I shall forget the necessary things
And take the useless, having none to blame
Save only my incomparable mind.

* * * * *

A Sporting Offer.

From _The Times_ on the Servian Chief of Staff:--

"As the Austro-Hungarian Army is imbued with a much too chivalrous
feeling to deprive the Servian Army of its loader an opportunity
will be given him to continue his journey to Servia to-day, and a
special saloon carriage will be placed at his disposal.--_Reuter._"

An unusual luxury for a loader.

* * * * *

"HEADSTONE, cost L12, for L7; selling cheap through death of
proprietor."--_Glasgow Evening Citizen._

Not sufficient reason for us.

* * * * *

Illustration: MUTUAL SERVICE.

BRITANNIA (_to Peace_). "I'VE BEEN DOING MY BEST FOR YOU IN EUROPE;
PLEASE DO YOUR BEST FOR ME IN IRELAND."

* * * * *

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

(EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF TOBY, M.P.)

_House of Commons, Monday, July 27._--To-day set apart for consideration
of Navy Estimates. To-morrow assigned to Second Reading of Home Rule
Amending Bill come over from the Lords. Up to yesterday public attention
centred on latter event. Questions reverberated: What will Premier do
with the Bill? What will follow on his action?

This morning British Public wakes up not to one startling surprise but
to two. War is imminent in East of Europe. War has actually broken out
in streets of Dublin.

Nearer event illustrates afresh the unfathomable versatility of Ireland.
For months the country has been taught to expect armed outbreak in
Ulster. At any moment, we were told, the patience of the Ulster
volunteer, with current of events devised and controlled by constituted
authority, would collapse. Civil war would be in full swing.

At moment when postponement of threatened action had lulled public into
sense of security, news comes of conflict between armed volunteers and a
detachment of soldiers of the line. In newspaper columns appear stirring
pictures of populace thronging the streets and stoning the soldiers as
they march back to their barracks; of volleys fired in defence and
reprisal; of men, women and children falling dead or wounded in the
streets. And lo! the volunteers on the warpath are not Ulstermen, but
Nationalists. The city given up to murderous riot is not Belfast, but
Dublin.

House mee