CHARIVARIA.

There is no truth in the rumour that the Imperial Government is trying to secure from King Alfonso an agreement that German prisoners shall not escape on Sundays or in batches of more than fifty at a time.

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“Far better another year of war,” said the Bishop of London in a recent sermon, “than to leave it to the baby in the cradle to do it over again.”  Too much importance should not be attached to these ill-judged reflections on the younger members of the Staff.

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In Berlin a crowd of people attempted to do some injury to an officer on the paltry excuse that he ordered the execution of thirty people for alleged espionage.  The German people have always been a little jealous of the privileges of the military.

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Captain N. BERNIERS, who has just returned to Quebec, reports that the Eskimos had not heard of the War.  We should be the last to worry Lord Northcliffe at present, but it certainly looks as if the Circulation Manager of The Daily Mail has been slacking.

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We really think more care should be taken by the authorities to see that, while waging war on the Continent, they do not forget the defence of those at home.  The fact that Mr. Winston Churchill and Mr. Horatio Bottomley were away in France at the same time looks like gross carelessness.

***

“Next to the field of Mars we must pay homage to the forge of Vulcan,” said the Kaiser in a recent speech.  A stout fellow, this Vulcan, but as a forger not really in the all-HIGHEST’S class.

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Taxicabs are to be entitled to charge a shilling for the first mile.  The bus fare for the remainder of the distance will be the same as heretofore.

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It is stated that fifty per cent. of the sugar forms have been filled in wrong.  On the other hand a number of our youthful hedonists are complaining that as far as sugar is concerned their forms have never been anywhere near filled in.

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A Wood Green gentleman has written to an evening paper to say that he has grown a vegetable marrow which weighs forty-three pounds.  There is some talk of his being elected an Honorary Angler.

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A Grimsby lady who has just celebrated her hundredth birthday states that she has never visited a cinema theatre.  We felt sure there must be an explanation somewhere.

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It seems a pity that the Willesden Health Committee should have troubled to pass a resolution about the decreasing birth-rate.  When we remember air-raids and the shortage of sugar it is only natural that people should show a disinclination to be born just now.

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“I don’t care how soon a General Election comes,” says Mr. John Dillon, M.P.  It is this dare-devil spirit which has made so many Irishmen what they are.  The recruiting officer has no terrors for them.