* * * * *

    “The one thing which the Cabinet does not intend to do is to authorise
    the proclamation of marital law.  It would engage far too many troops.”
    —­Provincial Paper.

The Irish girls are so attractive.

* * * * *

    “A friend of mine bought from a bookseller who was also, oddly enough,
    a bibliophile himself, a copy of Arnold’s very rare book, The Strayed
    Revetter, by A. He gave 6d.  It is worth L5.”—­Book Post.

Surely more than that!

* * * * *

    “An Ipswichomnibus pushed its bonnet through the window of a millinery
    shop.”—­Daily Paper.

This intelligent animal (believed to be the female of the Brontosaurus) was probably seeking a change of headgear.

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Tripper. “I’VE A BLOOMIN’ GOOD MIND TO REPORT YOU FOR PROFITEERING.”

Old Salt. “WHAT YER TALKIN’ ABOUT?”

Tripper. “WELL, THEM SHRIMPS I BOUGHT OFF YOU.  ONE OF EM’S GOT ONLY ONE EYE.”]

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

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

I rather wish that the publishers of Invincible Minnie (HODDER AND STOUGHTON) had not permitted themselves to print upon the wrapper either their own comments or those of Miss ELISABETH SANXAY HOLDING, the author.  Because for my part, reading these, I formed the idea (entirely wrong) that the book would be in some way pretentious and affected; whereas it is the simple truth to call it the most mercilessly impersonal piece of fiction that I think I ever read.  There is far too much plot for me to give you any but a suggestion of it.  The story is of the lives of two sisters, Frances and Minnie; mostly (as the title implies) of Minnie.  To say that no one but a woman would have dared to imagine such a heroine, much less to follow her, through every phase of increasing hatefulness, to her horrid conclusion is to state an obvious truism.  It is incidentally also to give you some idea of the kind of person Minnie is, that female Moloch, devastating, all-sacrificing, beyond restraint....  As for Miss HOLDING, the publishers turned out to be within the mark in claiming for her “a new voice.”  I don’t, indeed, for the moment recall any voice in the least like it, or any such method; too honest for irony, too detached for sentiment and, as I said above, entirely merciless.  Towards the end I found myself falling back on the old frightened protest, “People don’t do these things.”  I still cling to this belief, but the fact remains that Miss HOLDING has a haunting trick of persuading one that they might.  Minor faults, such as an irritating idiom and some carelessness of form, she will no doubt correct; meanwhile you have certainly got to read—­“to suffer” would be the apter word—­this remarkable book, whose reception I await with curiosity.