Let me add that the flapping of eyelids (to which I have referred in my remarks on The Cinderella Man) is here also a feature.  One member of the cast (of my own sex, too) gave a display of virtuosity in this genre which was technically superb.

Two insignificant details of management caused me some amusement.  The solemn clang of a gong presaging doom as dire as OEDIPUS’S (and incidentally inaudible to cigarette smokers in the foyer) gives notice of the resumption of the play, while at the end of the Acts the curtain flutters up and down at a feverish pace as if the idea was to get in as many “calls” as possible before the applause stops.  Are we as guileless as all that, I wonder?  And, anyway, no such manoeuvre was necessary.  The applause was hearty, the laughter spontaneous, and anybody who cares for plays made and played with brains should go and see this engaging piece.

T.

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Taxi-driver. “WHERE ARE WE ALL OFF TO?”]

* * * * *

THE SPREAD OF DEMOCRACY.

    “The Earl of Loudoun, whose English seat it is, possesses eight
    jeerages.”—­Field.

* * * * *

ANOTHER IMPENDING APOLOGY.

    “‘Honour among thieves’ is an old saying, but the pickpocket who
    stole Lieut.-Commander Grieve’s watch during his reception was an
    exception to the rule.”—­Illustrated Leicester Chronicle.

* * * * *

A correspondent asks us if there is any truth in the statement that Peace will be signed in time for the Peace Celebrations.  At the moment of going to press it is still doubtful.

* * * * *

    “NOTE.—­The Swan used in this Production is supplied by the
    well-known firm of Messrs. Swan and Edgar, Piccadilly Circus,
    London.”—­Programme of Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool.

We understand that the business is in the charge of Mr. EDGAR during his partner’s absence.

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

(By Mr. Punch’s Staff of Learned Clerks.)

Jinny the Carrier (HEINEMANN) was, as Mr. ZANGWILL lets us know in a felicitous epistle-dedicatory to an evidently charming lady, designed as a “bland” and leisurely book, free from any trace of war’s horrors or modern perplexities, the sort you could read comfortably with a sore throat on you.  I think if I had not been in such rude health I might have managed the five hundred and eighty odd close-set pages without getting just a little tired of his worthy Essex peasants of the time of the great Hyde Park Exhibition. Jinny herself is a perfect darling, of real wit and character, and her business as the local carrier gives a plausible machinery for the introduction of an enormous number, a truly Dickensian