come
everywhere,' says Mr. Devlin; 'The most peaceful place in the
world,' says Mr. Redmond."--_Daily Graphic._

Mr. REDMOND has overlooked the Balkans.

* * * * *

ALL LIARS' DAY.

"So it's ----'s birthday to-day," said Fortescue (naming a very
well-known politician) as he looked up from his newspaper. "You'll
call and wish him many happy returns, of course, Ferguson?"

We who travel up together each morning by this train are pretty well
agreed about ----.

"Don't mention that man to me!" cried Ferguson. "He's absolutely the
biggest liar on earth. I can't imagine how he faces the world as he
does after having been exposed so many times. You'd think he would
want to crawl away into a hole somewhere. He can't have the least
sense of shame."

"Pardon me," interrupted the burly stranger seated in the corner.
"Pardon me; there is reason why he should. It is not _his_ fault if
he is addicted to inexactitude. He was predestined to it. It is the
irresistible influence of the day on which he was born. Every man born
on this day must inevitably grow up to be a liar; it is his fate, from
which there can be no escape."

"Oh, come!" protested Ferguson. "That sounds rather far-fetched, you
know, for these days."

"My dear Sir," retorted the other, brushing up his moustache
aggressively and glaring at Ferguson, "I happen to be President of the
Society for the Investigation of Natal Day Influences upon Character,
so I presume I may claim to know what I am talking about."

So truculent was his demeanour that nobody ventured to speak.

"My Society," he continued after a pause, "has conducted its
researches over a period of many years. I am going to give you just
a few examples out of thousands we have collected. Let us take a
significant date, February 29th. A man born on that day is a coward.
It is inevitable. Pusillanimity is born in him and can never be
eradicated.

"We had before us a month or two ago the case of a gentleman living
in a country town--a quiet, shy, studious recluse--born on this fatal
day. By some mischance he happened to pick up a journal in which was
an article on the Government by Mr. ARNOLD WHITE. He read it. He was
so terrified that he expired from heart failure. That sounds to you
incredible, but real life is often incredible. That is one of the
discoveries of our Society.

"I will give you a more remarkable instance still. A well-to-do
gentleman with th