If he doesn’t take a stronger line the men will consider him his inferior.

* * * * *

From a short story:—­

    “She was a slip of a thing, with the sort of eyes that go well
    with curly long lashes—­if they are blue, as hers were.”—­Weekly
    Paper.

Our local coiffeur only stocks the old-fashioned peroxide.

* * * * *

[Illustration:  OVERWEIGHTED.

PRESIDENT WILSON.  “HERE’S YOUR OLIVE BRANCH.  NOW GET BUSY.”  DOVE OF PEACE.  “OF COURSE I WANT TO PLEASE EVERYBODY; BUT ISN’T THIS A BIT THICK?”]

* * * * *

[Illustration:  THE STRENUOUS LIFE.

BEFORE TAKING OFFICE ALL MEMBERS IN FUTURE WILL HAVE TO PASS A TEST OF THEIR ABILITY TO SUSTAIN A PROLONGED FLIGHT, FIVE THOUSAND FEET UP, AT A HUNDRED-AND-SEVENTY MILES AN HOUR.]

Monday, March 17th.—­Mr. GEORGE TERRELL, always a little inclined to look upon the black side of things, was apprehensive about the spread of Bolshevism in this country.  Not so Lord HENRY BENTINCK, who genially exploded with “Is not Bolshevism in this country a pure bogey?” Not quite that, perhaps; but I gathered that in Mr. BONAR LAW’S opinion it hasn’t a ghost of a chance.

Great cheers from the Wee Frees greeted the advent of Mr. A.E.  NEWBOULD, the victor of West Leyton, whose defeat of the Coalition candidate has increased the size of their party by something like four per cent.  As the new Member is understood to be connected with the film business his colleagues are hoping that they will soon have Ministers on the “movies.”

We know on high authority that evil communications corrupt good manners.  Sir ERIC GEDDES goes further and believes that they corrupt everything.  That was the text of his capital speech on the second reading of the Transportation Bill.  Dispensing on this occasion with his usual typescript, he discoursed at large for an hour and a-half on the paralytic condition of our railways, roads, canals and docks.

We all had our pleasant morning dreams, he said, but they usually disappeared after we had had our cold bath; and the country, which was no longer rich, but poor, must take its douche.  His own dream is of a beautifully centralised control, directing all our traffic agencies (save tramways and shipping) into the most convenient channels; and he won’t be happy till he gets it.  But judging by some of the speeches that followed he too may have a frigid disillusionment when the Bill comes up against the “interests” in Committee.  Mr. T.P.  O’CONNOR, on behalf of Liverpool, described it as the product of “an old bureaucracy and a young Parliamentarian,” and Mr. RENWICK declared that, if it passed, the Manchester Ship Canal would be “between the devil and the deep sea,” surely an uncalled-for attack on Cottonopolis.

Upon the adjournment, Col.  CLAUDE LOWTHER again raised the question of the payment of German indemnities, and Mr. BONAR LAW again declared that the policy of the Government was to demand the largest amount that Germany could pay, but not to demand what we knew she couldn’t pay.  It would have saved him a lot of trouble if at the General Election the Government spokesmen had insisted as much upon the second half of the policy as they did upon the first.