[Illustration: _Butler_ (_to new servant from the country_). "When you've quite finished cleaning next door's steps perhaps you would kindly begin on our own."] *** "BRIC-A-BRAC.--'My Somali Book' is a work by Captain Mosse, who spent a considerable time in the country, which Sampson Low is about to publish."--_Daily Chronicle._ Modesty is all very well in its place, but to publish an area of over 400,000 square miles and then call the feat "Bric-a-Brac"--well! *** "The full penalty of L20 and costs was imposed at Croydon Borough Police-court upon Ernest Montefiore de Wilton, of St. James's-street, W., for exceeding the ten-mile limit at Southend on Jan. 25. Burroughes & Watts' Billiard Tables for Speed."--_Daily Telegraph._ Mr. DE WILTON, reading the advertisement: "No, thanks. A really slow table for me." *** THE STRIKE OF SCHOOL-TEACHERS. Sir,--Is the nation properly alive to the seriousness of the educational _impasse_ in Herefordshire? Personally I view with alarm the state of things of which that is a symptom. What will it mean if this sort of thing spreads, as I fear it may? We shall have the children of our working-classes growing up ill-educated and with imperfect manners. Their spelling will become phonetic. They will cease to speak grammatically. They will lose their pleasing accent. Their lack of instruction in arithmetic may even lead them into errors savouring of criminality. Worse, they will fall back in their appreciation of music, art and poetry. They will be reading trashy and sensational literature rather than the classical works to which our elementary education directs their tastes. To my mind, the condition of things is grave in the extreme, and for the sake of the children I beg the nation to wake up and put an end to conditions which make these strikes possible. Yours obediently, EDUCATIONAL REFORMER. Sir,--The most promising event of last week was the delightful strike of school-teachers in that beautiful county of Hereford. Happy children, thus to be freed from the shackles of our so-called education. They will now go to the only school worth learning in--the school of Mother Nature; and if only the strike will continue long enough we shall see in years to come poets and painters and musicians making a glad procession from their Herefordshire homes to carry light and joy into our dark places. Yours ecstatically, VAVASOUR PRINGLE. *** "The Bishop of Zanzibar (Dr. Weston) arrived at Charing-cross from Paris yesterday afternoon.... He went to the House of Charity, 1, Greek-street."--_The Times._ And a very good address for him. *** "Shea, Blackburn Rovers' clever insight-right, scored all three goals for the Football League against the Southern League at New Cross."--_Westminster Gazette._ Selection Committee's insight also right, evidently. * * * * * GUESS WHO IT IS.