s if there had been some trading with the enemy.

* * * * *

What America says to-day--

"Feminist circles are greatly interested in the announcement made
by Dr. Sargeant, of Harvard University, that women make as good
soldiers as men."--_Sunday Pictorial_.

Canada does to-morrow--

"The Canadian Government has issued a proclamation calling up ...
childless widows between the ages of 20 and 34 comprised in Class
1 of the Military Service Act."--_Yorkshire Evening Paper_

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Mike (in bath-chair)_. "DID YE SAY WE'LL BE TURNING
BACK, DENNIS? SURE THE EXERCISE WILL BE DOING US GOOD IF WE GO A BIT
FURTHER."]

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

(_BY MR. PUNCH'S STAFF OF LEARNED CLERKS._)

The numerous members of the public who like to take their printer's
ink with something more than a grain of sea-salt will welcome
_Sea-Spray and Spindrift_ (PEARSON), by their tried and trusted
friend, TAFFRAIL, the creator of _Pincher Martin, O.D._ TAFFRAIL, it
must be admitted, has a dashing briny way with him. He doesn't wait to
describe sunsets and storm-clouds, but plunges at once into the thick
of things. Consequently his stories go with a swing and a rush, for
which the reader is duly grateful--that is, if he is a discerning
reader. Of the present collection most were written some time ago and
have no reference to the War. Such, for instance, is "The Escape of
the _Speedwell_," a capital story of the year 1805, which may serve to
remind us that even in the glorious days of NELSON the English Channel
was not always a healthy place for British shipping. "The Channel,"
says TAFFRAIL, "swarmed with the enemy's privateers.... Even the
merchant-ships in the home-coming convoys, protected though they were
by men-of-war, were not safe from capture, while the hostile luggers
would often approach the English coast in broad daylight and harry the
hapless fishing craft within a mile or two of the shore." Yet there
does not appear to have been a panic, nor was anyone's blood demanded.
_Autres temps autres moeurs_. In "The Gun-Runners" the author
describes a shady enterprise undertaken successfully by a British
crew; but nothing comes amiss to TAFFRAIL, and he does it with equal
zest. "The Inner Patrol" and "The Luck of the Tavy" more than redress
the balance to the side of virtue and sound warfare.