CHARIVARIA.

Several factories where counterfeit bread tickets were printed have been discovered in Berlin.  We understand that the defence will be that the tickets were only intended to be exchanged for counterfeit bread.

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“The enemies’ desire,” says king Ludwig of Bavaria, “will he dashed to pieces against our troops, who are accustomed to victory.”  A number of the victors who are now eating themselves in behind our positions profess to be absolutely nauseated with it.

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Five million four hundred thousand pigs, says Herr BATOCKI, have “mysteriously disappeared” in Germany in the last year.  The idea of having the crown PRINCE’S baggage searched does not seem to have been found feasible.

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A festival performance of Parsifal is to be given in Charlottenburg, to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Jutland.  The proposal to substitute the more topical opera, The Flying Deutschmann, has been received without favour.

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“With such troops,” says the crown Prince, “we could fetch the Devil from Hell.”  We have always maintained that the German military route lay on a direct line to Potsdam.

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A Manchester man writes to say that he has not heard the cuckoo this year.  What England hears to-day Manchester may hear next month.

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A Norfolk lady has left an annuity of seventy pounds for the support of her two favourite cats.  Since the announcement of this windfall we understand that the beneficiaries have been overwhelmed with offers of marriage.

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“The bascules of the Tower Bridge were lifted 3,354 times last year,” says a news item.  Yet there are those who pretend that petty crime is on the decrease.

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Arundel proposes to have a house-to-house collection of bones.  The Borough Engineer is understood to be completing specifications for a dog-proof trouser which will be a part of the collector’s uniform.

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The Islington Borough Council report that in the Lady Day quarter only ten per cent, of the residents had removed without paying their rates.  The inhabitants of the New Cut now accuse Islington residents of losing their nerve.

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“Ipswich,” says a daily paper, “is fighting a rat plague by putting a penny on the head of every rat captured in the borough.”  The arrangement with birds is of course different, You put salt on their tails and capture them afterwards.

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The new restrictions on the use of starch will, says Captain Bathurst, affect the wearing of starched garments.  It is expected that in the House of Lords Lord Spenser and Lord Harcourt will join in an impassioned plea that, until the shortage grows more acute, really well-dressed men should be allowed to compromise on stiff dickeys.