PUNCH,
OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
VOLUME 147.
December 23, 1914.
CHARIVARIA.
An exceptionally well-informed Berlin newspaper has discovered that,owing to the war, Ireland is suffering from a horse famine, and many ofthe natives are now to be seen driving cattle.
An appeal is being made in Germany for cat-skins for the troops. Intheir Navy, on the other hand, they often get the cat itself.
In offering congratulations to the "Green Howards" on the work they havebeen doing at the Front, Major-General Capper said, "I knew it was aregiment I could hang my hat on at any time of the day or night." Theexpression is perhaps a little unfortunate; it sounds as if they hadbeen pegging out.
Private F. Nailor, of the Royal Berkshires, was at his home at Sandhurstlast week when the postman brought a letter from the War Officereporting that he had been killed in action. While his being alive is,of course, in these circumstances an act of gross insubordination, theArmy Council will, we understand, content itself with an intimation thatit must not happen again.
A cigar presented by the Kaiser to Lord Lonsdale has been sold at Henleyin aid of the local Red Cross Hospital, and has become the property of abutcher at the price of £14 10s. Will it, we wonder, now be inscribed,"From a brother butcher"?
According to the Berliner Tageblatt Western Australia is interning heralien enemies on "Rottnest Island." If there is anything in a name, thisdoes seem a rather unhappy choice, in view of the well-knownsensitiveness of the German.
It is curious how in war time really important occurrences are apt toescape one's notice. For example, it was not until we read an article ina contemporary last week on "The Demise of the Slim Skirt" that werealised that Fat Skirts were now the vogue.
Of all forms of cruelty the most hideous is that which is perpetrated ondefenceless little children, and we hear with regret that the Registerof Births in Liverpool now includes the following names:—KitchenerErnest Pickles, Jellicoe Jardine, French Donaldson, and Joffre Venmore.
With reference to our recent remarks about Mr. J. Ward's so-called mixedmetaphor of a horse bolting with money, a gentlemen writes to us fromEpsom to say that he has personally put money on more than one horsewhich bolted.
The War would certainly seem to have led to better feeling in the Labourworld between masters and men, and from a recent paragraph in The DailyMail we learn that there is now a London Association of MasterDecorators. The idea is a pretty one. Iron Crosses, perhaps?
The War has worked other wonders. Not the least of these, a StockExchange friend points out, is that lots of Bulls and Bears are nowcomrades in arms.
Germans changing their dispositions."
We are glad to hear this, for they used to have simply beastly ones.
