ood Saint John?

* * * * *

"On all faces was the defiant scowl of hatred as we looked at
them."--_Daily Chronicle._

What had our genial contemporary done to deserve this?

* * * * *

"Turkish newspapers received in Copenhagen contain long lists of
names of prominent Arabs who have been hanged for treason or for
absenting themselves from military service. Overleaf is another
list of well-known Arabs living in Great Britain and the British
Colonies, who are cordially invited to return without
delay."--_Morning Paper._

Dilly ducks, dilly ducks, come and be killed.

* * * * *

JUSTIFICATION.

[Illustration: _Wife._ "Two bottles of ginger-beer, dear?"

_He._ "Why, yes. Have you forgotten that this is the anniversary of our
wedding-day?"]

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

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

It is pleasant to find that even in these days the revival of interest
in volumes of short stories still continues. But of course the stories
must have a certain quality. I am glad to think that _Traveller's
Samples_ (MILLS AND BOON) will help forward the movement. Mrs. HENRY
DUDENEY has a quite excellent touch for this sort of thing; her tales
are both atmospheric and, for their length, astonishingly full of
character. Also she has an engaging habit of avoiding the expected. Take
one of the best in this present book, called "_John_," for instance. It
is the slightest possible thing, just a picture of a schoolboy's
hopeless love for a shallow cruel-brained girl eight years older than
himself, who is in process of getting engaged to an eligible bachelor.
But every figure in the little group lives. And the second part, which
tells the return of the boy-lover twelve years later, shows you what I
mean about Mrs. DUDENEY'S refreshing originality. I doubt if there are
many writers who would have finished off the story in her very
satisfactory way. There is one quality characteristic of most of the
tales--a feeling for middle-age in men and women; many of them seem to
be variations upon the same theme of a love that comes by waiting. Mrs.
DUDENEY can handle this situation with unfailing charm. Her confessed
comedies are by far the weakest things in the book; there is one of them
indeed that seemed to me amazingly pointless. But with this exception I