*** Plans for the housing of 12,000 Government clerks have just been passed. While 12,000 may suffice for a nucleus, we cannot help thinking that once again the Government isn't really trying. *** A postman going his rounds at Kingston found a deserted baby on the lawn of a front garden. It speaks well for the honesty of postal servants that the child was at once given up. *** We are pleased to announce with regard to the German waiter who, in 1913, gave a Scotsman a bad sixpence for change, that reassuring news has just reached Scotland that the fellow, is still alive. *** A morning paper states that a gentleman who had been at the War Office since August 1914 was given a big reception on his return home. The name of the Departmental Chief whom he had been waiting to see has not yet been disclosed. *** A morning paper tells us that FRISCO of New York, who is alleged to have invented the Jazz, has declined an invitation to visit London. Coward! *** By the way, they might have told us whether the offer to FRISCO came from London or New York. Meanwhile we draw our own conclusions. *** With reference to the horse that recently refused at the third jump and ran back to the starting-post, we are asked to say that this only proves the value of backing horses both ways. *** "No man," says a writer in a daily paper, "can sit down and see a girl standing in a crowded Tube train." This no doubt accounts for so many men closing their eyes whilst travelling. *** Mr. DEVLIN, M.P., has communicated to the Press a scheme for solving the Irish problem. This is regarded by Irish politicians generally as a dangerous precedent. *** A defendant in a County Court case heard in London last week stated in his evidence that two of his daughters were working and the other was a typist at the Peace Conference. * * * * * [Illustration: "HOW PLEASANT IT IS, MY DEAR HORACE, TO PLAY WITH ONE'S TOYS WITHOUT INCURRING THE RISK OF HAVING ONE'S ENJOYMENT MARRED BY THE TRAGIC DISCOVERY OF THEIR TEUTONIC ORIGIN!"] * * * * * COMMERCIAL CANDOUR. From a placard in a shop-window:-- "Do you buy Tea, or do you buy _our_ Tea?" * * * * * "Should a customer cut his hair and shave at the same time, the price will be one shilling."--_Advt. in "Daily Gleaner" (Jamaica)_. Not a bit too much for such ambidexterity. * * * * * THE PRICE OF FREEDOM. I thought the cruel wound was whole Which left my inside so dyspeptic; That Time had salved this tortured soul, Time and Oblivion's antiseptic; That thirty years (the period since You showed a preference for Another) Had fairly schooled me not to wince At being treated like a brother.