ness,
and it contains some vivid accounts of conversations as well as the
writer's honest opinion of some of the most prominent personages of
the moment.

* * * * *

Admirers of O. HENRY will be excited to hear that a bundle of MS.
stories in his best vein, some seventy-five all told (and how told!),
has been discovered in a cupboard in one of his old lodgings: much
as the manuscript of TENNYSON'S _In Memoriam_ was found in his
rooms in Mornington Crescent. How it happened that the historian
of the joys and sorrows, the comedies and tragedies, of little old
Baghdad-on-the-Subway neglected to send these tales to editors
we shall never know, but he was always erratic. The book will be
published at once, both in America and England.

* * * * *

After an interval of several years--far too many--Sir JAMES BARRIE has
finished a new novel. With his customary reticence he withholds both
the title and the subject; but the important thing is that the book is
at the binders.

Having read those announcements I succumbed to precedent and woke up.

* * * * *

AN ARTFUL APPEAL.

From a Japanese business circular:--

"Ladies and Gentlemen,--Congratulating upon the great victory
of our Allies, we want to supply you Water Colour Pictures and
Antique Prints fresh and much selected subjects painted by the
most famous artists in Japan; so we long to have the honour to
receive your favourable inspection and enjoy yourselves with
triumphing victory for Our Lord's blessing in X'mas time."

* * * * *

"Surely with all the wars and rumours of wars all over the world,
a little mare tact could have been displayed by the powers that
be to keep the peace in the very centre of a British
Protectorate."--_Leader (East Africa)_.

The quality desired would appear to be the East African equivalent of
horse sense.

* * * * *

MORE REPRISALS.

That ass Ellis is a poor creature, and, like the poor, he is always
with me. I think he is a punishment inflicted upon me for some past
error.

A short time ago I caught the "flu." Naturally the first person I
suspected was Ellis, but I am bound to confess that I have not been
able to prove it. Indeed, when he followed me to hospital two days
later and was put in the next bed, I felt justified in exonera