, is no more.

W.K.H.

* * * * *

IN A GOOD CAUSE.

Among the minor charitable organisations of London not the least admirable
and useful is the Santa Claus Home at Highgate, which the two Misses
CHARLES have been administering with such devotion and success since 1891.
Its modest aim is to keep open twenty beds for small children suffering
from hip and spinal disease, and to give them such treatment as will
prevent them becoming hopeless cripples; and this purpose hitherto has been
fulfilled no one can say exactly how, but with help not only from known
friends but mysteriously from the ravens. To-day, however, the high cost of
living has set up a very serious obstacle, and debt and failure seem
inevitable unless five hundred pounds can be collected quickly. Any reader
of _Punch_ moved to bestow alms on as sincere and deserving a a work of
altruism as could be found is urged to send a donation to Miss CHARLES,
Santa Claus Home, Cholmeley Park, Highgate, N.6.

* * * * *

"Although its run in the evening bill must necessarily be limited to
two weeks, steps will be taken to remove it to other quarters should it
prove to the taste of the public. _That failing, it will continue to be
given at the ---- Theatre for a series of matinees._"--_Daily Paper._

The italics are ours, though it is not really our funeral, as we never go
to matinees.

* * * * *

[Illustration: SALVAGE.

OLD KING COAL (_to his champion_). "HAVE YOU SAVED THE SITUATION?"

MR. SMILLIE. "WELL, BETWEEN OURSELVES, I WOULDN'T QUITE SAY THAT; BUT I'M
HOPING TO SAVE MY FACE."]

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE RETURN FROM THE HOLIDAY.

"SED REVOCARE GRADUM ... HOC OPUS, HIC LABOR, EST."]

* * * * *

THE SHRIMP TEST.

At last we have an explanation of a good deal of the social and industrial
unrest of recent months. Since April there has been a serious shrimp
shortage.

How far this is responsible for dissatisfaction among the miners and other
workers it is impossible to say; but in other circles of society this
shrimp shortage has been responsible for much. From golf-courses this
summer has come a stream of complaint that the game is not what it was.
Sportsmen, again, have gone listlessly to their task and have petulantly
wondered why the bags have been so poor. House-part