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Page 18
* * * * *
THE NEW NAVAL UNIFORM.
"FOR SALE, NAVAL CADET'S (R.N.) MESS-DRESS; 39 inches side seam; pair
cricket boots, purple velour hat, grey chiffon velvet dress."--_Daily
Paper._
* * * * *
"SUEDE TURNIP, best varieties."--_Advt. in Tasmanian Paper._
No kid about this offer.
* * * * *
"Wanted, at once, respectable Man for Polishing Porter."--_Daily
Paper._
The manners of some of our porters notoriously leave much to be desired.
* * * * *
[Illustration: MORE ADVENTURES OF A POST-WAR SPORTSMAN.
A SLIGHT ACCIDENT SECURES HIM A PERSONAL INTRODUCTION TO THE MASTER.]
* * * * *
OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.
(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks_.)
_From Friend to Friend_ (MURRAY) is the name given, from the first of them,
to a collection of eight fugitive papers, prepared for republication by the
late Lady RITCHIE during the last months of her life, and now edited by her
sister-in-law, Miss EMILY RITCHIE. Fugitive though they may have been in
original intent, these pages are so filled with their writer's delicate and
very personal charm that her lovers will be delighted to have their flight
thus pleasantly arrested. Lady RITCHIE was above all else the perfect
appreciator. _Horas non numerat nisi serenas_; the gaze that she turns
smilingly upon old happy far-off days looks through spectacles rose-tinted
both by the magic of retrospect and her own genius for admiration. London,
Freshwater, Paris, Rome--these are the settings of her memories; and we see
them all by a light that (perhaps) never was on land or sea, in whose
radiance beauty and wit and genius move wonderfully to a perpetual music.
In truth, however, these eminent Victorians of Lady RITCHIE'S circle must
have been a rare company; I have no space for even a catalogue of
them--Mrs. CAMERON, with her vague magnificence, pouring letters and an
embarrassment of gifts upon her dear TENNYSONS; the KEMBLE sisters,
LOCKHART, THACKERAY himself, a score of great and (to the kindly
chronicler) gracious personalities live again in her pages. I should add
that the volume is rounded off by a short story, a late addition to the
_Miss Williamson_ series, which might be called a pot-boiler, were it not
somehow incongruous to associate so gentle a flame with any such
activities. Slight as it is, _From Friend to Friend_ forms an apt and
graceful finish to the work of one whose life was given to the claims of
friendship.
* * * * *
_Fanny goes to War_ (MURRAY) should be read by those who also went and
those who didn't. It is a chronicle of the adventures of the First Aid
Nursing Yeomanry in Belgium and France--vivid; inviting wonder, laughter
and sometimes tears; fresh and delicious. The account of the first visit to
the trenches awakens memories. Viewed from this distance it seems all to
have been so picturesque, such fun! The humour of Thomas, the intelligence
and tact of the good French _poilu_, the awful moments and the wild jests
in between--these are all shown. The splendid humour with which "PAT
BEAUCHAMP," the author, bravely endured her own casualty with its
distressing effects is typical in itself of that spirit in the Anglo-Saxon
race which made the Teuton race wish it hadn't. In my view, the _obiter
dictum_ of an anonymous Colonel sums up the values of this ladies'
contingent better than does the preface of the distinguished Major-General:
"Neither fish, flesh nor fowl," said the Colonel on having the constitution
of this anomalous unit explained to him, "but thundering good red herring!"
Time was, I believe and hope, when I myself, passing through the Base Port
on leave and being full of life and daring, have sighted a lady-chauffeur
of a motor-ambulance and have thrown a friendly glance, even a froward
smile, at her. Waiving all questions of propriety, I hope that this was so,
and that the lady-chauffeur was no less than "PAT BEAUCHAMP" herself, in
the later stages of her career overseas. Though her only response may have
been to splash mud over me, I should feel happy, now, thus to have paid my
respects to this gallant and high-spirited lady. I count myself among the
company, battalion, division, corps and army of her admirers.
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