deeds by request, without any evasion,
But this thing I will not do;
If they won't be content with a "fake" for this single occasion,
My cinema job is through.

* * * * *

From a list of popular novels:--

"_The Beloved Premier_, by H. MAXWELL.
_The Greater Law_, by VICTORIA CROSS."

Politicians can take their choice.

* * * * *

The Latest Cinema Poster.

"Our Sea Rooms now open.
No Finer Death."

* * * * *

The Men that Matter.

Sound the clarion, FILSON, FYFE,
To all the reading world proclaim
One signed half-column, straight from life,
Is worth a page without a name.

* * * * *

THE ART OF CONVERSATION.

I had a terrible experience yesterday, one of life's inky black hours
which will bring a shudder whenever in future days memory seizes an idle
moment to refresh herself. I had been dining with Scarfield and his
mother at Hampstead, and with the entry of the coffee he had pleaded a
sudden dyspepsia and withdrawn. So his mother, a dear colourless old
lady, undertook to entertain me. By her desire I lighted a cigar.

She mentioned that she had just returned from a visit to Glasgow, and I
remarked intelligently that Glasgow was a fine place. Considering for a
moment, she observed that she thought the weather in Glasgow was colder
than that of the South of England; and I said, Yes, very likely, I had
heard so. In about two minutes she qualified her statement by informing
me that the South of England was as a rule milder than Glasgow. I
replied that it appeared to me very possible, adding recklessly that
they had peculiarly mixed weather in Glasgow, which she seemed to think
rather a questionable presentment of the case for the North, for she
kept silent and ruminated for seven or eight minutes. My mind took a
little excursion to Putney, where I have friends. But, before I had
really settled at Putney, the lady's voice intimated that perhaps they
had more rain in Glasgow than in the South of England.

I came back from Putney with a slight mental wrench, yet sufficiently
clear-headed to say decidedly that Glasgow, on the whole, had a much
better climate than the South, because I had once spent a day there, and
the sun shone the whole time, so I ought to know. Then I started off
again, and had just reached Walham Green (one does not speak of these
p