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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146,
+March 18, 1914, 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. 146, March 18, 1914
+
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Owen Seaman
+
+Release Date: October 19, 2007  [eBook #23087]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI,
+VOL. 146, MARCH 18, 1914***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Malcolm Farmer, David King, 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 23087-h.htm or 23087-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/0/8/23087/23087-h/23087-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/0/8/23087/23087-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI
+
+VOL. 146
+
+MARCH 18, 1914
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHARIVARIA.
+
+In view of the grave importance of the present political situation, the
+price of _Punch_ will remain as heretofore.
+
+       ***
+
+"The risk of flying is very greatly exaggerated," says Mr. WINSTON
+CHURCHILL. Then why funk a General Election?
+
+       ***
+
+Some people have such a nasty way of putting things! Liberal gentleman
+to Unionist gentleman: "Well, have you taken the pledge?"
+
+       ***
+
+Attempts are now being made to establish penny postage between England
+and France. The Germans are said to feel flattered that we should still
+consider the privilege of corresponding with them worth
+two-pence-halfpenny.
+
+       ***
+
+The public indignation against the woman who damaged the "Rokeby Venus"
+continues unabated, and most inhuman propositions are being made. One
+gentleman has even been heard to suggest that the woman ought to be made
+to serve her term of imprisonment in the Royal Academy.
+
+       ***
+
+General VILLA'S statement that, unless the ransom he demands is paid at
+once, he will expose the body of the son of General TERRAZAS to the fire
+of the Federals confirms the opinion prevalent in this country that
+General VILLA is not really a very nice man.
+
+       ***
+
+    "THE BENTON INQUIRY
+
+    PROMISE THAT JUSTICE WILL BE EXECUTED."
+
+    _Observer._
+
+We were under the impression that this execution had taken place, some
+time since in Mexico, for Justice has not been seen there for a long
+time.
+
+       ***
+
+A Norfolk doctor declares that the sting of a bee is a most effective
+cure for both rheumatism and sciatica. It is also an infallible cure for
+inertia.
+
+       ***
+
+The yearly volume of judicial statistics just issued shows a marked
+decrease in business in all the courts except the Divorce Court; and
+there is some talk of the legal profession erecting a statue of a
+co-respondent as a mark of their appreciation.
+
+       ***
+
+Persons who like to be seen reading a two-penny newspaper are now in a
+quandary since the price of _The Times_ has been reduced, and it is
+again rumoured that, in order to cater for this class, an unsuccessful
+halfpenny paper is about to raise its price to twopence.
+
+       ***
+
+Sussex has been suffering from an epidemic of sheep-stealing. The police
+theory is that the sheep are carried off at night in motor cars--the
+silly creatures, accepting with alacrity the novel offer of a ride in an
+automobile.
+
+       ***
+
+Several prominent authors having stated that their best ideas come to
+them while taking a tub, quite a number of unsuccessful scribes have, we
+hear, almost made up their minds to the experiment of one bath a week.
+
+       ***
+
+In an Introductory Note to the serial publication of _The Woman Thou
+Gavest Me_, entitled "Why I wrote the Story," the Master attempts to
+shift the blame--or, anyhow, to apportion the responsibility. One day,
+it seems, Mr. CAINE heard the story which forms the basis of the novel.
+He first told it to a Cabinet Minister, who was "visibly touched." He
+next tried it on a tailor, who was "just as obviously affected." Then
+comes this delicious passage:--"After that I called on my publisher and,
+not being able to get the story out of my thoughts, I told it to him as
+well. His eyes filled, his head dropped, and he was as deeply touched as
+I and the tailor and the Cabinet Minister had been." It is generally
+understood that Mr. HEINEMANN has since had a complete recovery.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LOOKING WELL FORWARD.
+
+[Illustration: _First Survivor from Wreck_ (_to Second Survivor_.)
+"'Ow much ought we to ask off the music-'alls when we get
+back--'undred-an'-fifty quid a week or two 'undred?"]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Owing to the number of rats and crickets in her bedroom a nurse
+    employed by the Dudley Board of Guardians, it was stated at the
+    meeting of the board yesterday, had resigned.
+
+    "It was decided to engage a professional rat-catcher."--_Daily
+    Mail._
+
+It is, however, not altogether satisfactory to be nursed by a
+professional rat-catcher, and some of the patients are already
+complaining most bitterly of the change.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE HAT.
+
+"Of course," said the lady of the house, "you can turn yourself into a
+hermit if you like. We'll build you a little cell, and----"
+
+"What?" I said. "A real hermit, in a long robe like a bath-gown? With a
+real cell, and a dish of herbs on a plain deal table, and some rocks to
+sleep on, and a folio volume always open at the same place? May I really
+be like that?"
+
+"Yes," she said, "that's what you're coming to. And there'll be a notice
+stuck up on a tree--'This way to the Hermit,' with a painted hand."
+
+"I know the sort," I said. "A hand with only one finger."
+
+"Yes, one finger pointing in the direction of the cell. And all the
+village children will follow you when you go out, and you'll threaten
+them with a gnarled stick, and you'll be indicted as a nuisance."
+
+"But not for a long time," I said. "I shall have lots of good hermiting
+before that happens. I shall have my breakfasts quite alone and nobody
+will ask me to go to Mrs. Latimer's musical afternoon in London, 4 to
+7."
+
+"Well, you're not a hermit yet, so you'll have to come to Mrs. Latimer's
+with me. You know you'll enjoy it when you get there."
+
+"I won't."
+
+"And you'll meet plenty of your friends."
+
+"But I don't want to meet my friends," I said. "Friends are people yon
+go on being friends with without meeting them. That's the essence of
+true friendship, you know. Absence doesn't alter it. You keep on
+thinking of dear old Jack and what fun you used to have together at
+Cambridge; and then some day a funny old gentleman comes up to you in
+the street and says you don't remember him, and you pretend you know him
+quite well, and it's Jack all the time, and you wonder how he's got so
+old while you yourself have kept on being as young as ever. That's
+friendship."
+
+"This," she said, "is not an Essay Club."
+
+"What should a woman know of friendship?" I said bitterly. "Besides, I
+shall have to get a new top-hat."
+
+"Well," she said, "there's nothing so very awful in that. But what's the
+matter with the old one?"
+
+"The old one," I said, "is a blacked sepulchre, and even the black part
+of it is not very good. The lining is of the sort that makes it
+necessary to place it on a table with the opening down. Fortunate woman,
+your hats require no lining and you don't take them off. You cannot
+sympathise with my feelings. Such a top-hat as mine is good enough for a
+Board meeting, but it cannot go to Mrs. Latimer's musical afternoon. Her
+footman would despise me."
+
+"Very well," she said, "get your new hat and have it ready for this day
+fortnight."
+
+The upshot of this conversation was that on the following day I went to
+London, wearing my old top-hat, and called at Messrs. Hutchfield's, the
+famous hatters. It is not a very large shop, but it is very high, and
+something like a million white hat-boxes, each presumably containing a
+hat, are stacked in gleaming tiers from floor to ceiling. The higher
+ones are fetched down by means of a long pole provided at one end with a
+sort of inverted hook. It is a most dexterous and pleasing trick, only
+to be attempted by an old hand. An inexperienced practitioner would
+certainly bring down an avalanche of hat-boxes on the heads of the
+customers. On one side of the room there is a patent stove in which
+several irons were heating, not for torture, but for the improvement of
+hats. Several aproned attendants were bustling about, and one or two
+customers with bare heads were eyeing one another with an exaggerated
+air of haughty nonchalance, as who should say, "Observe, we do not wear
+white aprons. We do not _belong_ to the shop. We are genuine customers.
+We are waiting for our hats."
+
+"Good morning," I said.
+
+"Good morning, Sir," said one of the attendants; "what would you be
+requiring to-day?"
+
+"I think," I said, "it was a hat. Yes, I'm sure it was. A top-hat, you
+know--one of your best."
+
+"Pardon me, Sir." With a graceful and airy movement he whisked off my
+old hat and took its measure in length and breadth.
+
+"You mustn't draw any inference from the lining," I said. "I'm not
+really as poor as all that. I've meant to have it re-lined several
+times, but somehow I never brought it off. Still, it's been a good hat."
+
+"Yes, Sir," he said.
+
+"Could it be----"
+
+"Oh, yes, Sir, we could re-line it for you and make it look almost as
+good as new."
+
+"Splendid!" I cried. "Then I shan't want a new one, shall I?"
+
+"Well, Sir, it would take some little time. You would want to wear
+something to go on with till it's finished."
+
+"There is," I said, "some force in that. Put the machine on me at once."
+
+"The what, Sir?"
+
+"The machine," I said. "The beautifully contrived, apparatus made of
+ever so many wooden keys like the inside of a piano--only those are set
+in circles. It fits close to the head and you can make it looser or
+tighter, and when you've got it on you look like a Siamese king in his
+crown. And when you take it off you tear out a piece of paper and that
+gives you the exact measure to a hair's-breadth. Come, I'm ready."
+
+His face relaxed into a serious kind of smile.
+
+"Certainly," he said, "you shall have it on, Sir, if you like. But I
+thought, being an old customer and your measure being known, it might
+not be necessary."
+
+"Very well," I said, "I'll give up the machine, but I don't see how I
+can take any further pleasure in this purchase. Still, if you know me so
+well----"
+
+"We don't forget customers of thirty years' standing," he said proudly.
+
+"That settles it," I said. "I will now buy four hats--a top-hat, a
+bowler, a soft felt and a straw hat."
+
+"Yes, Sir," he said, and from an upper tier he extracted a hat-box out
+of which he shortly produced a top-hat and placed it on my head. It did
+not fit at first, but fire soon reduced it to obedience.
+
+"The others must be similarly treated," I said as I left the shop.
+
+Unfortunately in the interval it had begun to rain and every taxi seemed
+to be taken. You know what a new top-hat looks like after that. However,
+with two hats to choose from, I am now ready to face Mrs. Latimer's
+footman.
+
+R. C. L.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "It has been arranged that the dinner which the Modern Languages
+    Association had intended to give to Professor Rudolf Eucken, of
+    Jena, on the occasion of his forthcoming visit to England to
+    lecture before the Association, shall be amalgamated with the
+    public dinner arranged by the Committee of Friends and Admirers
+    of Professor Eucken."--_Morning Post._
+
+_Professor Eucken (at last giving way)_: "What _is_ this, waiter?"
+
+_Waiter (confidentially)_: "Another little amalgamation, Sir. The Modern
+Languages' ice pudding and the Friends and Admirers' soft roes on
+toast."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PENNY WISDOM.
+
+[Illustration: "In view of the grave importance of the present political
+situation _The Times_ will be reduced in price to a penny."--_Press
+Association_.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: _Reclining Nut_. "I don't bother to hold the girls
+now-a-days, I just let 'em nestle."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OUR NEW PENNY PAPER.
+
+Thanks to Sir EDWARD CARSON--or, as _The Times_ prefers to put it, "the
+grave importance of the present political situation"--the price of _The
+Times_ has fallen to one penny.
+
+While it must be admitted that the famous journal is well worth a penny,
+we think it only fair to say that certain issues of _The Daily Mail_ and
+_Evening News_ last week, whose amazing editorial organisations were so
+freely and disinterestedly engaged in overcoming colossal obstacles in
+order to give information about the approaching revolution, were worth
+anything from fourpence to ninepence apiece.
+
+If these philanthropic journals had not been behind _The Times_ last
+week, what might we not have missed? Who, for instance, would have
+learned that; "the price (2d.) ... was equivalent to that of one penny
+paper and two halfpenny papers _per diem_"? We have checked that
+statement, with the aid of a ready-reckoner and a Latin dictionary, and
+we find it substantially correct. We are also able to agree to the
+further statement made last Thursday, that "from Monday next _The
+Times_, together with any one of the halfpenny morning papers, will be
+obtainable for less than the present price of _The Times_ alone." If the
+mathematician who dug up that fact had said "evening" instead of
+"morning" his statement, curiously enough, would still have been right.
+
+Thanks to the reminder from _The Evening News_ that first numbers had
+been known to become valuable, fetching from £10 to £100, some 27,000
+people put aside nice clean copies of _The Times_ on Monday, in the hope
+of selling them at a profit of about 24,000 per cent, in 1964.
+
+The greatest achievement in the annals of journalism was of course _The
+Daily Mail_ man's successful attempt to interview the publisher of _The
+Times_. How he managed it we cannot think; but we are very, very
+grateful to him. We may add that ours is the only journal that has
+succeeded in interviewing the intrepid reporter. "How did you contrive
+to force your way through the seething mass in Printing House Square,
+and pass the closely-guarded portals of the world's chief and largest
+newspaper office; and by what means did you persuade the Colossus of
+publishing to tell you anything about it?" we asked. We regret that we
+cannot give his reply; only the incomparable genius of the painter of
+_La Gioconda_ could do that.
+
+A curious incident took place outside the Mansion House on Monday. In
+the Agony Column of a famous two-penny newspaper on Saturday the
+following announcement had appeared: "Will wate f. u. outsd. Mansn. Hs.
+10-11 Mon. morn. Carry cop. _Times_ so I may no its u." A frantic lady
+rushed at so many young and middle-aged men, exclaiming, "Horace! at
+last we meet!" that long before 10.30 it was necessary for a kindly City
+policeman to lead her away to a neighbouring chemist's for first aid.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "The fact that to-day is the 104th anniversary of the birth of
+    Mr. Gladstone prompts reflection as to the different ways in
+    which their birthdays have been regarded by some famous
+    men."--_Westminster Gazette._
+
+_The Writer (as he finishes)_: "Got it in at last, thank Heaven!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "A number of motor-cars, including one belonging to Mr. Lloyd
+    George, are blocked in the Snowdon district, and the sheep
+    farmers are much perturbed."--_Morning Post._
+
+However, they can sleep soundly in their beds now, for he is back in
+London again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE SLIT TROUSER.
+
+(Whose arrival in England is reported in the photographic press.)
+
+  You who see advanced attire
+    Photographed for you to mock,
+  Hold your ridicule or ire,
+    Wax not scornful at the shock;
+  Let not your compassion freeze,
+    Hark to Archie for a bit,
+  Ponder, if you please, his pleas,
+    Patience, ere you slight his slit.
+
+  Long there raged a warfare grim
+    In the councils of the Nut;
+  Socks were all in all to him
+    Abso-simply-lutely; _but_--
+  Here's a problem for you pat--
+    How shall Archibald disclose
+  Through the thickness of the spat
+    Iridescent demi-hose?
+
+  Yesteryear that problem vexed;
+    One day spatted he would fare,
+  Lacking colour; and the next
+    Spatless, in chromatic wear.
+  No dilemma reads him now,
+    Bidding this or that to go.
+  See, his side-cleft bags allow
+    Spat and sock an equal show.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TACT.
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Anchor always wears a moustache for the soup course
+whenever his uncle, the general (from whom he has expectations), dines
+with him.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"DASH."
+
+"There's no book like it," said A. "Get it at once."
+
+"You must read _Dash_," said B.
+
+"If you take my advice," said C., "and you know I'm not easily pleased
+by modern fiction, you'll get _Dash_ and simply peg away till you've
+finished it. It's marvellous."
+
+"I suppose you've read Darnock's _Dash_?" said D. "It's by far his best
+thing."
+
+At dinner my partner on each side gurglingly wished to know how I liked
+_Dash_, taking it for granted that I knew it more or less by heart.
+
+So having read some of Darnock's earlier work and thought it good, I
+acquired a copy of _Dash_ and settled down to it.
+
+I had not read more than two pages when it occurred to me that I ought
+to know what the other books in the library parcel were; so I went to
+look at them. One was a series of episodes in the career of a wonderful
+blind policeman who, in spite of his infirmity, performed prodigies of
+tact on point duty, and by the time I had finished glancing through this
+it was bed-time. I put _Dash_ under my arm, for I always read for
+half-an-hour or so in bed. How it happened I cannot imagine, but when I
+picked up the book and began to read I found, much to my surprise, that
+it was the other library novel.
+
+"Have you begun _Dash_ yet?" B. asked me at lunch.
+
+"Oh, yes, rather," I said.
+
+"I envy you," he replied. "How far have you got?"
+
+"Not very far yet," I said.
+
+"It's fine, isn't it?" he remarked.
+
+"Fine."
+
+The next evening I had just taken up _Dash_ again when I remembered that
+that other novel must be finished if it was to be changed on the morrow,
+so I turned dutifully to that instead. It was a capital story about a
+criminal who murdered people in an absolutely undetectable way by
+lending them a poisoned pencil which would not mark until the point was
+moistened. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
+
+The next evening I was getting on famously with the fifth page of _Dash_
+when the library parcel again arrived, containing two new books for
+those I had returned in the morning.
+
+Meeting C. the next day he asked me if I did not think _Dash_ the finest
+thing I had ever read.
+
+I said yes, but asked him if he had not found it a little difficult to
+get into.
+
+"Possibly," he said, "possibly. But what a reward!"
+
+"You like books all in long conversations?" I asked.
+
+"I love _Dash_," he said, "anyway."
+
+"Did you read every word?" I asked.
+
+"Well, not perhaps every word," he replied, "but I got the sense of
+every page. I read like that, you know--synthetically."
+
+"Yes, of course," I said.
+
+The next day I changed the two library books that were finished for two
+more, but it was _Dash_ which I took up first. There is no doubt about
+its being a very remarkable book, but I had had a rather heavy day and
+my brain was not at its best. What extraordinary novels people do write
+nowadays! Fancy making a whole book, as the author of _Hot Maraschino_
+has done, out of the Elberfeldt talking horses! In this book, which has
+an excellent murder in a stable in it, the criminal is given away by a
+horse who tells her master (it is a mare) what she saw. I couldn't lay
+the story down.
+
+That night I dined out and heard more about _Dash_. In fact, I myself
+started one long conversation on that topic with an idle lady who really
+had read every word. I went on to recommend it right and left. "You must
+read _Dash_," I said at intervals; "it's extraordinarily good."
+
+"Some one was telling me he couldn't get on with it at all," said one of
+my partners.
+
+"Not really?" I said, and clicked my tongue reproachfully.
+
+"Yes, he says it's so involved and rambling."
+
+"Ah, well," I said, "one must persevere. Books mustn't be too easy. For
+my part----Yes, champagne, please."
+
+"I'll get it, anyway," she said. "I feel sure your judgment is sound."
+
+Looking in at the club later I found D. playing snooker. After missing
+an easy shot he turned the talk to _Dash_.
+
+"Tip-top, isn't it?" he said.
+
+"Which is your favourite chapter?" I asked.
+
+His face told me I had him.
+
+"Oh, well, that's difficult to say," he replied.
+
+"Surely you think that one about the stevedore's spaniel, towards the
+end, is terrific?" I said.
+
+"Of course that's fine," he replied, "but I was just wondering
+whether----"
+
+But I didn't stop to listen. There is no stevedore and no spaniel in the
+whole book, as I had carefully ascertained.
+
+The next day I had A., B. and C. with the same device.
+
+Meanwhile I am plodding away with _Dash_. I have now reached page 27. A
+great book, as all agree. But the books that I shall read while I am
+reading it will make a most interesting list.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: Scene--_Arrivals at Fancy Dress Ball_.
+
+_Policeman._ "Now then, come along there, come along."
+
+_Taxi-Driver._ "'Arf a jiff, Copper; I think they've stitched Romeo's
+money into 'is backbone."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A HARD CASE.
+
+DEAR MR. PUNCH,--As the friend of my family from 1846, I ask you for
+advice on a subject which touches me painfully both as a husband and a
+father. My wife is, as I personally know, the dearest woman in Great
+Britain, and our child is, I am credibly informed, the finest child in
+Europe. _Infandum renovare dolorem._
+
+Our child is four months old; it is named Eunice. Yesterday I found my
+dear wife with the infant weeping piteously--my wife, that is, not the
+infant. I proceeded at once to use all the means in my power to soothe
+her and to ascertain the reason of her unhappy state. But it was only
+after a considerable time and the expenditure of no little ingenuity on
+my part that she revealed the secret.
+
+"I knew how it would be, John," she said between her sobs, "I knew from
+the first. I felt sure that, when baby came you wouldn't care for her.
+And--and you _don't_."
+
+I at once took the child in my arms and guggled to it. The child, I am
+happy to tell you, Sir, responded at once to my paternal attention and
+guggled happily in reply. I felt patriotic pride in the part I had taken
+in adding to the womanhood of my beloved country.
+
+A few days later I found my wife sobbing violently. Carrying the child
+with me--it was still guggling--I crossed to her and again used my best
+endeavours, not only in consolation, but to ascertain the cause of her
+fresh unhappiness. Again it was long before I obtained a reply. But at
+last she said: "I knew how it would be, John," her sobbing was as
+violent as before, "I knew from the first. I felt sure that when baby
+came you would only care for her and neglect me."
+
+Now, Sir, what shall I do?
+
+Your inquiring admirer,
+
+Matthew Haile.
+
+P.S.--My wife is sobbing again as I write. I have at last ascertained
+her trouble. It is that I don't care for the baby.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "The other night a rabbit ran for a quarter-of-a-mile in the
+    flare of a lighted motor-car on the Eggleston road."--_Teesdale
+    Mercury._
+
+"I hope," puffed the rabbit, well within record at the end of the
+fourteenth lap, "I hope it won't burn itself out before I've finished."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "To accomplish this distance at an average speed of 20 miles per
+    hour would take 28½ hours. To this time, however, had to be
+    added the Channel crossing both ways, which takes, roughly,
+    about eight hours."--_Motor Cycling._
+
+"Roughly" is good, alas!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is difficult to order our emotions as we would have them be. Try as
+we will, we cannot read aloud the following extract from _The Birmingham
+Weekly Post_ with the solemnity which properly it should call forth:--
+
+    "A feature of the programme was the opening chorus. During this
+    a lady gardener in male attire arrived on the stage with a
+    wheelbarrow full of vegetables, and caused amusement by throwing
+    these among the audience. Presently the missiles commenced to
+    hit persons, one victim, being the vicar, who, struck in the eye
+    by a turnip, was compelled to retire."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ORANGES AND LEMONS.
+
+II.--On the way.
+
+"Toulon," announced Archie, as the train came to a stop and gave out its
+plaintive dying whistle. "Naval port of our dear allies, the French.
+This would interest Thomas."
+
+"If he weren't asleep," I said.
+
+"He'll be here directly," said Simpson from the little table for two on
+the other side of the gangway. "I'm afraid he had a bad night. Here,
+_garçon_--er--_donnez-moi du café et_--er"--But the waiter had slipped
+past him again--the fifth time.
+
+"Have some of ours," said Myra kindly, holding out the pot.
+
+"Thanks very much, Myra, but I may as well wait for Thomas,
+and--_garçon, du café pour_--I don't think he'll be--_deux cafés,
+garçon, s'il vous_--it's going to be a lovely day."
+
+Thomas came in quietly, sat down opposite Simpson, and ordered
+breakfast.
+
+"Samuel wants some too," said Myra.
+
+Thomas looked surprised, grunted and ordered another breakfast.
+
+"You see how easy it is," said Archie. "Thomas, we're at Toulon, where
+the _ententes cordiales_ come from. You ought to have been up long ago
+taking notes for the Admiralty."
+
+"I had a rotten night," said Thomas. "Simpson fell out of bed in the
+middle of it."
+
+"Oh, poor Samuel!"
+
+"You don't mean to say you gave him the top berth!" I asked in surprise.
+"You must have known he'd fall out."
+
+"But Thomas dear, surely Samuel's just falling-out-of-bed noise wouldn't
+wake you up," said Myra. "I always thought you slept so well."
+
+"He tried to get back into _my_ bed."
+
+"I was a little dazed," explained Simpson hastily, "and I hadn't got my
+spectacles."
+
+"Still you ought to have been able to see Thomas there."
+
+"Of course I did see him as soon as I got in, and then I remembered I
+was up above. So I climbed up."
+
+"It must be rather difficult climbing up at night," thought Dahlia.
+
+"Not if you get a good take-off, Dahlia," said Simpson earnestly.
+
+"Simpson got a good one off my face," explained Thomas.
+
+"My dear old chap, I was frightfully sorry. I did come down at once and
+tell you how sorry I was, didn't I?"
+
+"You stepped back on to it," said Thomas shortly, and he turned his
+attention to the coffee.
+
+Our table had finished breakfast. Dahlia and Myra got up slowly, and
+Archie and I filled our pipes and followed them out.
+
+"Well, we'll leave you to it," said Archie to the other table.
+"Personally, I think it's Thomas's turn to step on Simpson. You ought to
+assert yourself, Thomas, anyhow. Throw some jam at him and then let
+bygones be bygones. But don't be long, because there's a good view
+coming."
+
+The good view came, and then another and another, and they merged
+together and became one long moving panorama of beauty. We stood in the
+corridor and drank it in ... and at intervals we said "Oh-h!" and "Oh, I
+say!" and "Oh, I say, _really!_" And there was one particular spot--I
+wish I could remember where, so that it might be marked by a suitable
+tablet--at the sight of which Simpson was overheard to say "_Mon Dieu_!"
+for (probably) the first time in his life.
+
+"You know, all these are olive trees, you chaps," he said every five
+minutes. "I wonder if there are any olives growing on them?"
+
+"Too early," said Archie. "It's the sardine season now."
+
+It was at Cannes that we saw the first oranges.
+
+"That does it," I said to Myra. "We're really here. And look, there's a
+lemon tree. Give me the oranges and lemons and you can have all the
+palms and the cactuses and the olives."
+
+"Like polar bears in the arctic region," said Myra.
+
+I thought for a moment. Superficially there is very little resemblance
+between an orange and a polar bear.
+
+"Like polar bears," I said hopefully.
+
+"I mean," luckily she went on, "polar bears do it for you in the polar
+regions. You really know you're there then. Give me the polar bears, I
+always say, and you can keep the seals and the walruses and the
+penguins. It's the hall-mark."
+
+"Eight. I knew you meant something. In London," I went on, "it is
+raining. Looking out of my window I see a lamp-post (not in flower)
+beneath a low grey sky. Here we see oranges against a blue sky a million
+miles deep. What a blend! Myra, let's go to a fancy-dress ball when we
+got back. You go as an orange and I'll go as a very blue, blue sky, and
+you shall lean against me."
+
+"And we'll dance the tangerine," said Myra.
+
+But now observe us approaching Monte Carlo. For an hour past Simpson has
+been collecting his belongings. Two bags, two coats, a camera, a rug,
+Thomas, golf-clubs, books--his compartment is full of things which have
+to be kept under his eye lest they should evade him at the last moment.
+As the train leaves Monaco his excitement is intense.
+
+"I think, old chap," he says to Thomas, "I'll wear the coats after all."
+
+"And the bags," says Thomas, "and then you'll have a suit."
+
+Simpson puts on the two coats and appears very big and hot.
+
+"I'd better have my hands free," he says, and straps the camera and the
+golf clubs on to himself. "Then if you nip out and get a porter I can
+hand the bags out to him through the window."
+
+"All right," says Thomas. He is deep in his book and looks as if he were
+settled in his corner of the carriage for the day.
+
+The train stops. There is bustle, noise, confusion. Thomas in some
+magical way has disappeared. A porter appears at the open window and
+speaks voluble French to Simpson. Simpson looks round wildly for Thomas.
+"Thomas!" he cries. "_Un moment_," he says to the porter. "Thomas! _Mon
+ami, il n'est pas_----I say, Thomas, old chap, where are you? _Attendez
+un moment. Mon ami_--er--_reviendra_"--He is very hot. He is wearing,
+in addition to what one doesn't mention, an ordinary waistcoat, a woolly
+waist-coat for steamer use, a tweed coat, an aquascutum, an ulster, a
+camera and a bag of golf clubs. The porter, with many gesticulations, is
+still hurling French at him.
+
+It is too much for Simpson. He puts his head out of the window and,
+observing in the distance a figure of such immense dignity that it can
+only belong to the station-master, utters to him across the hurly-burly
+a wild call for help.
+
+"_Où est_ Cook's _homme_?" he cries.
+
+A. A. M.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "THE GREAT CONFLICT.
+
+    1886----1914----?
+
+    The End is Not Yet.
+
+    To-morrow."
+
+    _Observer._
+
+Well, well! After twenty-eight years we can wait another day.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "ESSAY CLUB: _March 1st_. The Poetry of John Masefield, _or_
+    Vegetarianism--is it more Humane?"--_Time and Talents._
+
+Less blood-stained, anyhow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From a letter in _The Natal Mercury_ headed "Butter through the Post":--
+
+    "We send it to Donnybrook by the quickest method, i.e., on the
+    post-card."
+
+We have often found some on our post-cards.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE GALLANT SONS OF MARS.
+
+    ["A troop of the Queen's Bays, 2nd Dragoon Guards, while
+    galloping past the Royal Pavilion at Aldershot, observed a woman
+    fall from her bicycle in a faint.
+
+    "They instantly drew rein, and, dismounting, assisted her to the
+    5th Dragoon Guards orderly room, where they vied with each other
+    in giving her every possible attention.
+
+    "She speedily recovered and was able to resume her journey to
+    Farnborough."--_Daily Paper._]
+
+[Illustration: A young lady, while walking by a kiosk in which the band
+of the Royal Heavies was performing, by a mischance got a fly in her
+eye. Perceiving her plight, the bandsmen immediately ceased playing and
+ran to her assistance, each contesting with the other to remove the
+offending insect.]
+
+[Illustration: In a high wind last week on Laffan's Plain an old
+gentleman lost his umbrella. Some Lancers taking part in a sham fight at
+once went in pursuit and speedily restored the recalcitrant article to
+its grateful owner.]
+
+[Illustration: Last Saturday, while at play, a small boy had the
+misfortune to lose his hold of a toy-balloon. A squadron of the Army
+Flying Corps, witnessing the little fellow's grief, at once rendered
+assistance and, with the aid of a monoplane, quickly retrieved the
+bauble.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: _Lady (to elderly and confidential maid)_. "I've often
+wondered why you've never married, Simpson?"
+
+_Simpson (disdainfully)_. "I don't like men in any form, my lady."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE WILD SWAN.
+
+(Lament on a very rare bird who recently appeared in England and was
+immediately shot.)
+
+  Over the sea (ye maids) a wild swan came;
+    (O maidens) it was but the other day;
+  Men saw him as he passed, with earnest aim
+    To some sequestered spot down Norfolk way--
+  A thing whose like had not been seen for years:
+  _Lament, ye damsels, nor refuse your tears_.
+
+  Serene, he winged his alabaster flight
+    Neath the full beams of the mistaken sun
+  O'er gazing crowds, till at th' unwonted sight
+    Some unexpected sportsman with a gun
+  Brought down the bird, all fluff, mid sounding cheers:
+  _Mourn, maidens, mourn, and wipe the thoughtful tears_.
+
+  Well you may weep. No common bird was he.
+    Has it not long been known, the whole world wide,
+  A wild swan is a prince of faerie,
+    Who comes in such disguise to choose his bride
+  From those of humble lot and tame careers,
+  _Of whom I now require some punctual tears_.
+
+  Wherefore, I say, let every scullion-wench
+    Grieve, nor the dairy-maid from sobs refrain;
+  The sad postmistress, too, should feel the wrench,
+    And the lone tweeny of her loss complain;
+  Let one--let all afflict the listening spheres:
+  _Deplore, ye maids, his fate with rueful tears_.
+
+  It was for these he sought this teeming land,
+  High on the silvery wings of old romance;
+  One knows not where; he had bestowed his hand,
+  But e'en the least had stood an equal chance
+  Of such fair triumph, o'er her bitter peers
+  _And the sweet pleasure of their anguished tears_.
+
+  O prince of faerie! O stately swan!
+    And ye, whose hopes are with the might-have-beens,
+  Curst be the wretch through whom those hopes have gone,
+    Who blew your magic swain to smithereens;
+  Let your full-sorrows whelm his stricken ears;
+  _Lament, ye damsels, nor refuse your tears_.
+
+Dum-dum.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Lady's Realm_ on a new film:--
+
+    "The cost from first to last amounted to £12,000 ... The entire
+    cast--an enormous one, numbering eight thousand people ...
+    visited Rome and the Nile."
+
+This decides us where to spend our holidays. To do Rome and the Nile for
+£1 10s. a head is not a chance to be missed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It has been asked, "Where were the police?" Here is the answer:--
+
+    "The six cuts appeared to have been inflicted with the cutting
+    edge of a chopper, and the seventh with the flat part of the end
+    of the copper."--_Manchester Guardian._
+
+_Robert (putting his foot through the picture)_: "May as well make a job
+of it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE LATEST VELASQUITH.
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Punch (_to Mr. Bonar Law_). "DON'T HACK IT ABOUT NOW.
+YOU'LL HAVE TWO CHANCES IN THE NEXT SIX YEARS."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.
+
+(Extracted from the Diary of Toby, M.P.)
+
+_House of Commons, Monday, March 9._--When on conclusion of Questions
+the PRIME MINISTER rose to move Second Reading of Home Rule Bill, House
+presented appearance seen only once or twice in lifetime of a
+Parliament. Chamber crowded from floor to topmost bench of Strangers'
+Gallery. Members who could not find seats made for the side galleries,
+filling both rows two deep. Still later comers patiently stood at the
+Bar throughout the full hour occupied by the historic speech. A group
+more comfortably settled themselves on the steps of the SPEAKER'S Chair.
+The principal nations of the world were represented in the Diplomatic
+Gallery by their ambassadors. As for the peers, they fought for places
+in limited space allotted to them with the energy of messenger-boys paid
+to secure places in the queue of first night of new play at popular
+theatre.
+
+[Illustration: MIJNHEER KAARSON. (_The New Orange Free Stater._)
+
+[Mr. WILLIAM O'BRIEN referred to Ulster as the new "Orange" Free State,
+which has just received official recognition.]
+
+Entering while Questions were in progress PREMIER was received with
+rousing cheer. Renewed with fuller force when he stood at the Table to
+discharge his momentous task. That the enthusiasm was largely testimony
+to personal popularity and esteem appeared from what followed. Weighed
+down with gravity of responsibility, as he unfolded his plan he found
+lacking the inspiration of continuous outbursts of cheering that usually
+punctuate important speeches by Party leaders.
+
+Radicals and Nationalists were prepared to accept his concessions to
+Ulster feeling; but they did not like them. REDMOND'S declaration that
+the PREMIER "has gone to the very extremest limits of concession" drew
+from Ministerialists a more strident cheer than any accorded to their
+Leader as he expounded his plan.
+
+Consciousness of this significant luke-warmness reacted upon PREMIER. He
+spoke with unusual slowness, further developing tendency of recent
+growth to drop his voice at end of sentence.
+
+BONNER LAW studiously quiet in manner, moderate in speech. Nevertheless,
+perhaps therefore, made it clear that PREMIER'S overtures, unloved by
+his followers, will not be welcomed by Opposition. CARSON, who had
+enthusiastic reception from Unionists, flashed forth epigram that put
+Ulster's view in a phrase.
+
+"We don't want sentence of death," he said, "with a stay of execution
+for six years."
+
+Circumstances provided TIM HEALY'S opportunity. Seized it with both
+hands. On behalf of Liberal Party, PREMIER proposed the vivisection of
+Ireland. JOHN REDMOND consented. Plan submitted was that four counties
+of Ulster might, if they pleased, be excluded from operation of Home
+Rule Act for period of six years.
+
+"Would any sane Britisher," TIM asked, "embark upon civil war for the
+difference between six years and 666 years?" As he mentioned the Number
+of the Beast TIM turned to regard the Irish Leader perched in corner
+seat at top of Gangway. "Why should not the hon. gentleman give up that,
+as he has given up everything else? The remains of his principles
+ornament every step of the Gangway."
+
+_Business done._--Second Reading of Home Rule Bill moved. Debate
+adjourned for indefinite period.
+
+_Tuesday._--Prospect of CHANCELLOR OF EXCHEQUER brought up at Bar by
+RANDLES and CASSEL attracted big House in spite of trial opening in
+mid-dinner-hour. As the quarters of an hour sped benches continued to
+fill up till, when LLOYD GEORGE rose to offer his defence (which
+speedily merged into form of attack), there were fully live hundred
+present.
+
+Prisoner indicted on grounds of repeated inaccuracy, particularly on
+account of ineradicable tendency to speak disrespectfully of dukes.
+Nothing could be nicer than manner of prosecuting counsel. They were
+there to discharge a public duty as champions of the truth, vindicators
+of desirable habit of abstention from exaggeration.
+
+"I am," said RANDLES, "not here to be personally disagreeable to the
+CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, whom I have always found genial and
+courteous."
+
+As for the junior counsel, he was affected almost to tears in prospect
+of task jointly committed to him.
+
+"I do not wish," he said in his opening sentence, "to make anything I
+say more offensive or unpleasant than--than the necessities of the case
+warrant."
+
+Ribald Radicals laughed loudly at this way of putting it. With the more
+sober-minded its ingenuousness had favourable effect, maintained
+throughout admirable speech.
+
+No one enjoyed the affair more than prisoner at the bar. Like his great
+prototype, LLOYD GEORGE is never so happy as when, with back against
+wall, he turns to face an attacking host.
+
+"Reminds me of days that are no more," said the MEMBER FOR SARK, looking
+on animated scene from modest quarters on a back bench. "Feel thirty
+years younger. Am transported as by a magical Eastern carpet to times
+when DON JOSÉ rushed about the country, fluttering his Unauthorised
+Programme, bearding barons in their dens, lashing out at landlords, and
+unceremoniously digging dukes in the ribs, what time a pack of
+scandalised Tories barked furiously at his heels. LLOYD GEORGE is an
+able man, courageous to boot, endowed with gift of turning out sentences
+that dwell in the memory, delighting some hearers, rankling in hearts of
+others. After all, he is but a replica, excellently done I admit, of the
+greatest work of art in the way of Parliamentary and political debate
+known to this generation."
+
+[Illustration: The only bird that, in Mr. TIM HEALY'S view, requires the
+sympathies (if not contempt) of the Plumage Bill.]
+
+Even while SARK murmured his confidences to his neighbour they were
+pointed by dramatic turn in lively speech. Among charges of inaccuracy
+specially cited was LLOYD GEORGE'S description of the Highland
+clearances, whereby, he asserted, "thousands of people were driven from
+their holdings by the exercise of the arbitrary power of the landlord."
+"I will give you an authority for that," he said, and proceeded to read
+a passage of burning eloquence, in which multitudes of hardworking,
+God-fearing people were depicted as driven from the land that had
+belonged to their ancestors, their cottages unroofed, themselves turned
+out homeless and forlorn.
+
+"Who said that?" scornfully inquired an incautious Member seated
+opposite.
+
+Quick came the reply. "The Right Honourable Member for West Birmingham,"
+the CHANCELLOR answered in blandest tones.
+
+Followed up this neatly inserted thrust by quoting from Tory newspapers,
+platform and Parliamentary speeches what was said of DON JOSÉ in those
+his unregenerate days. Some of them curiously identical with those in
+use just now for edification and reproof of another public man.
+
+_Business done._--CHANCELLOR OF EXCHEQUER indicted for habitual
+inaccuracy, gross and unfounded personal attacks on individuals. Vote of
+censure negatived by 304 votes against 240.
+
+_Thursday._--Major JOHN AUGUSTUS HOPE, late of the King's Royal Rifle
+Corps, nearly had his breath taken away at Question time. Close student
+of methods of WORTHINGTON EVANS, _Mrs. Gummidge_ of Parliamentary life,
+not yet recovered from depression as he sits below Gangway "thinking of
+the old 'un" (MASTERMAN). The Major has of late displayed much industry
+in devising abstruse conundrums designed to bring to light dark places
+in working of Insurance Act. In MASTERMAN'S enforced and regretted
+absence, duty of replying to this class of Question on behalf of
+Minister undertaken by WEDGWOOD BENN, whose sprightly though always
+courteous replies greatly amuse both sides.
+
+To-day the Major fired off, as it wore from a mitrailleuse, volley of
+minute questions involving prolonged research on part of Minister to
+whom they were addressed. Before the smoke had quite cleared away BENN
+rose, remarked, "I assure the honourable and gallant gentleman he is
+totally incorrect," and resumed his seat.
+
+The Major gasped. After devotion of precious time to looking up material
+for his conundrums, after skill and labour bestowed in shaping them, was
+this the result? Every hair on his head bristled with indignation. His
+voice choked with anger. His eye, accustomed to survey other
+battlefields, gleamed on the laughing faces that confronted him.
+Unseemly merriment increased as he attempted to put Supplementary
+Questions, which got unaccountably mixed up between Section 72 of the
+National Insurance Act, 1911, and the provision of Insurance Regulations
+(No. 2) (Scotland).
+
+[Illustration: THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER as seen by his opponents
+and by his admirers.]
+
+If the Major survives shock more will be heard of this.
+
+_Business done._--In Committee on Army Estimates.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A BOOK OF THE DAY.
+
+_The Life-Story of a Turnip._ By Ato Mato, F.R.V.S. Illustrated in
+colour. Messrs. Tuber, Root and Co. Price 3s. net.
+
+(Reviewed by A. D. Ryan, M.A.)
+
+There have been autobiographical studies of the animal world; why not of
+the vegetable? This is a delightful monograph, executed with consummate
+skill and verisimilitude throughout. The author, who holds the
+Professorship of Cereal Metaphysics at the University of Tokio, has
+devoted the greater part of his life to the study of the vegetable
+kingdom; and we need hardly remind our readers of the exceedingly
+interesting treatise, entitled "The Psychology of the Cabbage," which
+appeared in a recent issue of the _Carnifugal Quarterly_.
+
+It is indeed time for a more scientific treatment of vegeto-animal
+phenomenon; and Mr. Mato is the pioneer of a science which, we hope,
+will soon receive the attention which it undoubtedly deserves. The
+present volume is in its way a masterpiece. The author has successfully
+avoided treating his subject from a too human point of view, and we are
+paying him a very high compliment when we say that the more we study the
+work the more we are impressed with what we may best describe as the
+"vegetability" of the writer's mind. The book is racy of the soil; it is
+written in a charming and convincing style, and bears the stamp of
+imaginative originality. An acquaintance to whom we lent the book
+admirably expresses the impression we had formed of it by saying that it
+might have been written by EUSTACE or HALLIE MILES. It is characterised
+throughout by the lofty and detached spirit in which a cultured turnip
+would view the troubled course of mundane events. The sentiments
+expressed on such questions as Woman Suffrage, Home Rule, LLOYD GEORGE'S
+land policy, though inevitably Radical in tendency, are admirably sane
+and unbiassed. We cannot do better, if we would convey to our readers
+some conception of the general tone of the work, than quote the opening
+paragraph:--
+
+    "I was born of humble but worthy parents, but the first years"
+    [weeks?] "of my existence were embittered by the loss of both
+    father and mother. My father, who was then in the prime of life,
+    was torn one day from the bosom of his family, tied up in a
+    sack, and taken with some two hundred fellow-sufferers to a
+    slaughter-house, where he was cruelly butchered. Still more
+    tragic was the end of my dear mother. Like my father she was
+    dragged away from her native soil. She was then hurled into an
+    empty shed, where for many days she languished, deprived of both
+    food and light. At last she was thrown into a tumbril with some
+    five hundred unfortunates, carted to a neighbouring farm, thence
+    deported in strict captivity to COVENT GARDEN, and finally
+    conveyed to the sumptuous household of Mr. BERNARD SHAW, who
+    devoured her in three gulps."
+
+From this poignant passage the reader may see for himself the profound
+understanding which Mr. Mato has brought to bear on his theme. We
+commend this book to all lovers of nature.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE CINEMA HABIT.
+
+The writer of "The Ideal Film Plot," which appeared in a recent issue of
+_Punch_, has quoted an "authority" (anonymous) for the approval of his
+scenario. It is quite evident that this "authority" (so-styled) must
+belong to the plebeian ranks of the film-world. It cannot reside in
+_our_ suburb.
+
+Our cinema theatre is, I venture to state, of a far superior order, both
+as to drama and as to morality. It is not a mere lantern-hall, close and
+stuffy, with twopenny and fourpenny seats (half-price to children, and
+tea provided free at _matinée_ performances), but a white-and-gold
+Picturedrome, catering to an exclusive class of patrons at sixpence and
+a shilling, with neat attendants in dove-grey who atomise scent about
+the aisles, two palms, one at each side of the proscenium (_real_
+palms), and, in addition to a piano, a mustel organ to accompany the
+pathetic passages in the films. Moreover, the commissionaire outside,
+whose medals prove that he has seen service in the Charge of the Light
+Brigade, the Black Hole of Calcutta, and the Great Raid on the House of
+Commons in 1910, is not one of those blatant-voiced showmen who clamour
+for patronage; he is a quiet and dignified réceptionnaire, content to
+rely on the fame and good repute of his theatre. Sometimes evening dress
+(from "The Laburnums," Meadowsweet Avenue, who are on the Stock
+Exchange) is to be seen in the more expensive seats.
+
+It is unquestionably a high-class Picturedrome. True that the local
+dentist, who is a stickler for correct English, protests against the
+designation. I have pointed out to him that if a "Hippodrome" is a place
+where one sees performing hippos, then surely a place where one sees
+performing pictures is correctly styled a "Picturedrome."
+
+I am acquiring the cinema habit.
+
+It is very restful. Each film is preceded on the screen by a certificate
+showing that its morality has been guaranteed by Mr. REDFORD. I have
+complete confidence in Mr. REDFORD'S sense of propriety. If, for
+instance, a bedroom scene is shown and a lady is about to change her
+gown, one's advance blushes are needless. That film will be arrested at
+the loosing of the first hook or button. Virtue will always be plainly
+triumphant and vice as plainly vanquished. Even the minor imperfections
+of character will be suitably punished. When on the screen we see Daisy,
+the flighty college girl, borrowing without permission her friend's hat,
+gown, shoes, necklace and curls in order to make a fascinating display
+before her young college man, it is certain that she will be publicly
+shamed by her friends and discredited in the eyes of her lover whose
+affections she seeks to win in this unmoral fashion.
+
+On the screen we shall be sure to meet many old friends. The young
+American society nuts, in square-rigged coats, spacious trousers, and
+knobbly shoes, will buzz around the pretty girl like flies around a
+honey-pot, clamouring for the privilege of presenting her with a
+twenty-dollar bouquet of American Beauty roses. The bouquet she accepts
+will be the hero's; and the other nuts will then group themselves in the
+background while she registers a glad but demure smile full in the eye
+of the camera.
+
+The hero, however, loses his paternal expectations in the maelstrom of
+Wall Street. Throwing off his coat--literally, because at the cinema we
+are left in no doubt as to intentions--he resolves to go "out West" and
+retrieve the family fortunes.
+
+Our old friends the cow-boys meet him at the wooden shack which
+represents the railway station at Waybackville, registering great glee
+at the prospect of hazing a tenderfoot. We know full well that he will
+eventually win their respect and high regard--probably by foiling a
+dastardly plot on the part of a Mexican half-breed--and we are therefore
+in no anxiety of mind when they raise the dust around his feet with
+their six-shooters, toss him in a blanket or entice him on to a
+meek-looking, but in reality record-busting, broncho.
+
+In the middle of the drama we look forward to the "chases," and we are
+never disappointed. Our pursued hero, attired in the picturesque
+bandarilleros of shaggy mohair and the open-throated shirterino of the
+West, will race through the tangled thickets of the picadoro-trees;
+thunder down the crumbling banks of amontillados so steep that the
+camera probably gets a crick in the neck looking up at him; ride the
+foaming torrent with one hand clasping the mane of his now tamed
+broncho, and the other hand triggering his shooting-iron; and eventually
+fall exhausted from the horse at the very doorstep of the ranch, one
+arm, pinged by a dastardly rifle-bullet, dangling helplessly by his
+side. (It is, by the way, always the arm or shoulder; the cinema never
+allows him to get it distressingly in the leg or in the neck.)
+
+In the ultimate, with the wounded arm in a sling, he will tenderly
+embrace the heroine through a hundred feet of film, she meanwhile
+registering great joy and trustfulness, until the scene slowly darkens
+into blackness, and the screen suddenly announces that the next item on
+the programme will be No. 7, Exclusive to the Picturedrome.
+
+We are greatly favoured with "exclusives." It may be possible that other
+suburbs have these films, but it must be second-hand, after we have
+finished with them. The names of the artistes who create the _róles_ are
+announced on the screen: "_Captain Jack Reckless_--Mr. Courcy van
+Highball," or it maybe "_Juliet_, Miss Mamie Euffles." Or it is a film
+taken at the local regatta or athletic sports, and the actors in it
+include all the notabilities of the district. We flock to see how we (or
+our neighbours) look on the screen, and enjoy a hearty laugh when the
+scullers of "The Laburnums" register a crab full in the eye of the
+camera, or "The Oleanders" canoe receives a plenteous backwash from a
+river-steamer.
+
+But the staple fare is drama--red-blooded drama, where one is never in
+doubt as to who is in love with whom, and how much. Sometimes, to be
+frank, there is a passing flirtation, due to pique, between a wife and a
+third party, leading to misunderstandings, complications and blank
+despair on the part of the husband; but as there is always a "little
+one" somewhere in the background, we are never anxious as to the final
+outcome. It will end with the husband embracing the repentant (but
+stainless) wife, and at the same time extending a manly hand of
+reconciliation to the third party.
+
+We also like the dying fiddler (with visions) and the motor-car
+splurges--especially the latter. In our daily life we are plagued with
+motor-cars, cycle-cars and motor-cycle side-cars, being on a highroad
+from London town to the country; but on the screen we adore them.
+
+The cinema is very restful. There are no problems to vex the moral
+judgment; no psychological doubts; no anxieties. It will be "the mixture
+as before," ending in the loving, lingering kiss.
+
+Say what you will of Mr. REDFORD, he never deprives us of the kiss.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: _Gladys_ (_who has been told she may see her convalescent
+Daddy, but fails to recognise him with ten days' growth of beard_).
+"Mummy, Mummy, Daddy's not there; but there's a burglarer in his bed."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WATER ON THE BRAIN.
+
+Some interesting revelations have been published in _The Daily Mail_ on
+the tonic effect of the bath on our greatest workers, notably
+stockbrokers, novelists and actors.
+
+Mr. ARTHUR BOURCHIER declared that he read plays in the bath and that
+the best results were obtained by those selected either in the bath or
+on a long railway journey. "A man," he added, "is always at his best in
+his bath." Again, Mr. CHARLES GARVICE, the famous novelist, said that he
+always felt intensely musical while having his bath, though the ideas
+for his stories came chiefly while he was shaving.
+
+We are glad to be able to supplement these revelations with some further
+testimony from the _élite_ of the world of letters.
+
+Mr. CLEMENT SHORTER, in the course of an interesting interview, spoke
+eloquently on the daily renewal of the bath. From the day when he first
+became a Wet Bob at Eton he had never wavered in his devotion to
+matutinal and vespertinal ablutions. In fact, his philosophy on this
+point might be summed up in the quatrain:--
+
+  A bath in the morning
+  Is the bookman's adorning;
+  A bath at night
+  Is the bookman's delight.
+
+His ideal form of exercise was a ride in a bath-chair, just as his
+favourite diet was bath-chaps and bath-buns. For the rest he found that
+the ideas of his best pars came to him while he was using a
+scrubbing-brush which had belonged to Posh, EDWARD FITZGERALD'S boatman.
+
+Mr. LAURENCE BINYON, the poet and art critic, confessed that some of his
+choicest lyrics had been composed when he was using a loofah. But it
+must be applied rhythmically, to the accompaniment of a soft hissing
+sound such as was affected by stable-hands when grooming high-mettled
+steeds. Mr. BINYON added that it was a curious thing that while frequent
+references abounded in the classics to drinking from the Pierian spring,
+no mention occurred of bathing in it. But the divine afflatus no doubt
+worked differently in different ages. DIOGENES lived in a tub, but there
+was no evidence that he ever took one.
+
+Mr. PERCY FITZGERALD, in reply to a request for his views on the
+subject, said that he considered soap and water to be an invaluable
+intellectual stimulant. DICKENS was a great believer in it; so, too, was
+_Lady Macbeth_ and the famous Bishop WILBERFORCE, known as "Soapy Sam"
+from his excessive addiction to detergents. CHARLES LEVER, again, whom
+he knew intimately, had a passion for washing and, so he believed,
+started a soap factory, which was still in existence.
+
+The Baroness ORCZY pointed out to our representative that there was a
+natural harmony between different sorts of baths and different styles of
+composition. For heroic romance, cold baths were indispensable. For the
+novel of sensation she recommended champagne with a dash of ammoniated
+quinine. Similarly with regard to the use of soaps. Thus in any of her
+stories in which royalty, played a prominent part she found it
+impossible to dispense with Old Brown Windsor.
+
+Mr. MAX BEERBOHM contented himself by cordially endorsing Mr. ARTHUR
+BOURCHIER'S statement that he was (if ever) at his best in his bath.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IN MARCH.
+
+  There is cloud and a splash of blue sky overhead,
+  And the road by the common's the brave road to tread;
+      You miss all your neighbours,
+        And hear the wind play
+      His pipes and his tabors
+        Along the king's way.
+
+  From the elms at the corner the rooks tumble out
+  To dance you Sir Roger in clamorous rout;
+      For all honest people
+        There's gold on the whin,
+      And bells in the steeple,
+        And ale at the inn.
+
+  The brewer's brown horses, they shine in the sun,
+  And each of the team must weigh nearly a ton.
+      They stamp and they sidle,
+        Their great necks they arch,
+      And snatch at the bridle
+        This morning of March.
+
+  For Winter is over, you see the fine sights--
+  The geese on the common, the boys flying kites,
+      The daffydowndillies
+        That stoop on the stem,
+      And my pretty Phyllis
+        Who's gathering them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SIGNERS OF THE TIMES.
+
+Ralston came into the railway carriage with a fountain-pen and a huge
+sheet of official-looking paper.
+
+"Pardon my intrusion," he said. "This is a non-party business. I am just
+getting a few signatures----"
+
+"Don't apologise, Sir," interrupted Baffin. "I am delighted to see a
+young man like you working in such a cause. Every loyal Englishman,
+unless blindly ignorant or filled with Radical spite, will be delighted
+to sign it."
+
+Grabbing the fountain-pen he scribbled the imposing signature, "James
+Baffin, Hughenden, Tulse Hill."
+
+"It doesn't involve any financial responsibility?" enquired Macdougal
+with a touch of national caution.
+
+"Not in the least. You just sign," replied Ralston.
+
+Down went the name of Luke Macdougal.
+
+Wilcox had to have his attention drawn to the petition because he
+pretended to be absorbed in _The Times_--reading it with the attachment
+of an old subscriber, though we all knew he had only taken it for two
+days.
+
+"Of course," said Wilcox, "at the present moment I could not think of
+taking any active part in military operations myself, but I am sure my
+son-in-law----"
+
+"You are not supposed to do anything but sign," said Ralston.
+
+"Certainly, certainly, I'll be very pleased to sign. My son-in-law is a
+most determined young fellow and feels most strongly on this point."
+
+And Mr. Wilcox amiably offered up his son-in-law as a vicarious
+sacrifice.
+
+Dodham was a little dubious. "You see I'm not a politician," he began.
+
+"Politics have nothing to do with it," said Ralston.
+
+"No one, Sir, but an abject coward," broke in Baffin, "would shrink from
+saving his country at such a critical moment."
+
+"Well," said Dodham, "one can't be far wrong when non-party men like
+KIPLING and GEORGE ALEXANDER are signing. I think I shall be justified."
+
+The name of J. Percival Dodham was added to the list.
+
+Ralston turned to me. "You will sign, old man?"
+
+"No, thanks," I said. "Signed a teetotal-pledge when I was six, and my
+aunts have brought it up against me ever since. Besides I haven't a
+father-in-law to take my place."
+
+We stopped at a station.
+
+"I'm off," said Ralston; "got to rake up more signatures."
+
+Four men glared contemptuously at me for the rest of the journey. I
+don't know whether they regarded me as a miserable Little Englander or a
+wicked Big Irelander.
+
+When we reached Ludgate Hill I saw Ralston standing triumphantly on the
+platform.
+
+"Done well to-day?" I queried.
+
+"Oceans of signatures."
+
+I glanced over his shoulder and saw that the printing on the outer sheet
+began, "To the Manager, S. E. and L. C. D. Railway Companies."
+
+"What's he got to do with this thing?" I demanded.
+
+"Everything," explained Ralston amiably. "It's a petition to run the
+8.42 ten minutes earlier. I can't get to the office by 9.15 as it is."
+
+"What," I cried, "have all your miserable dupes been signing away ten
+minutes of their breakfast time?"
+
+Ralston winked at me. "I've just got to go into a carriage and say it's
+non-political and they jump to sign it. Signing's a sort of habit
+nowadays. Not my fault if they don't listen to explanations."
+
+My heart thrilled as I thought of what the brave men would say who,
+under the impression they were merely promising their own or their
+relations' blood, had tragically shortened their breakfast hour. Talk of
+revolutions! Look out for a revolution in the Tulse Hill district when
+the 8.42 becomes the 8.32!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: _Temperance Worker_ (_paying a surprise visit to the home
+of his pet convert_). "Does Mr. McMurdoch live here?"
+
+_Mrs. McMurdoch._ "Aye; carry him in!"]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MR. BALFOUR: MIXED DOUBLE LIFE.
+
+(From our Special Correspondent.)
+
+Nice, _Monday_.
+
+"I must confess that I felt somewhat nervous," said Mr. BALFOUR after
+the match, as he sipped a split sal-volatile and cinnamon, "but not so
+nervous as I was in the singles. But it was the first time that I ever
+stood up to the twin-screw service which Baron von Stosch uses so
+cleverly, and once or twice I was beaten by the swerve." But his
+partner, the famous Basque amateur, Mme. Jauréguiberry, was loud in his
+praises. "He played like a statesman and a diplomatist," she said. The
+Grand Duke MICHAEL was also greatly impressed and made a neat _mot_.
+"His fore-hand drives," he said, "were worthy of a driver of a
+four-in-hand." Mr. BALFOUR, it should be noted, wore brown tennis shoes
+with rubber soles, unlike Sir OLIVER LODGE, who always golfs in white
+buckskin boots. His shirt was of some soft material and was marked with
+his name on a tape, "A. J. BALFOUR. 6. 1913."
+
+Details of the Game.
+
+Mr. BALFOUR started serving, and the first two games fell to him and his
+partner owing to a certain wildness in the returns of Princess Pongo, a
+Nigerian lady of remarkable agility who has only been playing tennis for
+the last three months, as, owing to the laws of the Hausa tribe, mixed
+tennis is strictly forbidden in Nigeria. The Princess was, however, well
+backed up by her partner, the Baron von Stosch, an athletic Prussian
+with a powerful smash, and after five games all had been called the set
+fell to the ex-PREMIER and his partner. In the second set a regrettable
+incident occurred, a ball skidding off Mr. BALFOUR's racquet into the
+eye of the Grand Duke Uriel, who was acting as umpire. Mr. BALFOUR was
+much upset by the _contretemps_, and repeatedly sliced his drive into
+the net, remarking, "Dear, dear," on two occasions.
+
+The activity of the Princess Pongo, who wore a tasteful _toque_
+surmounted by a stuffed baby gorilla, was much admired, and when the
+score was called "one set all," the enthusiasm of the bystanders knew no
+bounds. A slight delay was caused by the arrival of a telegram for Mr.
+BALFOUR, announcing that, in view of the grave importance of the present
+political situation, _The Times_ had been reduced to a penny. This he
+perused with deep emotion. On the resumption of the game, however, the
+ex-PREMIER at once showed himself to be in his best form. He sclaffed
+several beauties past the Baron, nonplussed the Nigerian princess by his
+luscious lobs, and finished off the set and match by a wonderful
+scoop-stroke which died down like a poached egg.
+
+Early in the set he gave a remarkable proof of his detachment. Just as
+the Princess was preparing to serve one of her juiciest undercut
+strokes, the tones of a soprano practising her scales rang out from a
+neighbouring flat. "Rather sharp, I think," said Mr. BALFOUR, and the
+Princess, overcome by the ready wit of the ex-PREMIER, served four
+faults in quick succession. At the conclusion of the game Mr. BALFOUR
+wiped his face twice with his handkerchief and signed his name in the
+birthday books of several American heiresses.
+
+We understand that there is no truth in the rumour that Mr. BALFOUR will
+box five rounds with CARPENTIER at a Charity Bazaar and Gymkhana next
+Saturday, but hopes are entertained that he will dance the Ta-tao with
+the Princess Pongo, and enter for the three-legged race with the Grand
+Duke Uriel.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"TO MAKE THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIME."
+
+[Illustration: _Judge._ "Have you anything to say for yourself before I
+sentence you, Prisoner?"
+
+_Prisoner._ "Yes, your Lordship; I taught your wife and daughters the
+Tango."
+
+_Judge._ "Twenty years."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+AN IDOL OF THE MARKET PLACE.
+
+  Decorum and the butcher's cat
+    Are seldom far apart--
+  From dawn when clouds surmount the air,
+  Piled like a beauty's powdered hair,
+  Till dusk, when down the misty square
+    Rumbles the latest cart
+
+  He sits in coat of white and grey
+    Where the rude cleaver's shock
+  Horrid from time to time descends,
+  And his imposing presence lends
+  Grace to a platform that extends
+    Beneath the chopping-block.
+
+  How tranquil are his close-piled cheeks
+    His paws, sequestered warm!
+  An oak-grained panel backs his head
+  And all the stock-in-trade is spread,
+  A symphony in white and red,
+    Round his harmonious form.
+
+  The butcher's brave cerulean garb
+    Flutters before his face,
+  The cleaver dints his little roof
+  Of furrowed wood; remote, aloof
+  He sits superb and panic-proof
+    In his accustomed place.
+
+  Threading the columned county hall,
+    Mid-most before his eyes,
+  Alerter dog and loitering maid
+  Cross from the sunlight to the shade,
+  And small amenities of trade
+    Under the gables rise;
+
+  Cats of the town, a shameless crew,
+    Over the way he sees
+  Propitiate with lavish purr
+  An unresponsive customer,
+  Or, meek with sycophantic fur,
+    Caress the children's knees.
+
+  But he, betrothed to etiquette,
+    Betrays nor head nor heart;
+  Lone as the Ark on Ararat,
+  A monument of fur and fat,
+  Decorum and the butcher's cat
+    Are seldom far apart.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "It was Horace that put in print the old truth that no man in
+    this world is satisfied with the lot which either fortune or
+    others have put him to."--_"T. P." in his "Weekly."_
+
+HORACE, of course, was always rushing into print.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Her hands dropped to her side. She toyed with the little locket
+    on the gold chain at her throat. 'I am capable of anything!' she
+    said."--_"Daily Mirror" Serial._
+
+Evidently.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: _Keeper_ (_who, unobserved, has been watching the
+transgressor_). "Ay, man, ye _hae_ a conscience, but it's gae elastic,
+I'm thinkin'."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.
+
+(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._)
+
+MR. HENRY HOLIDAY'S _Reminiscences of my Life_ (HEINEMANN) will show you
+a kindly simple soul who had an extraordinarily nice time, met all kinds
+of interesting folk, and had a generous devotion to any number of
+unpopular causes, such as Women's Suffrage, the futuristic socialism of
+BELLAMY'S _Looking Backward_, Home Rule in Ireland, healthy and artistic
+dress, good music, the abolition of war. Whatever capacity of expression
+his successful and not undistinguished career as a painter (amongst
+other things, of BEATRICE cutting DANTE on the bridge), stained-glass
+worker and mural decorator proves him to have had in his proper medium,
+the gift of pointed literary expression and appropriate selection seems
+to have been withheld from him. But he has little reason to complain.
+Some, at least, of his causes are appreciably nearer victory than when
+he espoused them; we are even a little nearer looking backwards. One
+small point in these discursive memoirs will especially delight the
+mildly cynical--that this worthy pre-Raphaelite, who with his friends
+had suffered so much from the limitations of view of a mid-Victorian
+Royal Academy, should be so maliciously ready to have all modern rebels
+in paint, their milestones hung about their necks, sunk in the
+nethermost deeps with all their works! One can find diversion, too, in
+the decorous story of Mr. HOLIDAY'S nude statue of _Sleep_, rejected
+(according to a message from G. F. WATTS) on account of its nudity in
+1879 by that same Academy, and accepted in 1880 when the artist with
+laborious modesty had modelled for it a plaster-of-paris nightgown. The
+author claims some share, through the Healthy and Artistic Dress Union,
+in the changes towards rational beauty which women's dress has lately
+shown. And that surely, is by no means to have lived in vain!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There are few Memsahibs who know India and can write about it as well as
+Mrs. ALICE PERRIN, so that when she calls her new book _The Happy
+Hunting Ground_ (METHUEN) she sets you thinking. And when you begin to
+think, you see that that really is the meaning of those tearful
+farewells at Victoria and Charing Cross, that heavy-hearted cheering and
+waving of handkerchiefs as the liner puts off from the docks, which are
+for us who stay at home the symbol of our share in the burden of empire.
+When our sisters and our daughters (and our cousins and aunts) sail away
+to Marseilles and the East they go to find husbands, largely because for
+many of them there is in this country little prospect of marriage with
+men of their own class. But that is only half the story. They go in
+search of mates. They stay to play, as helpmeets, the woman's part in
+carrying on the high tradition of the British Raj. With this fundamental
+truth as her background, Mrs. PERRIN has drawn, simply but with
+practised skill, the picture of a young girl who leaves the dull
+security of Earl's Court to go a-hunting in the plains and the hills,
+obedient to the call of India, which is in her bones. There, like many
+another before her, she loves and suffers, and makes sacrifices and
+mistakes, and (I am glad to say) finds happiness at the last. The
+strength of Mrs. PERRIN'S book, apart from the value of its background,
+lies in the reality of its characters. If you have a drop of
+Anglo-Indian blood in your veins you will know what it means. You will
+greet them as blood relations, and take a kinsman's interest not only in
+their joys and sorrows, but in their whole attitude towards life, and
+even their little tricks of thought and speech.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About a year ago Mr. JOSEPH KNOWLES began to think that "the people of
+the present day were sadly neglecting the details of the great book of
+nature," and asked himself if he could not do something to remedy
+matters. His answer to this question was to take off all his clothes,
+and, on August 4, 1913, to enter the wilderness of Northern Maine, and
+live like a primitive man for two months. On page 12 of _Alone in the
+Wilderness_ (LONGMANS) he is to be seen taking off his coat (and posing,
+I feel bound to add, very becomingly), and eight pages farther on you
+can see him divested of his clothing and "breaking the last link." As
+used to enforce a primitive ideal, the modern art of photography seems,
+if I may say so, a little out of this picture; but, anyhow, into the
+forest Mr. KNOWLES went with "nodings on," and there he stuck out his
+time, speaking to no one, scarcely seeing a human being, and
+proving--well, I don't honestly think that he proved much. But at least
+he was not what he calls a quitter, and as more than once he had an
+intense desire to return to civilisation, he deserves much credit for
+carrying out his resolution. But, difficult as he found it to remain for
+the two months, he has found even greater difficulty in writing
+interestingly about his experiment. Apart from his account of a great
+moose-fight, the fascinating scenes in his book are those in which his
+former experiences as a trapper and hunter are described. But Mr.
+KNOWLES has not finished with his adventure; he is going to live
+stark-naked in the wilderness for another two months, but this time
+under inspection, so that the unbelievers can be convinced. I am not
+among the unbelievers--indeed, I am convinced of the absolute truth of
+every statement he makes--but I doubt if a repetition of his performance
+is the best way to help on the College of Nature which he hopes to
+start. Why, in short, pander to the unbelievers?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OUR CURIO CRANKS.
+
+[Illustration: The man who collects mud-splashes from the wheels of the
+exalted great.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A period so bygone as that of His late Majesty KING HENRY II. (of whose
+exact date you will scarcely need to be reminded) has not an immediate
+and irresistible attraction for every novel reader, and it may take much
+to persuade some that they will ever become really concerned with the
+deeds and destinies of such people as _Jehane_ the woodward's daughter,
+_Edwy_ the tanner of Clee, and _Lord Lambert do Fort-Castel_, be their
+deeds and destinies never so adventurous or romantic. Further, the
+juvenile manner of the pictorial cover attached to _Jehane of the
+Forest_ (MELROSE) is not calculated to whet the appetite of the adult
+public, and the eulogy of a well-known author, appended on a printed
+slip, lacks the essential glow of the effective advertisement. It misses
+the point; it is pedantic, and pedantry is the one thing for which wary
+readers are on the look out in stories of antiquity. It is first
+important, then, to acquit Mr. L. A. TALBOT of every offence of which,
+in the blackness of the outward circumstances, he might be
+suspected--affectations, anachronisms, excess of local and contemporary
+colour, absence of humour or human touches, any tendency to bore. The
+book presents a charming picture of the counties on the Welsh Border and
+unravels a delightful tale in which the characters talk the language
+peculiar to their time, but are controlled by the everlasting motives of
+human nature. Though the times were harder than ours the people seem to
+have been neither better nor worse than we are; and, when approached
+from such a point of view as Mr. TALBOT has taken, there is nothing to
+be said against, but very much to be said for, the period of 1154-1189,
+which, as every schoolboy is punished for not knowing, covers the reign
+of HENRY II.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss MILLS YOUNG does not, I think, improve as an artist. _The Purple
+Mists_ (LANE) is her latest book, and it is not so real and satisfactory
+a piece of work as _Grit Lawless_ or _Atonement_. The theme of her new
+novel is the coming of love to two people who married without any other
+emotion than restrained but unmistakable antipathy. Why people should do
+these things so often in novels I do not know, but on the present
+occasion _Euretta_ (_Euretta_ is not an attractive name) and _John Shaw_
+(you can tell by _his_ name that he is a strong silent man who is deep
+in his work and has no time to bother about women) are driven into
+matrimony by Miss MILLS YOUNG. After a while it appears that _Mr. Shaw_
+is beginning to care for _Euretta_ very much, but he shows his affection
+for her by avoiding her as much as possible and snarling when she speaks
+to him. It is obvious that a more kindly figure must be somewhere close
+at hand eager to console _Euretta_. Miss YOUNG discovers him, finds that
+he is precisely the deep-drinking, warm-hearted rascal necessary for
+this kind of occasion, and provides him with the inevitable situations
+proper to the _tertium quid_. The defects of _The Purple Mists_ all
+arise from the fact that Miss MILLS YOUNG has been told by her friends
+that she tells a good story. If, next time, she thinks first of her
+characters and then chronicles their logical development, instead of
+forcing them into a threadbare plot, she will give us the fine book of
+which I am sure she is capable.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "According to the Jewish Chronicle, the number of Jews in the
+    world now exceeds 13,000: to be exact, 13,052,840."
+
+    _Family Herald (B.C.)_
+
+Our contemporary should cultivate the large tracts of truth which lie
+between the extreme vagueness of the first estimate and the pedantic
+accuracy of the second.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Rokeby Venus in Ribbons."--_Globe._
+
+Are we becoming prudish?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Breezes between North and South."--_Cork Examiner._
+
+This is the weather forecast for Ireland, and at first sight seems
+obvious; but "in view," as our penny contemporary says, "of the grave
+importance of the present political situation," we suspect a deeper
+meaning.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI, VOL.
+146, MARCH 18, 1914***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 23087-8.txt or 23087-8.zip *******
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