Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, July 18, 1917   By: Various

OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOL. 153.

July 18, 1917.

CHARIVARIA.

It is reported that the Emperor of CHINA has joined the Boy Scoot movement.

Some explanation of the KAISER'S anxiety for peace and the GERMAN CHANCELLOR'S statement in the Reichstag has just come to hand. It appears from The Boston Christian Science Monitor that Mr. CHARLIE CHAPLIN is about to join the Army on the side of the Allies.

A baker has been fined ten shillings for selling War bread which was overweight, thereby unnecessarily endangering the lives of his customers.

Cigars in Germany are now being made of cabbage or hay flavoured with strawberry leaves. Another march is thus stolen on British manufacturers, most of whom still cling obstinately to the superstition that a slight flavour of tobacco is necessary.

"How pathetic it is to see six small farmers sending six small carts with six small consignments along the same road to the same station twice a day," said Lord SELBORNE at the Agricultural Organisation Society. Almost as pathetic as seeing six fat middlemen making six fat profits before the stuff reaches the consumer.

We fear that some of our Metropolitan magistrates are losing their dash. At a police court last week a man who pretended to foretell the future was fined two pounds, and the magistrate forgot to ask the prisoner to prophesy how much he was going to be fined.

Adequate arrangements are being made, says Sir CECIL H. SMITH, to protect the National Gallery from air raids. The intention, it is thought, is to disguise it as a moving picture palace.

A great impetus has been given to the teaching of singing since it has been pointed out that at the Guildhall School of Music a woman went on singing until the enemy aeroplanes were driven away from London.

Certain meatstuffs unfit for human consumption may now be used in the manufacture of dog biscuits. The news has been received with much satisfaction by several dogs, who have now promised to cut out postmen from their menu.

When the Middlesex Sessions were about to commence, a bell warning people of the air raid was sounded, and the Justices immediately advised people to take shelter. No notice was taken of the suggestion made by several prisoners who expressed the view that the safest place was the street.

In view of the fact that the animals at the Zoological Gardens are on war rations, the R.S.P.C.A. especially request very stout people not to cause annoyance to the tigers by parading up and down in front of their cages.

During the last air raid the windows of one house were blown outwards, the plaster and ceiling fell, and doors were thrown off their hinges, and yet the occupant a woman experienced surprise on hearing that the house had been struck by a bomb. She was under the impression that a new bus route had been opened.

"Candidates for the diplomatic service," says Lord ROBERT CECIL, "will after the War be largely drawn from persons of talent." It is not known who first thought of this, but it just shows what a pull politicians have over ordinary people when it comes to thinking out things.

At the St. Pancras Tribunal last week an applicant said his only remaining partner had been ill in bed for some weeks, and the Chairman of the Tribunal promptly remarked, "Obviously a sleeping partner." This joke has been duly noted by a well known revue manager, and as soon as a cast has been engaged an entirely new and topical review will be written round it.

The policy of air reprisals advocated by a section of the Press has found much support. Indeed one prominent pacifist has even threatened to put out his tongue at the next covey of enemy aeroplanes which visits this country.