ertain minor points, notably the fact
that the story, though by no means badly told, suffers from what I can
only call a plethora of plot. As I followed the developments of its
intrigue and tracked the heroine from untutored savage, wife of the
wild Westerner whose excusable suspicions caused him to brand her as
private property, to the moment of her triumph as the bejewelled idol
of theatrical New York, the conviction grew upon me that here was a
tale surely predestined to be the screen that covers a multitude of
melodramatics. Presently indeed the suggestion became so insistent
that I went further and began to wonder whether I was not in fact
reading a "story-form" of some already triumphant film. Certainly
the resemblance is almost too pronounced to be fortuitous; from the
sensational branding scene, through cowboy stunts, to the up-town
playhouse, where a repentant and wife-seeking hero recognises his mark
upon the shoulder of the leading lady--and so to reconciliation, slow
fade-out, and the announcement of Next Week's Pictures. But though it
is impossible not to suspect Miss BURT of having an eye to what poetic
journalism calls the Shadow Stage, this is by no means to belittle
her mastery of the colder medium of print; and I hasten to acknowledge
that, upon me at least, _The Branding Iron_ has left a distinct though
possibly fleeting impression of good entertainment.

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE RELUCTANT PEGASUS.

A YOUNG SPRING POET HAS TROUBLE WITH HIS MOUNT.]

* * * * *

CANE OR BIRCH?

"House Porter wanted, to live in or out, able to manage
beating apparatus.--Apply, Stating wages required, to
Headmaster, ----- school."--_Local Paper_.

* * * * *

"The total cost of the British delegation to the Peace
Conference at Paris from December, 1918, to 31st September was
L503,368."--_Liverpool Paper_.

But it is only fair to say that in the last month they seem to have
put in a bit of overtime.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch or the London Charivari, Vol.
158, March 24, 1920., by Various

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH ***

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