e sinking of Rule Britannia."--_Egyptian
Gazette._

The Pacifists appear to have had the last word, after all.

* * * * *

"Mill Manager Honoured.--Mr. ---- has been elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society for the encouragement of fits."--_Times of
India._

We do not recognise the Society, but imagine it may be the Taylorian
Institute.

* * * * *

"It will take about 12 days for goods traffic to become normal
again, although of course passenger traffic is not interfered
with in the slightest. In the meantime the booking of elephants
and other perishables has been stopped."--_Rangoon Times._

Unless, of course, they leave their trunks behind them.

* * * * *

We observe that Mr. WATERS BUTLER has been appointed a member of the
Liquor Control Board, with the hearty approval of the Birmingham Beer,
Spirit and Wine Trade Association. If there is anything in a name no one
should be better able to hold the balance between them and the
teetotalers.

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE MILITARY REASON.

"FOR MILITARY REASONS OUR ARMY HAS WITHDRAWN FROM ERZERUM."

_Turkish official communique (nearly a week after the event)_.]

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Coster_ (_to parish visitor, who has been commiserating
with him on the loss of his father_). "Yes, Mum, 'e were a splendid
father to us and no mistake. Yer see, Mum, there was eleven of us, and I
never knowed 'im raise 'is 'and to one of us--'cept as it might be in
self-defence."]

* * * * *

AT THE FRONT.

Some officers like putting up barbed wire, not so much, I think, from
any real deep-seated affection for the stuff itself, or from any
confidence in the protection it affords--its disintegration being one of
the assumed preliminaries of an attack--as for the satisfaction of
writing in the Weekly Work Report, "In front of X276 we put up 97 rolls
of barbed wire; in front of S279, 342 rolls; in front of X276a, 3,692
rolls ..." and so on.

An officer who overdoes this sport of kings gets a trench a bad name; it
becomes a trench with a great wiring tradition to be maintained. One of
us took over a legacy from one of these barbarians last trip. H.Q. had
got wind of his zeal and was determined that we for our part should not
be idle. It was murmured