* * * * *

[Illustration:  A SPRING DEFENSIVE.

JOHN BULL.  “I DON’T SAY IT QUITE MEETS THE CASE, BUT (cheerfully)
IT’S A SIZE LARGER THAN I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE.”]

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Sandy (at Victoria Station).  “GIE ME THE PEEBLES HERALD.”

Attendant.  “WE DON’T KEEP IT.”

Sandy.  “THEN JUST GIE ME ONE O’ YER LOCAL PAPERS.”]

* * * * *

MIXED BIOGRAPHY.

The achievement of a certain paper in identifying the late Mr. G.W.E.  RUSSELL with Mr. GEORGE RUSSELL ("AE"), the Irish poet, is likely to encourage imitation.  The following first attempts have come under our notice:—­

It is not generally known that the FOREIGN SECRETARY began life in a Sheffield steel factory.  By unremitting toil he became Master Cutler, having first served an apprenticeship as Chief Secretary for Ireland.  The inclusion of Mr. ARTHUR BALFOUR in the Coal Commission was particularly happy, and no one will grudge him his well-earned title of Lord BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH.

Sir ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS, better known as Mr. Justice HAWKINS, like his brother judge, Mr. Justice GILBERT PARKER, combines a profound knowledge of law with a fine literary gift.  His well-known treatise on Habeas Corpus, entitled The Prisoner of Zenda, will be familiar to all students.

During the absence of the gallant Colonel JOHN WARD at the Front, we understand that Mrs. WARD has been seeing through the Press a new story, which is a return to the earlier manner of her Robert Elsmere.

Sir GEORGE ASKWITH, as he will still be remembered long after his elevation to the peerage, first struck the public imagination by his advice to the railwaymen, who, when they asked what would happen if they persisted in striking, received the answer, “Wait and see.”

London is becoming herself again.  Among well-known persons noticed about yesterday were Mr. MCKENNA, whose retirement from office presumably gives him more leisure for that sequel to Sonia for which we are all waiting; Mr. J.W.H.T.  DOUGLAS, Cricket Specialist of The Star; Sir ERNEST SHACKLETON, on his way to his work at the Ministry of Labour; and Sir HARRY JOHNSON, the famous African pugilist.

* * * * *

THE BETTER PART.

    [It is suggested that one result of army life will be a boom in
    big-game hunting and visits to the world’s most inaccessible
    spots.]

  He may be correct, the observer who says
    Henceforth there’ll be many a rover
  Ambitious to go, in American phrase,
    To the edge of beyond and some over;
  But I, for my part, harbour other designs;
    My wanderlust’s wholly abated;
  With travel on even luxurious lines
    I’m more than sufficiently sated.