGS FOR +YOURSELF." + +_Betty._ "SHALL I _ALWAYS_ HAVE TO DO FINGS FOR MYSELF?" + +_Mother._ "YES, DARLING." _Betty._ "THEN I DON'T FINK +I SHALL LIKE LIFE."] + + * * * * * + +"TURKISH COMMUNIQUE. + + Constantinople, Saturday.--On the Canadian front there were + outpost duels and local fighting at several points. These + skirmishes are still going on."--_Evening Paper._ + +Forthcoming volume by Sir MAX AITKEN--_Canada in Turkey._ + + * * * * * + +From a description of a new enemy aeroplane:-- + + "The whole machine is armoured, and the supper part is shaped + like a reversed roof." _Provincial Paper._ + +Trust the Germans for looking after the commissariat. + + * * * * * + +AN EMBARGO ON INK. + +Great Public Meeting. + +Mr Runciman, President of the Board of Trade, having stated that the +Government was following up its restrictions on the importation of paper +by drastic new rules concerning our supplies of ink, a public meeting of +protest was immediately called. Mr. T. P. O'Notor, M.P., took the chair, +and he was supported by many of the most illustrious ink-men of the day. + +The Chairman, having first read a number of letters apologising for +absence, one of which was, of course, from Lord Southbluff, who +specialises in this epistolary form, proceeded to pour scorn on the +Board of Trade's decision. How can the Board of Trade, he asked +pointedly, know its business as well as we do? If it hopes, by +curtailing the supplies of ink that come to England, to make room for +the more important necessaries of life, it is mistaken. There is nothing +more important than ink. (Cheers.) Without ink what are we? (A voice: +"Not much.") Without ink, how can advertisements be written? (Cries of +"Shame!") Among all forms of human endeavour none was nobler than +putting one word after another. (Applause.) That is what SHAKSPEARE did. +(Hear, hear.) Always with the assistance of ink. (Cheers.) And what +would England be like without SHAKSPEARE? (Renewed cheers.) Had Mr. +RUNCIMAN thought of that? He (the speaker) would venture to say he had +not. In any case ink must be saved. (Loud applause.) + +Mr. Harry Austinson, Editor of _The English Revue_, rose to protest +against the Board of Trade action. To put an embargo upon ink was, he +held, nothing less than an outrage. Ink was the life-blood of British +liberty, and he for one would never hesitate to spill the last drop, +either in his own select periodical or in a Sunday paper for the masses. +The mere fact that the feeling against ink was inaugurated by a Member +of the Government automatically proved it wrong. No good could come from +such a corrupt agglomeration of salary-seekers as the Coalition +Ministry. Speaking as one who knew Germany from within, he would say +that to put any obstacle in the way of the public expression of opinion +in England was to help the foe. (Hear, hear.) + +Mr. Bernold Pennit said that the Government's action paralysed him. For +years he had been in the habit of writing his ten thousand words a day. +It did not much matter what they were about; the point was that they +were written. Otherwise he could not keep in good health. Where another +man might do Swedish exercises, ride, walk, eat or play golf, he, Mr. +Pennit, wrote. (Hear, hear.) It might be an attack on British stupidity; +it might be a eulogy of Mr. ASQUITH; it might be a description of the +arrival of a ton of coal at an auctioneer's private residence in Handley +and its transference to the cellar and the discovery that there was one +hundredweight one stone short. Whatever the theme, there were ten +thousand words in any case, and unless he could write them daily he was +lost. The tragic thing was that he could write only in ink and with his +own hand. (Sensation.) Before meddling with ink there were all sorts of +things for the Government to forbid. Golf balls, for one. He wished to +express his complete dissatisfaction with Mr. RUNCIMAN's insane +proposal. (Cheers.) + +Mr. Bolaire Hillock thought that a great deal too much fuss was being +made about ink. The Board of Trade was, of course, an ass; that goes +without saying (_ca va sans dire_); but it is childish of literary men to +come there and pretend to be nonplussed. Let them rather show themselves +superior to such trumpery legislation. As an old campaigner he could +tell them what to do. When he was an artilleryman in France, and writing +a series of articles on the Reformation at the same time, he mixed an +excellent substitute for ink out of the ashes of his pipe and claret. +There were countless things that could be utilised, including blacking, +seethed mushrooms, boiled ash-buds, and the juice of the pickled walnut. +With such resources as these we intended to go on writing and drawing +diagrams long after Mr. RUNCIMAN was forgotten. (Loud cheers.) + +Lord Penge said that one of the purest pleasures of life was writing to +_The Times_, and how could that be done if there was no ink? Some people +doubtless could use pencil; but he personally could not. Others had +typewriters or dictated to typists, but that was beyond him. To him +there were few delights more complete than to dip his pen in the +forbidden fluid and begin, "Sir." (Applause.) + +The Rev. R. Trampbell said that not during his whole career as a +clergyman of the Church of England could he remember a more monstrous +proposal than this one to reduce the supply of ink. To him ink was more +precious than radium, for it enabled him to express his thoughts and +thus come into intimate relationship with his fellow-beings. It might be +within the knowledge of the meeting that he was in the habit of +contributing every week an article on the War to the Sunday papers. It +was not on tactics, but on some subject of spiritual interest connected +with the War, and he had reason to believe that thousands, he might say +millions, of his fellow-countrymen and fellow-countrywomen found it +helpful. Was that to cease? England had too few inspired teachers for +this article to be lightly disposed of. He felt sure that he had the +great weight of his beloved Church of England at the back of him when he +uttered this protest. + +Mr. Chester Gilbertson said that neither the restriction on ink or paper +would worry him. There was nothing he couldn't write _with_, and nothing +he couldn't write _on_. He had written many of his best articles with a +piece of chalk on one of his black coats, and many of his worst on cab +and railway-carriage windows with a diamond ring which he had compelled +a commercial traveller to relinquish. (Cheers.) Rather than not express +an opinion on whatever was forward, he would carve his views on a rock +and himself carry the rock to the printing office. (Loud cheers.) The +Runcimen of this world were created purely in order to be defied. + +Mr. Bernard Jaw said that of course for the Government to pretend that +the cargo space now occupied by ink was needed for something else was +rubbish. The Government's real reason was that they were terrified of +the critics and thought to muzzle them in this way. But he for one--and +he knew for a fact that the Government dreaded his genius acutely and +would give much if they could still the blistering accuracy of his +pen--he for one would not be daunted. + +At this point a special messenger arrived bearing a letter for the +Chairman, who, after reading it, asked leave to put the meeting in +possession of its terms, as it somewhat altered the situation. It was, +in fact, from the Board of Trade, and stated that, owing to a misprint, +the recent decision concerning ink had been misunderstood. It was not +ink that was to be restricted, but zinc. (Cheers.) In the circumstances +perhaps they might adjourn. + +The meeting then broke up peaceably, although Mr. Bernard Jaw did his +best to collect an audience for a new speech on the monstrosity of +interfering with zinc. + + * * * * * + + "Count Bernstorff finds that the Washington Government has left + him in the air. Seemingly he is at sea."--_Morning Post._ + +As was said of a nobler character, "the elements are so mixed up in +him." + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Jones (left at home to mind the children)._ "IF THE +PAPER'S ANYTHING TO GO BY, WE MARRIED MEN WILL ALL BE IN THE ARMY BY +JULY. IT SEEMS A LONG TIME TO WAIT."] + + * * * * * + +THE EXPERT ADVISER. + +I met him near the entrance of the Institute, where I was waiting to see +the Superintendent. He approached with light, nervous steps, and his +haggard eyes met mine questioningly. + +"A fine morning," I remarked. + +"It is," he agreed; "and if you would be good enough to tell me the day +of the week--" + +"It's Saturday," I said, wondering a little. + +"I--I feared so," he said and clutched me by the arm. "Listen. This is +the day when I have to make up my five columns--seven hundred lines, +brevier type. It is my destiny to give advice, and you can have it +without the asking. Take, for example, the Rhode Island Rabbit--a noble +strain and rich in phosphates. Plant out at the beginning of April in a +mixture consisting of two parts road-grit, two parts table-scraps, and a +deed of assignment, and by the end of October they will be throwing up +magnificent clusters of yellow blossom. The Magellan Lop-eared is also +hardy and prolific, though pugnacious if reared under glass. In the +absence of a specified agreement a dose of tartaric acid that has been +well stewed with the mutton left over from Sunday will usually put +matters straight. Snip off shoots that show signs of becoming broody, +and give a mash of middlings at quarter-day. + +"We now come to the Light Sussex Long-furred Goatlings. These can be +kept in hutches, which may be obtained at any oil-shop at about +fivepence per pint. Grasp firmly by the wings when lifting, and explain +the matter to your solicitor. Short-haired Pouters should be housed in +kennels which have been thoroughly disinfected with peat-moss, +cod-liver-oil emulsion and a good face-powder. A little boracic ointment +rubbed well into the roots before breakfast is also to be commended. +With regard to the Squirrel-tailed Borzois, during the period of weaning +try bicarbonate of soda, one scruple; sal volatile, one drachm; to be +taken every calendar month from date of contract." + +A large, genial man, with an official manner--he was, I discovered, the +under-superintendent--approached, and the haggard man moved rapidly +away. + +"A painful case," I observed. + +"Very," said the large man. "Journalist of the name of Criddle--Jabez +Wilberforce Criddle. He used to run the Gardening section of _The Sunday +Helio_. Then the chap that was responsible for the 'Legal Advice' was +called up, and Criddle got his column as well as his own. Next, the +'Poultry Gossip' man went, and they gave Criddle that, and when a week +later the 'Cookery Notes' woman took up V.A.D. work he got her share +too. He struggled along gamely enough until 'Auntie Gladys,' who ran +'Our Baby' column, became a tram-conductress; but, when they passed him +that, his mind went, and the proprietors sent him here." + +I inquired as to the possibilities of recovery. + +"There is hope," said the large man, "that the trouble may not last +beyond the duration of the War. But we shan't feel that we've made a +fair start until we've cured him of getting up in the night and tapping +his artificial teeth with a button-hook. He fancies he's dictating +'Answers to Correspondents.'" + + * * * * * + +Clerical Candour. + + "In order to satisfy my mind I spent over two hours in a certain + cinema ... Frankly I was disappointed. I saw nothing which could + in any way be called indecent." + + _The Rev. F. H. GILLINGHAM, in "The Weekly Dispatch."_ + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: AN UNEASY CONSCIENCE. + +"WELL, I'M OFF TO MY DRESSMAKER'S. I CAN'T SIT HERE ANY LONGER BEING +ECONOMISED AT BY THAT GIRL'S CLOTHES."] + + * * * * * + +THE WORLD SET FREE. + +(_An awful prospect._) + + Long, long ago, when I had not attested, + I prized the liberties of this proud race, + The right of speech, from haughty rulers wrested, + The right to put one's neighbours in their place; + I liked to argue and I loved to pass + Slighting remarks on Robert, who's an ass, + To hint that Henry's manners were no class, + Or simply say I did not like his face. + + But things are changed. To-day I had a tussle + With some low scion of an upstart line; + Meagre his intellect, absurd his muscle, + I should have strafed him in the days long syne; + I took a First, and he could hardly parse; + I have more eloquence but he more stars; + Yet (so insane the ordinance of Mars) + I must say "Yessir," and salute the swine. + + And it was hard when that abrupt Staff-Major + Up to the firing-line one evening came + (Unknown his motive, probably a wager), + And said quite rudely, "You are much to blame; + Those beggars yonder you should enfilade." + I fingered longingly a nice grenade; + I said those beggars were our First Brigade, + But might not call him any kind of name. + + Yet not for ever shall the bard be muted + By stars and stripes, but freely, as of yore, + When swords are sheathed and I'm civilian-suited, + I shall have speech with certain of my corps, + Speak them the insults which I now but brood: + "Pompous," "incompetent," "too fond of food," + And fiercely taste the bliss of being rude + And unrestrained by Articles of War. + + That will be great; but what if such intentions + Are likewise present in the Tenth Platoon? + What if some labourer of huge dimensions + Meet me defenceless in a Tube saloon, + And hiss his catalogue of unpaid scores, + How oft I criticised his forming fours, + Or prisoned him behind the Depot doors, + Or kept him digging on the Fourth of June? + + Painful. And then, when all these armed millions + Unknot with zest the military noose, + Will the whole world be full of wroth civilians, + Each one exulting in a tongue let loose? + And who shall picture or what bard shall pen + The crowning horror which awaits us then-- + That civil warfare of uncivil men + In one great Armageddon of abuse? + + * * * * * + +A Pluralist. + +The writer of a letter appearing in _The Daily Mail_ signs herself "Wife +of Group 41." + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR. + +JOHN BULL (_to himself_). "TELL YOU WHAT IT IS, MY FRIEND--YOU'VE BEEN +DOING YOURSELF TOO WELL. IF YOU MEAN TO WIN THIS WAR YOU'VE GOT TO SEE +WHAT YOU CAN DO WITHOUT."] + + * * * * * + +FRANK. + +In my first formal introduction to Frank he appeared, together with his +clothing and various belongings, as an item in a list of things to be +taken over. I knew him already by reputation, and I remembered some of +the occasions when he had appeared on parade. Also I knew that two +successive Company Commanders had managed in turn to exchange him with +some unsuspecting newly appointed O.C. Company for something more +tractable. This last process, indeed, accounted for my having to take +him over instead of the mild creature with the duck-waddle action which +my predecessor had ridden or, let me say, sat. + +It became then my lot to take over Frank, or, to put it more correctly, +I was issued with him. That is part of the military principle of fixing +responsibility. Things are not issued to you; you are issued with them, +and you alone are accountable. I was issued with Frank and all his +harness and appointments and, incidentally, his parlour tricks. This was +the formal introduction. I didn't meet him at close range until later. +When I was issued with him I didn't even know his name. No previous +owner had ever thought of asking it, and had they asked they would not +have believed that a horse could be called Frank. On general principles +it seems wrong, but on nearer acquaintance I found that Frank was +exactly the name for him. The great thing about him was that if he +thought a thing he said it. + +For example, when I first mounted him he thought he would prefer to +remain in the stable where he had been for the best part of a week. He +said so quite candidly. I am nothing very great as a handler of wild +animals, and he gave me three minutes made up of every action in his +_repertoire_--no limited one. At the end of it I very kindly dismounted. +I didn't want him to think I was not intelligent enough to understand +what he meant, and moreover I hated the idea of marring our first +meeting by refusing so unmistakable a request. So he was led back to his +quarters and the incident closed, if not with mutual goodwill at least +with some degree of satisfaction fairly evenly distributed among the +parties. + +It was, I remember, on the next morning that the Mess Sergeant noticed a +shortage of lump sugar in one of the basins. I mention this merely +because it fixes in my mind the first day on which I had a comfortable +ride. Frank started out in a good temper and came home at his best pace, +hoping to get some more sugar. That, at least, is how I read his +meaning, and I pursued my policy of not misunderstanding him. After this +he developed a parlour trick which made me quite fond of him. When I +went to the stable he would put his nose round to the side pocket whore +I kept the sugar. He always got some, and he knew there would always be +some more when he got home. + +Thus it became necessary to instruct him in topography. He quickly +learned that certain turnings led to the camp, and I was reduced to +subterfuges to prove to him that they did not. It was essential to go +over every road at various times in opposite directions. That confused +him, and though I disliked the deception I had to resort to it, with the +result that Frank finally accepted me at my own fictitious valuation as +a person who did not properly know his own mind. + +But it took him some time to get into my ways. Once we spent twenty +minutes on a small stretch of road leading from the parade ground to a +railway bridge. I wanted to cross the bridge and Frank did not. I took +him towards the bridge and he took me back towards the camp. This +happened thirteen times. At the fourteenth there was a variation; he +changed his mind and we crossed the bridge. During the twenty minutes, I +remember, we had a further slight disagreement about a stick. I was glad +I had brought it, and he was not. But on the other side of the bridge we +let bygones be bygones. Frank had his moods, but he was always a +gentleman. + +He was also a soldier. His strong point really was that he was excellent +on parade. He would look round, grasp the formation at a glance, and +drop into his place. He was never more happy than when route-marching; +never more unhappy than when compelled to break out of the line. Indeed, +so much did he enjoy column of route that when off duty with two or +three other horses he would play at route-marching, taking up a position +in Indian file and avoiding any sort of arrangement which brought him +abreast of his companions. + +At last we had to part. I don't know the right way to express this. +Possibly I was reissued without him; I am not sure what the process was. +At any rate we separated, he remaining at the camp and I proceeding on +duty to the Depot. I said good-bye to him and he nuzzled for the last +time at my side pocket. Having munched the sugar, he turned to the more +serious business of his manger. I think this must have been his way of +concealing his emotion. + + * * * * * + +RAG-TIME IN THE TRENCHES. + + Roll up, rally up! + Stroll up, sally up! + Take a tupp'ny ticket out, and help to tote the tally up! + Come and see the Raggers in their "Mud and Slush" revoo. + (Haven't got no money? Well, a cigarette'll do). + Come and hear O'Leary in his great tin-whistle stunt; + See our beauty chorus with the Sergeant in the front; + Come and hear our gaggers + In their "Lonely Tommy" song; + Come and see the Raggers, + We're the bongest of the bong. + + Roll up, rally up! + Stroll up, sally up! + Show is just commencing and we've got to ring the ballet up. + Hear our swell orchestra keeping all the fun alive, + Tooting on his whistle while they dance the Dug-out Dive. + Come and see Spud Murphy with his double-ration smile, + ('Tisn't much for beauty, but it's PHYLLIS DARE for style); + Come and see our _scena_, + "How the section got C.B.;" + Bring a concertina + And we'll let you come in free. + + Roll up, rally up! + Stroll up, sally up! + First and last performance. If you want to see it, _allez_ up! + Come and sit where "Archibalds" won't get you in the neck + (If it's getting sultry you can take a pass-out check). + Come and hear the Corporal recite his only joke; + See the leading lady slipping out to have a smoke; + Sappers, cooks, flag-waggers, + Dhooly-wallahs too; + Come and hear the Raggers + In their "Mud and Slush" revoo. + + * * * * * + +Commercial Candour. + + "The perfume _par excellence_ ... unapproached and + unapproachable." _Advt. in Provincial Paper._ + + * * * * * + +"GERMAN FOOD CRISIS. + ATTEMPT TO CONGEAL THE TRUTH AS TO SHORTAGE."--_Buenos Ayres + Standard._ + +The Huns are so economical that they put even Truth into cold storage. + + * * * * * + + "Cheery messages come through from General Townshend. He is + sewing vegetable seeds and has asked for gramophone needles." + _Lloyd's Weekly News._ + +The ordinary kind being unsuited for such delicate stitchery. + + * * * * * + +ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT. + +_Tuesday, February_ 29th.--Mr. LLOYD GEORGE announced to-day that the +Members of the Cabinet had decided to take one-fourth of their salaries +in Exchequer Bonds. Murmurs of applause followed, and before they had +died away Mr. HOGGE launched his great joke. Leading up to it with the +remark that Exchequer Bonds can be sold the next day, he asked, "Would +it not be a good idea to call them the Laughing Stock?" Mr. HOGGE is not +one of the chartered jesters of the House so his _jeu d'esprit_ just +caused "a laugh," as the reporters say, and nothing more. + +On the Third Beading of the Consolidated Fund Bill Sir JOHN SIMON +renewed his attack upon the Military Service Bill. The tribunals, he +declared, were disregarding the appeal of the widow's only son; the +Yellow Form, of which the late Home Secretary takes the same jaundiced +view as he did of the Yellow Press, was being sent out indiscriminately +to all whom it did not concern: the War Office had issued a misleading +poster; and everywhere men were being "bluffed" into the Army. He +himself would have been inundated with correspondence if he had not had +the happy inspiration of diverting the flood into Mr. TENNANT's +letter-box. Passionately he called upon the Government not to imitate +Germany's brutality. + +Mr. LONG, suave as usual, deprecated Sir JOHN SIMON'S ferocity, reminded +him that all cases of hardship could be considered by the Appeal +Tribunals, and promised to investigate the cases that had been +mentioned. "May I send in my list too?" asked Mr. WATT. But Mr. LONG, +unwilling to share the fate of Mr. TENNANT, suggested that the SECRETARY +FOR SCOTLAND would form a more appropriate dumping-ground for Mr. WATT'S +_dossier_. + +After Mr. SNOWDEN, Sir THOMAS WHITTAKER and Mr. LOUGH had reinforced Sir +JOHN SIMON'S case with added instances the Government found an +unexpected champion in Mr. HEALY. He was amazed to hear the late HOME +SECRETARY--"one of the Ministers who made the War"--gloating over the +inefficiency of the War Office at a moment when round Verdun was raging +a battle in which the fate of Paris, and perhaps of London, was +involved. Why had he not imitated the monumental silence of Mr. BURNS? +Instead, he, the suppressor of obscure Irish newspapers, had done more +to injure recruiting than any Connemara editor. + +I never expected to live to hear the Bank of England described in the +House of Commons as a useless institution. In Mr. HEALY'S opinion, "The +Old Lady of Threadneedle Street," like the other who lived in a shoe, +has too many children, and her attempt to get 190 of them exempted from +military service moved him in a moment of "vituperative irrelevance," as +Mr. PRINGLE subsequently described it, to say the rudest things about +her financial capacity. + +_Wednesday, March 1st._--Sir OWEN PHILLIPS, once Liberal Member for +Pembroke, returned to the House to-day as Unionist Member for Chester. +To signalise the capture of so gigantic a prize--he is 6ft. 6in. in his +stockinged feet--Lord EDMUND TALBOT and Sir G. YOUNGER, Unionist Whips, +conducted him to the Table; and as they are both of moderate height the +procession gave the effect of a _Mauretania_ going to her moorings in +charge of a couple of tugs. + +When Dr. MACNAMARA moved a Supplementary Estimate of L10 for the Navy, I +was reminded of PRAED'S lines "On seeing the SPEAKER asleep in his +chair":-- + + "Hume, no doubt, will be taking the sense Of the House on a + saving of thirteen pence." + +But there were differences. The L10 was not an ordinary "ten-pun' note" +but was a "token" representing something like four and a half millions +received by the Fleet for services rendered to Foreign Powers and +others; and Mr. WHITLEY, who was in the Chair, too so far from being +asleep, was intensely wide-awake. Members who sought to discuss Naval +policy generally were promptly pulled up, and the SECRETARY OF THE +ADMIRALTY, when in his third or fourth attempt to explain the Vote he +remarked hypothetically, "Suppose we were to sell a battleship----" was +himself called to order, Mr. WHITLEY evidently regarding such a +reduction of the Fleet as unpatriotic even in imagination. + +A vote for L37,000 to extend the British Consulate buildings at Cairo +united both sides of the House in criticism. Mr. ASHLEY thought what was +good enough for Lord CROMER should be good enough for his successor. Mr. +HOGGE, by a somewhat obscure process of reasoning, now understood why +the Germans were so anxious to get to Egypt. In vain Mr. LEWIS HARCOURT, +usually so persuasive, explained that they were now buying for L3 10s. a +metre land for which the owner wanted L12 a metre not long ago. Sir F. +BANBURY, shaking his _pince-nez_ at the Treasury Bench, retorted that +he might ask L5 for this pair of glasses, for which he had paid +half-a-crown (more war economy), but he would not expect to get it. + +A vote for L50,000, to complete the purchase of the estate of Colonel +HALL-WALKER, who has presented his racing stud to the Government, evoked +some opposition and much facetiousness. Mr. ACLAND, who proposed it, did +not help his case by remarking that personally he regarded racing as a +low form of sport. The fact that some of the horses have been leased by +the War Department to Lord LONSDALE for racing purposes "on sharing +terms" caused Mr. MCNEILL to inquire whether Mr. TENNANT would act as +the Ministerial tipster; and Mr. HOGGE, who displayed a knowledge of +racing which will, I fear, shock the unco' guid of East Edinburgh, +thought it ridiculous that Ministers should preach economy in the City +and start a racing stud at Westminster. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: IN HAPPY DAYS TO COME. _The Coalition Owners (Mr. ASQUITH +and Mr. BONAR LAW _) LEADING IN A WINNER.] + + * * * * * + +_Thursday, March 2nd.--Ariel_, Earl of DERBY, has not entirely left the +Earth for the Air. His head, at any rate, is not in the clouds, for his +speech on the working of his own scheme was full of practical wisdom. He +was not afraid of the exemptions that the tribunals might give if left +to themselves, but he was a little concerned about SIMON and his scratch +crew of pro-shirkers who seemed to be doing their little best to prevent +the country from getting men. + + * * * * * + +THE ELUSIVE ONES. + +A large number of claims for exemption from military service were made +before the Bouverie Street Tribunal at its sittings last week. + +Ike Feldmann (23) asked for exemption on the ground that he was an +agriculturalist and therefore excused under the Act. Questioned further, +he stated that at the present time he was employed in making artificial +onions for a firm of Bond Street milliners, but his uncle, who was +wealthy, had promised to buy him a farm as soon as the weather got +warmer. His application was rejected. + +William Smith (31) stated that he was the President, Treasurer and +Secretary of the Anglo-Chinese Industries Association, Limited, and +urged that unless he was exempted the company must inevitably go into +liquidation, there being no one else familiar with its business. +Answering a question by the Chairman, applicant stated that the company +was formed to do a general mercantile business, but that at the present +time its activities were confined to manicuring Pekingese pugs. Asked +whether this work could not be done by women, applicant stated that it +had been tried, but that women seemed to get on the nerves of the dogs, +causing their hair to fall out. The application was refused. + +An appeal was made on behalf of George W. Hopper (18), an employee of +the West End Delicacy Company, a concern engaged in the business of +supplying steak-and-kidney puddings to the large hotels. These +delicacies, the Secretary of the company explained, weighed about a ton +each, and Hopper was the only man who was strong enough to lift them out +of the ovens into the delivery wagon. + +_A Member of the Board._ That is just the kind of man they want in the +army. + +The Secretary of the company stated as an additional ground for +exemption that Hopper had a wooden leg and bronchitis. He was put back +one group to give time for medical treatment of leg. + +James Ponks (19), who appeared somewhat dazed at his surroundings, +explained in a confidential whisper that he was the caretaker of the +municipal macaroni beds in Regent's Park. Asked if he would not like to +fight for his country, he replied that he would, only MARTIN Luther had +appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to go into the dressed +poultry business. Referred to the Medical authorities. + +Jim Bounce (30) stated that he had a conscientious objection to +fighting. He didn't like the Germans, but recognised that they were his +spiritual brothers. + +_A Member of the Board._ Where did you get that cauliflower ear? + +Owing to the unsatisfactory nature of the applicant's reply his appeal +was refused. + +Arthur Small (35), proprietor of a fish and chips emporium, stated that +he was a widower and the sole support of his mother-in-law, two married +sisters-in-law, their husbands and their thirteen small children. + +_The Chairman._ It seems a clear case for exemption. + +Applicant hastened to explain that he did not ask for exemption as he +felt that his first duty was to his country. He would like, however, a +week in which to say good-bye to his relations by marriage. The request +was granted, the Chairman stating that the attitude of Small, who was +sacrificing everything for duty, did him the greatest credit. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: HAVEN. + +On the famous site of The Star and Garter Hotel at Richmond Hill, a Home +is to be built for Soldiers and Sailors totally disabled by the War. The +work has been undertaken by the British Women's Hospital, and, on its +completion, Her Majesty the Queen will present the building to the +British Red Cross Society, by whom it will be maintained. The cost of +construction will be L50,000. Mr. Punch can think of no cause which +should appeal more strongly to the gratitude of the nation and he begs +his generous readers to send gifts in aid of it to The Hon. Treasurer, +"Star and Garter" Building Fund, 21, Old Bond Street, W.] + + * * * * * + +A Smooth Passage. + + "In the Lords Viscount French took his sea but it was a quiet + affair."--_Morning Paper._ + + * * * * * + + "EMPLOYMENT as odd man offered to a disabled soldier in a very + good gentleman's household."--_Morning Paper._ + +As the above advertisement appeared several times we are afraid the +gentleman must have been regarded as almost too good to be true. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Bank Manager._ "Now please understand, Miss Jones, you +must make the books balance." _Miss Jones._ "Oh, Mr. Brown, how fussy +you are!"] + + * * * * * + +THE DUG-OUT DOMINIE. + + Some thirty years ago or more + He tried his hand at gerund-grinding, + But very speedily forswore + The _role_ before its ties grew binding; + He earned a living by his pen, + Paid court to Clio and Melpomene, + Until the War broke out, and then + Enlisted--as a dug-out dominie. + + Shortsighted, undersized and weak, + Intolerant yet self-distrusting, + There could not well have been a "beak" + Less fitted for the nice adjusting + Of his peculiar point of view + To that of forty-odd years later, + Less eager to acclaim the New, + Less apt for Georgian tastes to cater. + + He strove, 'tis true, to keep abreast + Of MASEFIELD'S grim poetic frenzy, + Sought Truth in WELLS, and did his best + To like the Oxford of MACKENZIE; + With YEATS he wandered in the Void, + Tasted of SHAW'S dramatic jalap, + Then turned with rapture unalloyed + To DICKENS, THACKERAY and TROLLOPE. + + Thus handicapped, thus fortified, + Behold him perilously faring + Into a world where all are tried + By boyhood's scrutiny unsparing; + Where ev'ry trick of gait or speech + Is most inexorably noted, + And masters, more than what they teach, + Are studied, criticised and quoted. + + His idols mostly left them cold-- + BAGEHOT, MATT. ARNOLD, SCOTT and MILTON; + But they were quick in taking hold + Of PRAED and J.K.S. and HILTON; + And once undoubtedly he scored + When, on a day of happy omen, + He introduced them to A. WARD, + The wisest of the tribe of showmen. + + But still his fervours left them calm-- + Emotion they considered freakish;-- + He felt with many an inward qualm + That he was thoroughly un-beakish; + His mood perplexed them; he was half + Provocative, half deferential, + Too anxious to provoke a laugh, + Too vague where logic was essential. + + So, struggling on to bridge the gaps + That seventeen from sixty sunder, + And causing at his best, perhaps, + A mild and intermittent wonder, + At least he recognised the truth + That there are other ways of earning + The sympathy of clear-eyed youth + Than by a mere parade of learning. + + And yet I think his pupils may + In after years, at camp or college, + Admit that in his rambling way + He added to their stock of knowledge; + And, as they ruefully recall + His "jaws" on CLAUSEWITZ and JOMINI, + On BALZAC, HEINE and JEAN PAUL, + Think kindly of their dug-out dominie. + + * * * * * + + "Hide-bound red tape rules the day." SIR F. MILNER'S _Letter to + "The Times."_ + +It is much more effective than ordinary unreinforced variety. + + * * * * * + +A Happy Family. + + "A milk deliverer 31 years of ago, who applied for exemption, + said his father was an Atheist, his mother was 'all the other + way about,' and his brother was a Socialist, and if he went away + there would be war at home. He considered that he should stay at + home to keep the peace."--_Western Evening Herald._ + +But a merciful tribunal, thinking that he was more likely to find it in +the trenches, only exempted him for a month. + + * * * * * + +THE NATIONAL SCAPE-GOAT ASSOCIATION. + +My companion had come into the compartment hurriedly just as the train +started. He was a small, middle-aged, sandy-haired man with a straggling +tufted beard, the sort of beard that looks as if it owed its origin +rather to forgetfulness than to any settled design. The expression on +his face and, indeed, over his whole body was a deprecating one. He +reminded me of a dog who has transgressed and begs humbly for +forgiveness. He had no newspaper, and accepted the offer of one of mine +with a deference of gratitude that struck me as excessive. Soon after +that we slid into a conversation about the War and made most of the +usual remarks. + +"It's wonderful," he said, "how the country maintains its financial +stability. Five millions a day, you know. It's a pretty big sum, and yet +nobody seems to feel it. Here we are, for instance, you and I, +travelling first-class." + +"My next season-ticket is going to be third-class," I said. "All +business has been hit very hard, and we've simply got to economise." + +"I daresay, I daresay," he said. "It may be so with some businesses. All +I know is my business hasn't gone off." + +"Shipowner?" I said. + +He gasped and shook his head emphatically. "Oh dear, no," he said. +"Nothing of that kind--wish I was. But you won't guess what I do, not if +I were to let you have a thousand guesses." His humility had vanished +and he looked almost triumphant. + +"I give it up at once," I said. "What are you?" + +"I," he said, "am the National Scape-Goat Association." + +"The _what_?" I said. + +He repeated his words. "I see you don't understand," he went on, "so +perhaps I'd better explain." + +"Yes," I said, "much better." + +"Well, it's this way," he said. "Have you ever written a book or been a +Candidate for a seat in the House of Commons?" + +I said I hadn't. + +"It doesn't matter," he said. "You'll understand what I mean. Take the +politician first. He issues an Address and makes speeches; in fact, does +things which make him known to thousands of people whom he doesn't know. +Do you follow me?" + +I said I did. + +"Well, then, somebody posts back his Election Address with 'This is +pitiful balderdash and most ungrammatical' written plainly at the bottom +of it. What would be your feelings if you got a thing like that?" + +"I shouldn't like it," I said. + +"Of course you wouldn't. You'd want to kick the writer, or at the very +least you'd want to write back to him and tell him what you thought of +him. But you can't do it, because of course he hasn't signed his name or +given any hint of his address. It's the same way with anonymous letters +of abuse. You can't answer them. So you 're done. You feel as if you'd +tried to walk up a step where there wasn't a step, and your temper +suffers. That's where the Association comes in. All you've got to do is +to write to us, enclosing fee. For half-a-guinea we send down to any +address in England one of our experts from the Assault-and-Battery +Department, and you're entitled to kick him once--we guarantee him +boot-proof, so you can kick as hard as you like. Or, if you prefer +writing to kicking, you can write to me as if I'd written the anonymous +letter or article or whatever it may be, and you can abuse me to your +heart's content for half-a-crown. For three shillings you can call me a +pro-German. Anyhow, the result is that your temper recovers and you feel +perfectly satisfied. It's well worth the money, isn't it? I'm thinking +of starting a Subscriptions' Department, to which you could write a +refusal of any application for money, even if you have to subscribe in +the end. It will give a man a pleasant glow to write to a clergyman, for +instance (I shall keep a dozen or so on the premises), and say he'll be +immortally jiggered if he'll subscribe to the Church Building Fund. But +the anonymous letter business will always be my chief source of profit. +Here's our prospectus, with all details. If you think any more of it +perhaps you'll let me know. I get out here. Good-bye." + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Kaiser (reading English news of wood-pulp +restrictions)._ "HIMMEL! THEY'LL THINK MORE THAN EVER OF THEIR PRECIOUS +'SCRAPS OF PAPER'!"] + + * * * * * + +Kipling Revised. + + "Men of all castes had rallied to the Flag, and truly we had + witnessed the truth of what the poet told us. 'The East is West + and the West is East.'" _Surrey Mirror._ + + * * * * * + + "Alfred Billinger and Albert Robson, miners ... were fined 20s. + each for trespassing in search of fame." _Provincial Paper._ + +Well, now they've got it. + + * * * * * + + "In the Metropolitan Police District the employment of special + constables has resulted in a saving of five-eighths of a + penny."--_Yorkshire Evening Post._ + +Very disappointing! Not even a whole copper. + + * * * * * + +From the report of a Dairyman's Association:-- + + "It further aims at insuring that the milk-supply for the city + and district shall, like Caesar's wife, be beyond suspicion, and + it therefore enjoins on its members the necessity for taking + every possible care that the sanitary conditions prevailing at + the farms, in the dairies and during the transit of the milk to + the public shall leave nothing to be desired. In short, its + motto is, in these respects, '_Nilus secundus_'."--_Hampshire + Chronicle._ + +If they must use water in their milk we are glad to think that the Nile +is only their second choice. + + * * * * * + + "The Sunday schools must try to 'wangle'--that was, a project + their in-to 'wangle'--that was, to project their in-enlarged + task, and attempt to do what seemed impossible."--_Provincial + Paper._ + +We would not go so far as to say impossible, but they certainly seem to +have difficulties ahead. + + * * * * * + + "Good fish, fruit, and rabbit business for sale. No opposition + fish or rabbits."--_Bolton Journal._ + +It looks rather as if the fruit might disagree with you. + + * * * * * + +Under the heading, "Musical Instruments, etc.":-- + + "AMERICAN mammoth bronze turkey cockerels, strong, healthy, + grand stock birds; 20s. each."--_Glasgow Herald._ + +You should hear these musical instruments throw off "Yankee-doodle." + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _Servant._ "I CAN'T GET THIS 'ERE TAIL LIGHT TO BURN, +SIR." + +_Country Doctor._ "OH, NEVER MIND. WE'RE ONLY GOING HOME, AND I'VE GOT +THE CONSTABLE SAFE IN BED WITH LUMBAGO."] + + * * * * * + +OUR BOOKING-OFFICE. + +(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._) + +Mr. Maurice Hewlett's latest volume, _Frey and His Wife_ (WARD, LOCK), +suffers from the defect of being in reality a long short story puffed +out to the dimensions of a short novel; and in consequence, even with +large type--most grateful to the reviewing eye; Heaven forbid I should +complain of that!--and a blank page between each chapter, it has +considerable difficulty in filling its volume. It is a tale of antique +Iceland and Norway. The first part, which is really padding and has +nothing whatever to do with _Frey_ or his matrimonial affairs, treats of +one _Ogmund_, who was called _Ogmund Dint_, for the very good reason +that he had been literally dinted as to the skull. It was done by a +gentleman named _Halward_. Everybody naturally expected _Ogmund_ to dint +back; but he was something of a conscientious objector in the matter of +face-to-face dinting, and being too proud for vulgar conflict he bided +his time till he could cut _Halward_'s throat with the minimum of +personal inconvenience. End of padding and appearance of _Frey_. There +is a picture of _Frey_ on the cover by Mr. MAURICE GREIFFENHAGEN. You +know already what the GREIFFENHAGEN vikings are like--high-coloured, +well developed and (if I dare say it) sometimes a trifle wooden. _Frey_ +indeed looked so very wooden that in my foolish ignorance I was tempted +to protest. But the astonishing fact is that Frey was not only wooden in +appearance, but in actuality. How then could he have for wife a slip of +a sixteen-year-old maid that you may have met before in Mr HEWLETT's +romances? This however is the real story, which (pardon me) I do not +mean to tell. If it is no tremendous matter, it will at least please an +idle hour, which will be almost time enough for you to enjoy every word +of it. + +_These Lynnekers_ (CASSELL) is yet another example of the "family" novel +whose increasing popularity I have lately noticed. It is a clever and +interesting story--the name of Mr. J. D. BERESFORD assured me in advance +that it would be--and, when it is finished, the characters go on living +and speaking in one's mind, which is, I suppose, a sound proof of their +vitality. Yet in a sense vitality was just what most of the _Lynneker_ +tribe chiefly lacked. They were an ancient and honourable house, +country-born to the third and fourth generation, and all of them far too +conventional and apathetic and fuss-hating ever to follow any but the +line of least resistance. All of them, that is, except _Dickie_, who was +the youngest of his father's numerous progeny, and in more senses than +one a sport. How _Dickie_ released himself from the shackles of family +tradition, how he grew up and bustled things about, and generally made a +real instead of a conventional success--this is the matter of the tale. +All the characters are well-drawn, and about _Dickie_ himself there is a +compelling virility that rushes you along in his rather tempestuous +wake. I am not sure that I altogether believe in his attitude towards +the question of sex. He appeared to think generally too little, and on +occasions remarkably too much, about it. Also the painful detail with +which the author lingers over the death of old _Canon Lynneker_ (that +attractive and human figure of ecclesiastical gentility) roused me to +resentment. When will our novelists learn that, as regards the physical +side of mortality, reticence is by far the better part of realism? This +marred a little my pleasure in a story for whose quality and workmanship +I should else have nothing but praise. + + * * * * * + +In _To Ruhleben--and Back_ (CONSTABLE), Mr. GEOFFREY PYKE has such a +fine yarn to spin of his foolhardy proceeding in walking right into the +eagle's beak as correspondent for an English newspaper, at the end of +September, 1914, and (after some months' solitary confinement in Berlin +and his transfer to the civilian prisoners' miserable internment camp at +Ruhleben) walking right out of it again, that one can forgive him for +spreading his elbows for a piece of expansive writing when he was safe +home. To tell the truth he writes extraordinarily well; one's only +feeling is that the simplest idiom would be best for such an amazing +narrative, and Mr. PYKE is too young and too clever (both charmingly +venial faults) to write simply. When I tell you that this persistent +youngster, hardly out of his teens, patiently worked out a plan of +escape which depended for its efficacy on an optical illusion (the +precise secret of which he does not give away), and with his friend, Mr. +EDWARD FALK, a District Commissioner from Nigeria, part tramped, part +_bummel-zugged_ the two hundred and fifty miles or so from Ruhleben to +the Dutch frontier, disguised as tourists, with a kit openly bought at +WERTHEIM's, living, when marketing became too dangerous, on potatoes and +other roots burglariously digged from the fields at dark, you will +gather that this is some adventure. But I am afraid the publication will +not assist any other prisoners at Ruhleben to escape. It is pleasant to +note that the Commandant of the Camp, VON TAUBB, was a sportsman and +none too thickly tarred with the brush of Prussian efficiency; and that +the Governor, GRAF SCHWERIN, threatened resignation if a no-smoking +order, sent from headquarters, were insisted on. Indeed, the fact that +our young friend was not shot out of hand must stand as a small entry on +the credit side, not inconveniently crowded, of Prussia's account in the +recording angel's ledger. + + * * * * * + +In _A Frenchwoman's Notes on the War_ (CONSTABLE) Mademoiselle CLAIRE DE +PRATZ discourses pleasantly and patriotically of sundry effects of the +War on French life and character. She is excusably proud of the part +which her fellow-countrywomen have played. The women of France seem to +have accomplished to admiration what we in England are only beginning to +understand. Quietly, almost automatically, Frenchwomen have slipped into +the men's vacant places and carried on the work of the country. The +industry and resourcefulness of the average Frenchwoman are proverbial, +but the author ascribes the peculiar readiness they have displayed at +the present time largely to compulsory military service, as well as to +the Frenchman's habit of discussing his work with his wife and daughters +and awakening their interest in it. Thus, when the local paperhanger was +called to the colours his wife repapered the author's country cottage +"quite as efficiently"; and thrilling indeed is the account of the +gallantry of one intrepid woman who, when the German Staff entered an +important town (from which the Mayor and Municipal Council had fled), +resisted their demand for a large war ransom. Widow of a former Senator +of the Department, she "alone remained, the sole representative of +officialdom." "We want to see the Mayor," said the invaders. "_Le Maire? +C'est moi!_" was the reply. "Then kindly direct us to some members of +the Municipal Council." "_Le Conseil Municipal? C'est moi!_" We are told +that the Teutonic officials were amazed--and no wonder. But in the end +they were forced to go without the money, and the town and its defender +were left in peace. I commend _A Frenchwoman's Notes on the War_ as a +most inspiriting record of what women can do; though the author +magnanimously admits that, "for the callings of the coal-heaver and the +furniture-remover," men, even in France, are still indispensable. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: A PEACE WEDDING. + +UNIQUE SOCIAL FUNCTION WHICH TOOK PLACE AT LITTLE PUDDLETHORPE, HERTS, +LAST WEEK.] + + * * * * * + +For novels which require a guide to conduct me through them I confess +weariness, but in _That Woman from Java_ (HURST AND BLACKETT) I found +the glossary less fatiguing hero. Things were going badly for _Mrs. +Hamilton_ in the divorce case, "_Hamilton v. Hamilton_, co-respondent +_King_," when the judge broke down. That might have happened to any +judge, but, although I can follow the judicial _Bruce_ quite easily to +his sick bed, I cannot believe that he would, on his recovery, have +refrained from finding out how the case ended. Apparently being in love +with _Mrs. Hamilton_, he did not dare to enquire what happened; but a +more plausible explanation of his unenterprising conduct seems to be +that he had only to act like an ordinary man and the rather sandy +foundations on which E. HARDINGHAM QUINN's story are built would have +collapsed. Here in fact we have a tale in which the main complications +are caused by the characters behaving with a total lack of what the +Americans call horse-sense. But if you can get by this difficulty you +will admire, as I did, the reticence with which the troubles of the much +misunderstood heroine are told, and also admit that the colour of Java +has been vividly conveyed. + + * * * * * + +Save the Mark! + +Germany's last word:-- + + "_Kriegsvermoegenszuwachssteuergesetz._" + +And a very pretty word too. But it does not surprise us to learn from +the German Press that the Legislature will probably have to devote at +least three weeks to the discussion of the subject which it defines. + + * * * * * + +From a book catalogue:-- + + "_The Royal Marriage Market of Europe._ By Princess Radziwill. + With eight half-ton illustrations." + +It is thought that these must be portraits of German princesses taken +before the War had deprived them of their usual supply of butter. + + * * * * * + + "ARTIST, Academy Exhibitor, paints gentlemen's residences." + +_Sunday Paper._ + +Another result, no doubt, of the exigencies of War, but rather hard on +the ordinary house-decorator. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI, VOL. +150, MARCH 8, 1916*** + + +******* This file should be named 22993.txt or 22993.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/9/22993 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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