t Five
Had left some people--one or two--alive.

* * * * *

=Christmas and the Children.=

With the approach of a Festival that is dedicated to the joy of
children, Mr. Punch makes bold to plead the cause of the less
fortunate among them. The Queen's Hospital for Children, once known as
the North-Eastern Hospital for Children, is the only one of its kind
in this part of London and serves a poor district with a population
of half-a-million. Its claim upon the generosity of more favoured
Londoners is as strong as its lack of funds at the present moment is
serious. It has one hundred-and-seventy beds, and during the last
year has cared for eighteen hundred in-patients and sixty thousand
out-patients. Mr. Punch is certain that, if the children of the
West-end understood the suffering and needs of these other children of
Bethnal Green, they would want to help them by forgoing some of
their Christmas toys. Gifts should be addressed to the Secretary,
T. GLENTON-KERR, Esq., Queen's Hospital for Children, Hackney Road,
Bethnal Green, E.2.

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE ROAD TO ECONOMY.

THE SHEPHERD. "I WONDER IF ANY OF YOU SHEEP COULD SHOW ME THE WAY."

("Let the Nation set the example [in economy] to the
Government."--_Mr. LLOYD GEORGE._)]

* * * * *

=ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.=

_Monday, November 29th._--Some time ago Lord NEWTON was appointed
Chairman of a Committee on Smoke Abatement. It took enough evidence to
fill a Blue-book a couple of inches thick, and, at the request of the
Government, furnished an interim report. Supposing, not unnaturally,
that its valuable recommendations would be adopted in the Government's
housing schemes the Committee was disgusted to find that, save for an
emasculated summary in "a dismal journal called _Housing_," no notice
was taken of its report. Lord NEWTON is not a man who can safely be
invited to consume his own smoke, and he made indignant protest this
afternoon. A soft answer from Lord SANDHURST, who assured him that the
Government, far from being unmindful of the Committee's labours,
had already equipped some thousands of houses with central heating,
temporarily diverted his wrath.

Thanks to the Sinn Feiners, the Public Galleries of the House of
Commons were closed. Thus deprived of all audience save themselves and
the reporters the most loquacious Members were depressed. _Bombin