CHARIVARIA.

Prohibition meetings in Scotland, says an official, have been attended by fifty thousand people.  We should not have thought there were so many aliens in Scotland.

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At an Oldbury wedding the other day a brick was thrown at the bridegroom.  There is no excuse for this sort of thing with confetti so cheap.

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One of the Pacific Islands, we read, is so small that the House of Commons could not be planted on it.  A great pity.

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“Do hotel chefs use cookery-books?” asks a home journal.  Our own opinion is that quite a large proportion of them cook by ear.

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Fourteen thousand artificial teeth recently stolen from premises in East London have not been recovered.  While not attempting to indicate the guilty party, we cannot refrain from pointing out that several Labour leaders have recently been showing a good many more teeth than they were thought entitled to possess.

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At the Trades Union Congress a protest was made against the Unemployment Insurance Act.  This must not be confused with the miners’ threat to strike.  That is merely a method of ensuring unemployment.

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The arrangement by which a hundred-and-fifty amateur brass bands are to play at the Crystal Palace on September 25th looks like an attempt to distract us from the miners’ strike fixed for that day.

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A Ramsgate man charged with shooting a cat denied that he fired at it.  The animal is said to have dashed at the bullet and impaled himself upon it.

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It has been agreed, says a news item, that milk shall be tenpence a quart this winter.  Not by us.

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The War Office announces that Arabs in Southern Mesopotamia have captured a British armoured train.  It should be pointed out to these Arab rebels that it is such behaviour as this that discourages the tourist spirit.

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Upon reading that another lady had failed in her attempt to swim the Channel a Scotsman inquires whether the Cross-Channel steamer rates have been increased, like everything else.

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We are informed that at a football match recently played in the Rhondda Valley the referee won.

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General Obregon, says an unofficial message, has been elected President of Mexico.  The startling report that he has decided to reverse the safe policy of his predecessors and recognise the United States requires corroboration.

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Everybody should economise after a great war, says an American film producer.  We always do our best after every great war.

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According to an official report only fifty policemen were bitten by dogs in London last week.  The falling off is said to be due to the fact that it has been rather a good year for young and tender postmen.