* * *

Since the publication of Professor KEITH’S statistics of efficiency, showing the superiority of the physical condition of miners over that of almost every other class of worker, the argument, so popular with the advocates of nationalisation, that a miner’s occupation is a most unhealthy one, has been given a rest.

* * *

“I doubt if even the youngest child to-day will live to see the real fruits of the War,” said the Bishop of Lincoln last week.  Another unmerited slight on the O.B.E.

* * *

“Visitors to the Zoo,” says The Daily Mail, “should not miss the rare spectacle of the highest five animals under one roof—­the gorilla, the chimpanzee, the orang-outang, the gibbon and man.”  Naturally everybody is asking, “Who is the lucky man?”

* * *

A merciless campaign against rats is to be waged by the inhabitants of a large Yorkshire town.  This is supposed to be the outcome of the continued indifference with which these rodents have treated the many propaganda campaigns which the town has organised.

* * *

Liverpool City Council is to consider the appointment of women park-keepers.  In support it is urged that when it comes to persuading a paper bag to go along quietly the superior tact of a woman is bound to tell.

* * *

Arrangements for the continuation of the Food Ministry, it is stated, are still incomplete.  It would be a thousand pities if a mere abundance of food should lead to the disappearance of this valuable department.

* * *

“Will the gentlemen on the Allied Surrender List,” says the Berlin Official Gazette, “inform the German authorities of their address?” This is a typical piece of Teutonic duplicity.  There are, of course, no gentlemen on the List.

* * *

The chiffchaff has been heard in Hampshire and a couple of road-peckers were observed last week hovering in the neighbourhood of Wellington Street.

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Holiday-maker (in difficulties.) “Oh, Dash it!  There Goes that letter my wife gave me to post A week ago.”]

* * * * *

Another impending apology.

    “Principal ——­ said there was a historical connection between the
    Royal Asylum for the Insane and the University of Edinburgh.”—­Scots
    Paper.

* * * * *

    “The British rule in India is as savage as that of the Turk in
    Armenia.”—­Washington Times.

Not the “George Washington Times,” you’ll note.

* * * * *

Men and things of the moment.