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A correspondent protests against the high prices paid for old postage-stamps at a recent sale, and points out that stamps can be obtained at one penny each at most post-offices, all ready for use.

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A North of England lady last week climbed to the top of the chimney-stack of a large munition works and affixed a silver coin in the masonry.  The lady is thought to be nervous of pickpockets.

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A contemporary wit declares that nothing gives him more pleasure than to see golfers at dinner.  He loves to watch them doing the soup course, using one iron all the way round.

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There is no truth in the rumour that during a recent air-raid a man was caught on the roof of a certain Government building in Whitehall signalling to the Germans where not to drop their bombs.

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It should be added that the practice of giving air-raid warnings by notice published in the following morning’s papers has been abandoned only after the most exhaustive tests.

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The Home Office announces that while it has not definitely decided upon the method of giving warnings at night it will probably be by gun fire.  To distinguish this fire from the regular barrage it is ingeniously suggested that the guns employed for the latter purpose shall be painted blue, or some other distinctive colour.

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It is reported that Sinn Fein’s second-best war-cry, “Up the Kaiser,” is causing some irritation in the Wilhelmstrasse, where it is freely admitted that the Kaiser is already far higher up than the circumstances justify.

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The Lambeth magistrate recently referred to the case of a boy of fifteen who is paying income-tax.  Friends of the youth have since been heard to say that there is such a thing as carrying the spirit of reckless bravado too far.

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“Farm work is proceeding slowly,” says a Midland correspondent of the Food Production Department.  Those who recall the impetuous abandon of the pre-war agriculturist may well ask whether Boloism has not been work at again.

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Railway fares in Germany have been doubled; but it is doubtful if this transparent artifice will prevent the Kaiser from going about the place making speeches to his troops on all the fronts.

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It is announced that promotion in the U.S. services will be based solely on fitness, without regard to seniority.  These are the sort of revolutionists who would cover up grave defects in army organisation by the meretricious expedient of winning the War.

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Inquiries, says The Pall Mall Gazette, disclose a wide-spread habit among customers of bribing the assistants in grocery shops.  The custom among profiteers of giving them their cast-off motor cars probably acted as the thin end of the wedge.

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