* * * Illustration: _Pugilistic Veteran._ "COME ERLONG, YOUNG UN--COME ERLONG; PUT SOME BEEF INTO IT. THAT AIN'T THE STUFF _I_ DID AT YOUR AGE." * * * We see from an advertisement that we now have in our midst an "Institute of Hand Development." This should prove most useful to parents who own troublesome children. No doubt after a short course of instruction the spanking power of the hand may be doubled. * * * Reading that two houses in King Street, Cheapside, were sold last week "for a price equal to nearly L13 10_s._ per foot super," a correspondent asks, "What is a super foot?" If it is not a City policeman's we give it up. * * * There are now 168 house-boats on the Thames, states the annual report of the Conservators, and it has been suggested that a race between these craft might form an attractive item at Henley. * * * Shoals of mackerel entered Dover Bay last week, and many of the fish were caught by what is described as a novel form of bait, namely a cigarette paper on a hook drawn through the water in the same way as a "spinner." As a matter of fact we believe that smoked salmon are usually caught this way. * * * We learn from an announcement in _The Medical Officer_ that Dr. T. S. MCSWINEY has sold his practice to Dr. HOGG--and it only remains for us to hope that Dr. HOGG has not bought a pig in a poke. * * * It looks as if even in America the respect for Titles is on the wane. We venture to extract the following item from the catalogue of an American dealer in autographs:--"BRYCE, JAMES, Viscount. Historian. Original MS. 33 pp. 4to of his article 'Equality.' In this he says:--'The evils of hereditary titles exceed their advantage. In Great Britain they produce snobbishness both among those who possess them and those who do not, without (as a rule) any corresponding sense of duty to sustain the credit of the family or the caste. Their abolition would be clear gain....' And now he is a Viscount. Price 30 dollars." * * * * * MORE AFRICAN UNREST. From a letter in _The East African Standard_:-- "We have indeed reached the stage known as the last straw on the camel's back, and I, for one, am quite prepared, as one of the least component parts of that camel, to add my iota to the endeavour to kick over the traces. Let us unite and, marching shoulder to shoulder and eye to eye, set sail for that glorious and equally well-known goal--'Who pays the piper calls the tune.'" No man of spirit could resist so stirring an appeal. * * * * * EMBARRASSING SITUATIONS. I. From the latest Official Report on anti-aircraft guns:-- "Another arrangement, constructed by Messrs. Lenz, is that in which the layer's seat is attached to the muzzle of the gun." II.