sidered as the national health bulletin; but
besides that, there is still another, quite as indispensable and fully
as interesting, made up of the criticism of local happenings, and
popular presumption.

This second _communique_ comes to us direct from Madame Coutant's,
where a triumvirate composed of the scissors-grinder, the
woman-who-rents-chairs-in-St.-Gervais, the sacristan's wife, the
concierge of the Girls' School, and the widow of an office boy in the
City Hall, get their heads together and dispense the news.

The concierges and cooks while out marketing, pick it up and start it
on its rounds.

"We are progressing North of the Marne"; "Two million Americans have
landed in France," and similar statements shall be accepted only when
elucidated, enlarged and embellished by Madame Coutant's group. Each
morning brings a fresh harvest of happenings, but each event is
certified or contradicted by a statement from some one who is "Out
there," and sees and knows.

Under such circumstances an attack in Champagne may be viewed from a
very different angle when one hears that Bultot, the electrician, is
telephone operator in that region; that the aforesaid Bultot has
written to his wife in most ambiguous phraseology, and that she has
brought the letter to Madame Coutant's for interpretation.

But it is more especially the local moral standards which play an
important part and are subject to censorship in Madame Coutant's
circle. The individual conduct of the entire quarter is under the most
rigid observation. Lives must be pure as crystal, homes of glass. It
were better to attempt to hide nothing.

That Monsieur L., the retired druggist, is in sad financial straits,
there is not the slightest doubt; no one is duped by the fact that he
is trying to put on a bold face under cover of war-time economy.

That the grocer walks with a stick and drags his leg on the ground to
make people think he is only fit for the auxiliary service, deceives no
one; his time will come, there is but to wait.

Let a woman appear with an unaccustomed furbelow, or a family of a
workman that is earning a fat salary, eat two succulent dishes the same
week, public opinion will quickly make evident its sentiments, and
swiftly put things to rights.

The war must be won, and each one must play his part--do his bit, no
matter how humble. The straight and narrow paths of virtue have been
prescribed and there is no better guide than the fear of