how in war time really important occurrences are apt to
escape one's notice. For example, it was not until we read an article in
a contemporary last week on "The Demise of the Slim Skirt" that we
realised that Fat Skirts were now the vogue.

* * *

Of all forms of cruelty the most hideous is that which is perpetrated on
defenceless little children, and we hear with regret that the Register
of Births in Liverpool now includes the following names:--Kitchener
Ernest Pickles, Jellicoe Jardine, French Donaldson, and Joffre Venmore.

* * *

With reference to our recent remarks about Mr. J. WARD'S so-called mixed
metaphor of a horse bolting with money, a gentlemen writes to us from
Epsom to say that he has personally put money on more than one horse
which bolted.

* * *

The War would certainly seem to have led to better feeling in the Labour
world between masters and men, and from a recent paragraph in _The Daily
Mail_ we learn that there is now a London Association of Master
Decorators. The idea is a pretty one. Iron Crosses, perhaps?

* * *

The War has worked other wonders. Not the least of these, a Stock
Exchange friend points out, is that lots of Bulls and Bears are now
comrades in arms.

* * *

"NEW PHASE IN RUSSIA.
GERMANS CHANGING THEIR DISPOSITIONS."

_Daily Mail._

We are glad to hear this, for they used to have simply beastly ones.

* * * * *

Illustration:

_Orderly._ "YOUR MAJESTY, I HAVE BEEN SENT TO ASK FOR DETAILED
INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT THE CHRISTMAS DINNER TO BE HELD AT BUCKINGHAM
PAL----"

_Wilhelm_.----! ----!!

* * * * *

Another secret revealed by Mr. HAMILTON FYFE:--

"As usual when they take the initiative, the Russian troops swept
the enemy before them. They first cleared out the trenches and then
pursued the Germans."--_Daily Mail._

In the West we still cling to the old-fashioned method of first clearing
out the Germans and then pursuing the trenches.

* * * * *

SOME LITERARY WAR-NOTES.

MESSRS. HARRAP have just brought out _William the Silent_. This is not a
biography of the KAISER.

* * * * *

Nor is _The Hound of Heaven_, a new edition of which is announced by
Messrs. CHATTO AND WINDUS.

* * * * *

Mr. EDWARD CRESSY'S _Discoveries and Inventions of the Twentieth