sequent lapses-rather from tact than integrity-might well be condoned.

Though M. J. FARRELL seems to know
Far more than you or I could tell him
Of hounds and of the sort of show.
A fox puts up before they fell him,
And, though he's little left to learn.
About the way a hare is harried,
Yet in Young Entry his concern

Is getting two young women married.

He shows them fair and fancy-free,
And all the countryside adore them,
And from the first it 's plain to see

The mates whom he has chosen for
them;

But all the same, before they're fixed
To suit his matrimonial mission,
He gets the parties all so mixed

That they at least have no suspicion.

And while he does his best to sort
Them out he gives us of his bounty

A taste of every kind of sport
That's going in an Irish county;
And thus before the bridal veil

Is donned and joy-bells wake the
welkin

We get a very jolly tale

(From MATHEWS, not to mention ELKIN).

"con

The Merton Professor of English Literature has written so apt and graceful an introduction to Third Leaders from "The Times" (ARNOLD) that subsequent critics cannot do better than start by pilfering from his preface. When defunct issues of The Times, he says, are given honourable burial-filed and put away to be henceforth " sulted, not read"-these animated essays refuse to stay in their graves. Thirteen years ago a series was successfully reprinted, and it is now high time for another. This, like its predecessor, is the work of a whole confederacy inside and out of The Times' office; yet the essaysundoubtedly share a common note of classical modernity. You can draw (and Professor GORDON does draw) a composite portrait of the essayist ideally

Milliner. CERTAINLY, MODOM. TO GO WITH YOUR COSTUME?"
Intense Female. "No, TO GO WITH MY SOUL.".

responsible for them; and having done this it only remains as well as his unanimity, Professor GORDON'S "Addison with to exemplify his work by quotations. I do not blame Professor a Fountain Pen" is to be heartily congratulated. GORDON for having chosen to quote from most of the essays I should have selected for that purpose myself; indeed I As I wandered with Mr. DONALD MAXWELL over what suggest that two of the pieces thus distinguished have a WORDSWORTH liked to style" smooth Quantock's airy ridge,' quality, both of thought and expression, above their fellows. through the Blackdown lanes, along the rich and sunny Vale These ("Super" and "De Luxe") are obviously by the same of Taunton and in and around Frome, I could not but be hand. They are the kindliest, justest and merriest indict- grateful for so pleasant and discriminating a guide to the ments of the world we live in, and far less "avuncular" in high-roads and field-paths of Unknown Somerset (JOHN their depreciation (though here I suspect I part company LANE). Only when we came to the purple uplands of Exmoor with their editor) than the desperate complaisance of the did I experience a feeling of disappointment at my comessayist who professes to find beauty in arterial motor-tracks. panion's seeming indifference to the haunting half-mystical Altogether there are over twelve dozen titles; London and atmosphere of that home of the wild red-deer. But always the countryside, cats and crackers (I particularly commend his eye was quick to seize upon and his brush and pen "Russ" and "Pop, Bang!"), poke-bonnets and hot-water- ready to set down with uncommon delicacy of touch the bottles-all are worthily appraised. On his multifariousness many and varied beauties of the country through which

we passed: the grey walls of Farleigh Hungerford rising little skipping, for I feel constrained to say that Mr. ALBERT'S against a green woodland background, the reds and purples leisurely and deliberate method of telling a story invites a and pale yellows of a sunset seen across the plain from judicious use of that exercise.

the edge of Sedgemoor, or the cold greens and terra-cottas

of the Porlock Woods in winter sunshine. How or when The career of NATHANIEL BOWDITCH, the eighteenth-
Mr. MAXWELL came to acquire his rich store of knowledge century Salem navigator, whose work, like that of his
of the lesser-known events in the history of the places we countryman, MAURY, half-a-century later, had such far-
passed through I cannot imagine. Unless indeed it were reaching effects upon the development of American ship-
through his companionable habit of entering into con- ping in particular and that of the world in general, is one
versation with his fellow-wayfarers a good old custom especially suited for the purposes of one of those intimate
much fallen into disuse and that might well be revived biographies in the modern manner, in which the honours
in these hurried and none too courteous days. Howsoever are about evenly divided between the art of the novelist and
he came by it I am glad that Mr. MAXWELL wears, and that of the historian. Mr. ALFRED STANFORD'S Navigator
imparts too, his learning lightly.
(DENT) is a readable and interesting narrative woven around
the incidents of BOWDITCH's delicate and precocious boy-
Miss ROSE MACAULAY was clearly born at the right time, hood and his early struggles for recognition, for which the
both for us and for herself. For us, because contemporary old New England seaport provides a picturesque setting;
satire, needing no annotation, is so much the more enjoyable; and the manner in which he triumphantly vindicates his
for herself, because our modern extravagances are a god- theories by bringing the Putnam into Salem harbour on
send and a goldmine even to a writer who obviously can Christmas-Eve in a blinding snowstorm, while it is beyond
satirise anything and anybody. In Keeping Up Appearances question as historical fact, equally leaves nothing to be de-
(COLLINS), Miss MACAULAY

expands the theme of OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, that there are at least three different personalities in each one of us. She shows us Daisy Simpson as she knew, or feared, herself to be; Daphne (otherwise Daisy) Simpson as she liked the world to think her, and Marjorie Wynne," who was Daisy as known to readers of the popular Press. We are left to guess which of these three projections of herself is nearest to the real Daisy "as known to her Maker," and I gather from Miss MACAULAY that it is just as likely to be one as another. But although you may guess you need not worry, for it really does not matter. You

THE BOXER WHO NEVER CAME BACK.

"I'M AFRAID HE'S A BROKEN MAN. HE SPLIT AN INFINITIVE IN HIS LAST ARTICLE."

sired when regarded as an effec-
tive dramatic culmination.

If I have a complaint to make against Mr. SINCLAIR GLUCK it is that in The Last Trap (MILLS AND BOON) he is guilty of squandering the wealth of his imagination, as in addition to other lawbreakers he gives us what the Americans call a "firebug," and his supply of people suspected of the main crime is extremely lavish. Further, after keeping me in a high state of tension from the start, he provides in his concluding pages so many surprises that, hardened as I am to the prodigality of sensational novelists, I was left gaping. Mr. GLUCK can rest assured that in the

will read this book to be amused, silently or loudly according | field of crime and detection he has set a pace that the
to taste, and you need not think it unkind to be joining in fleetest of his fellows will be hard pushed to equal.
the laugh against others, because your own turn is certainly
coming and perhaps on the very next page. But even as
you cry" Touche" you will thank Miss MACAULAY for the hit.
The more heartily because you know that one who laughs
so gaily and shrewdly at others must often laugh at herself.

Will-o'-the-Wisp (HODDER AND STOUGHTON) ought to prove particularly attractive to flappers, for the heroine who has the title for one of her sobriquets (she is christened Flora and also called Folly) is a flapper of flappers. I got a little tired of her habit of beginning her reply to any Man's Chief End (CASSELL) is a finely-conceived story, embarrassing question with "M-"; but on the whole I whose salient quality is its sincerity. Peter Dowrie, a Scot-liked her and was not sorry when David, the young man tish lad of humble birth, is its leading actor. Aged ten when of the story-which was all he seemed to be rewarded he appears on Mr. EDWARD ALBERT's stage, he is still young her faithfulness and persistence with his hand. I found it when he leaves it with years of war and experience behind odd that David should matter so little to me, for his secret him. So moving are the struggles of Peter and his numerous marriage, six years before the story opens, his wife's supyouthful friends to lift themselves from the slough of poverty posed death in a shipwreck soon afterwards and the chain and squalor into which they had been born that you will of mysterious happenings by which it is proved that she have to be stony-hearted indeed to read of them without survived, form the backbone of the plot. Perhaps it is that sympathy. And to me, for some reason I will not attempt Miss PATRICIA WENTWORTH is better at drawing women to explain, these struggles seem more pathetic because their than men, for there are some excellent studies to set against scenes are placed in that home of great endeavour-Scot- the emptiness of David-his doughty grandmother and her land. As a serious study of those handicapped in life from satellites, and a very nice cousin, Eleanor, whom I rather the start, but determined to "break their birth's invidious wanted him to marry instead of Folly. Will-o'-the-Wisp bar," I recommend this tale to anyone who looks for some- seems a charming book while you are actually reading it, thing more than amusement from fiction. But I shall not but it is charm of the sort that leaves you at the end woncharge him with sinning against the light if he indulges in a dering a little what it was that attracted you.

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.-APRIL 25, 1928.

Factory Freshness in Peking

The greatest problem in the distribution and sale of good tobacco has been solved. Through the genius of the Barneys EVERFRESH" Tin, smokers everywhere can now get Barneys in Factory-fresh condition.

46

Barneys in the "EVERFRESH" Tin is good tobacco kept good; how good, you may gather from the remarkable letter received from Peking. To-day, in Peking, Barneys can be had in the same sweet, fresh, fragrant condition in which it left the Blending Rooms at Newcastle-on-Tyne.

This new "EVERFRESH" Container is not just another way of packing tobacco-it is the only method in existence which can ensure such Factory-freshness. Until you pull the rubber tab, a virtual vacuum within and atmospheric pressure from without keep the "EVERFRESH" Tin sealed and locked, and its contents protected indefinitely from the harmful effects of time, transport difficulties or climatic variation.

BRITISH DUTY-FREE DESPATCHES FOR ABROAD

(T. 22)

John Sinclair, Ltd., Barneys Tobacco Factory, Bath Lane, Newcastle-on-Tyne, England.

H

CHARIVARIA.

It was estimated that if all the bottles of beer laid in at Wembley for the Cup Final were placed side by side they would stretch nearly three miles. They were therefore not arranged in that formation.

**

According to a sociologist, Americans suffer from a nervous dread of being in any way peculiar. A notable exception is "BIG BILL" THOMPSON.

**
*

Mr. HENRY FORD and Mr. W. R. MORRIS are to meet on May 2nd. Everybody is hoping it won't be a head-on collision.

**

*

A contemporary essayist wonders how some of our titled gossip-writers manage to write their Sunday pages. Others merely wonder why.

**

*

A special service for habitués of the bowling-green was held at a Lewisham church the other Sunday. This will come as a surprise to those who have always maintained that men who play bowls are past praying for.

**

**
*

Among the onlookers. at a recent tion of similar tests to an office-boy is point-to-point meeting, we read, was an awaited with interest. eminent comedian looking very cold in a pair of plus-fours. Our feeling is that the comic side of these meetings should be left to the mounted performers.

**

It is rumoured at Cambridge that the film of Oxford life which is being made will show Oxford athletes in accelerated action.

A football match was played the other day in the North without a referee in the second half. Northern teams should always carry a spare.

**

*

A Leicestershire clergyman states that, in order to sell a book of tickets for a prize-drawing in one public-house, he had to drink a pint of beer. It is With reference to the question of the the fear of having to face such hardships that keeps so many

Friend (studying artist's self-portrait which has been rejected). "TELL YOU WHAT I SHOULD DO, OLD MAN. HAVE A SHAVE AND TRY IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR."

Coloured clothes-lines, which are described as a novelty, are of course an outcome of the Brighter Back-Yards movement.

* *
*

Mr. SIDNEY WEBB's failure as a Parliamentarian is ascribed to his having vast knowledge but no voice. What is wanted at Westminster is a vast voice but no knowledge.

**

In the Fascist campaign against snobbery the Italian police are to deal with those who boast of acquaintance with high personages. It will be especially risky to talk about "my pal Benito."

VOL. CLXXIV.

.

young men out of the Church.

propriety of Sunday billiards which has | hand seems to have been treated with
been raised, our own view is that the
(6
a fade-out."
offence would be mitigated if players
refrained from potting the white.

**
**

*

It seems high time something more was done by the police about motor-car In Brussels the other day a woman thefts. A complaint has now been alighted from a taxi, produced a re-received by a jewel thief that when he volver and demanded the driver's emerged from the scene of his operamoney, which he promptly gave her. tions his car had disappeared. A London taxi-driver would have kept her waiting while he slowly undid all his overcoats.