_ Oh, Mamma, did not Lord HALL-CAINE discover the North Pole?

_Mrs. M._ Not that I am aware of, my dear boy, though it is quite
possible. But you are probably confusing him with the Arctic explorer,
Dr. KANE. Among the scientific men I must mention Sir WILLIAM
ROBERTSON NICOLL, the great Scots agriculturist who first applied
intensive culture to the kailyard; General BELLOC, the illustrious
topographer, and HAROLD BEGBIE, who discovered and popularized Sir
OLIVER LODGE.

_Richard._ Ah, Mamma, I know enough about the Georgians to feel sure
that you have left out a great many things. You have never told
us about the Marquis of NORTHCLIFFE'S discovery of America, his
introduction of the potato to that Continent, and his building of
the Yellow House in the Yellowstone Park.

_George._ And you have not fully satisfied our curiosity about Sir
GEORGE ROBEY, Baronet, Lord LAUDER, Sir CHARLES CHAPLIN and other
great Leaders of English Society.

_Mrs. M._ True, my dear, but you must read their lives in the
_Dictionary of National Biography_, for here is the tea, and I
must leave off.

* * * * *

ALLIRAP ASRAS.

It would be interesting to know more of this great Persian ruler,
but history being reticent our chance has gone, unless it should be
the good fortune of some member of Sir STANLEY MAUDE'S expedition,
rummaging in the archives of Baghdad, to come upon new facts.
Meanwhile I offer the name as a terse and snappy one for a Persian
kitten, such as I saw the other day convert several shillings'-worth
of my aunt's Berlin wool (as it is still, I believe, called, in spite
of _The Daily Mail_) into sheer scrap. Knitting however is not what it
was in the early days of the War and the tragedy led to no bloodshed,
my aunt, who has evidently an emulative admiration for Sir ISAAC
NEWTON, merely shaking her finger. But self-control among women
must be on the increase, for in a hotel the other day I overheard a
coffee-room conversation in which two cases were instanced of supreme
heroism under agonising conditions--one being when a butler (an old
and honoured butler too, who had never misconducted himself before)
fainted while carrying round the after-dinner coffee and poured most
of it over the ample shoulders of a dowager. This lady not only
disregarded the pain and the damp, but assisted in bringing the butler
to. The Distinguished Service Order has been given for less than that.

It was eithe