ered tranquillity of a minaret.

To some writers solitude is the true school of genius. Yet Sir
LEWIS MORRIS found some of his happiest thoughts come to him while
travelling in the underground, while Mr. W.B. YEATS records a similar
experience as the result of a journey on the top of a tram-car. Your
advanced modernists, with MARINETTI at their head, find their best
stimulus to creative effort in the clang and clatter of machinery.
_per contra_, to return to _The Daily Graphic_, Mrs. C.N. WILLIAMSON
must have pretty things to look at "in business hours." But the
happiest of all our authors is Madame ALBANESI, who "finds her
brain-spur in a blank sheet of paper, and not the ghost of an idea
what she is going to write about." Less fortunate writers labour
assiduously only to leave the minds of their readers a blank, without
the ghost of an idea of what the author has been writing about.

It is a pity that Mr. W.L. GEORGE, in his interesting survey of modern
writers of fiction in the _English Review_, has told us nothing
about the methods of the "Neo-Victorians" and "Semi-Victorians,"
the "Edwardians" and "belated Edwardians," and the "Georgians" and
"Neo-Georgians." With all these classes he deals faithfully. But his
criticism is purely literary. He fails to tell us the things that
every reader wants to know. It is all very well to say that the
neo-Georgians "paint in ink," but he ought to have mentioned whether
it is green or red. Does Miss DOROTHY RICHARDSON dictate to the sound
of trumpets, garbed in crimson trouserloons? Does Mr. ARNOLD BENNETT
cantillate his "copy" into the horn of a graphophone or use a
motor-stylus? Does Mr. SIEGRIED SASSOON beat his breast with one hand
while he plays the loud bassoon with the other? Does Mr. ALEC WAUGH
use sermon-paper or foolscap? Does Mr. ALDOUS HUXLEY keep a tame
gorilla? These are the really illuminating details that we hunger for.
Without them it is impossible to appreciate the artistry of our young
Masters. Mr. W.L. GEORGE has given us a glimpse of the working of
their brains; let him now reveal to us the secrets of their workshops.

* * * * *

[Illustration: "THERE'S THAT DASHED BULL OF YOURS IN MY FIELD AGAIN!
ONE OF THSES DAYS I'LL--I'LL--WRING ITS CONFOUNDED NECK!"

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

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

_After the Day: Germany Unconquered and Unrepentant_ (JENKI