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 _elite_ of the world of letters.

Mr. CLEMENT SHORTER, in the course of an interesting interview, spoke
eloquently on the daily renewal of