t of the film is a dangerous rival to that
of the stage, we would point to the five-reel drama, _The Call of the
Thug_, of which a private trade view was given last week. Miss Flora
Poudray, who is here featured--her name is new to us--proves to be a screen
actress of superb gifts. We have seen nothing quite so subtly perfect as
her gesture of dissent when the villain proposes that he and she together
should strangle the infant heir to the millionaire woollen merchant on the
raft during the thunder-storm. Patrons of the cinema will do well to look
out for this delicate yet moving passage. The film will be released as
early as November, 1921.

* * * * *

"MR. BALFOUR ON OUR WAR CRIMINALS LIST."--_Daily Paper._

We simply can't believe it.

* * * * *

"The amount of coal available for home consumption last year was 4,385
tons per head of the population."--_Evening Paper._

Then somebody else must have collared our share.

* * * * *

"LIVE STOCK AND PETS.

GENERAL, family 2; liberal wages and outings."--_Liverpool Paper._

The difficulty with "pets" of this kind is that they are hard to get and
almost impossible to keep.

* * * * *

"An Englishman usually finds it about as difficult to produce an R from
his thoat as to produce a rabbit from a top-hat--both feats require
practice."--_Provincial Paper._

In this case we fear it can't be done, even with practice.

* * * * *

[Illustration: MORE ADVENTURES OF A POST-WAR SPORTSMAN.

_Mrs. P.-W.S._ (_to P.-W.S., who has been pulled off at a gate,
consolingly_). "NEVER MIND, HENRY; THE HUNTING SEASON IS NEARLY OVER, AND
YOU HAVE THE SATISFACTION OF KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE DONE YOUR DUTY IN THE
STATION TO WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN CALLED."]

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._)

The publishers of _Peter Jackson: Cigar Merchant_ (HUTCHINSON) seem in
their announcements to be desperately afraid lest anyone should guess it to
be a War book. It is, they suggest, the story of the flowering of perfect
love between two married folk who had drifted apart. It is really an
admirable epitome of the War as seen through one pair of eyes and one
particular temperament. I don't recall another War novel that is so
convincing. The a