ration: A FAIR WARNING.

_Barber_ (_turning sharply round, to the grave discomfiture of his client's
nose_). "DON'T GO, SIR; IT'S YOUR TURN NEXT."]

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

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

The consideration of Fear seems to have a special appeal for the BENSON
Bros. Only the other day did ROBERT HUGH write a clever and hauntingly
horrible story round it, and now here is ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER discoursing at
large upon the same theme in _Where No Fear Was_ (SMITH, ELDER). It is a
book that you will hardly expect me to criticise. One either likes those
gentle monologues of Mr. BENSON or is impatient under them--and in any case
the comments of a third party would be superfluous. Personally, I should
call this one of the most charming of those many hortatory volumes that
have come from his prolific pen; he has a subject that interests him, and
is naturally therefore at his best in speaking of it. Many kinds of fear
are treated in the book--those common to us all in childhood and youth and
age; and there are chapters dedicated to men and women who have notably
striven with and overcome the dragon--JOHNSON and CHARLOTTE BRONTE and
CARLYLE, and that friend of his, JOHN STERLING, whose letter from his
death-bed the author quotes and rightly calls "one of the finest human
documents." So now you see what kind of book it is, and whether you
yourself are likely to respond to its appeal. It will, I am firmly
persuaded, bring encouragement to many and add to the already large numbers
who owe a real debt of gratitude to the writer. Somewhere he has a passing
reference to the time when first he began to receive letters from unknown
correspondents. It set me thinking that it was no slight achievement to
have said so many human and helpful things so unpriggishly. And certainly
no one could call _Where No Fear Was_ a pedantic work; its qualities of
gentle humour and, above all, of sincerity absolve it from this charge and
should commend it even to those who, as a rule, suffer counsel unwillingly.

* * * * *

Forrard, so to speak, in Mr. CUTCLIFFE HYNE'S latest book you shall
discover the three redoubtable stokers from whom it derives its title of
_Firemen Hot_ (METHUEN). Combining the stedfast affection and loyalty of
the _Three Musketeers_ or the imperishable soldiers of Mr. KIPLING with a
faculty, when planning an escapade, for faultless