Old Noah, he had an ostrich farm, and fowls on the greatest scale; He ate his egg with a ladle in an egg-cup big as a pail, And the soup he took was Elephant Soup and the fish he took was Whale; But they all were small to the cellar he took when he set out to sail; And Noah, he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine, "I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine." The cataract of the cliff of heaven fell blinding off the brink, As if it would wash the stars away as suds go down a sink; The seven heavens came roaring down for the throats of hell to drink, And Noah, he cocked his eye and said: "It looks like rain, I think." The water has drowned the Matterhorn as deep as a Mendip mine, But I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine. And for other drinks than those of orthodox alcoholic content he has nothing but contempt. Witness the following remarks: Tea is like the East he grows in, A great yellow Mandarin, With urbanity of manner, And unconsciousness of sin; All the women, like a harem, At his pig-tail troop along, And, like all the East he grows in, He is Poison when he's strong. Tea, although an Oriental, Is a gentleman at least; Cocoa is a cad and coward, Cocoa is a vulgar beast, Cocoa is a dull, disloyal, Lying, crawling, cad and clown And may very well be grateful To the fool that takes him down. As for all the windy waters, They were rained like trumpets down, When good drink had been dishonored By the tipplers of the town. When red wine had brought red ruin, And the death-dance of our times, Heaven sent us Soda Water As a torment for our crimes. To the American cocoa debauchee--if there be any--it should be intimated that in all probability Mr. Chesterton's turn for symbolism is at work in the second of the stanzas quoted above. The English cocoa interests are very powerful and very much interested in the progress of the present liberal government. In England not cocoa drinkers but certain liberal politicians will wince with pained appreciation of that particular stanza. Such is the method of attack with which Mr. Chesterton goes after liberal Christianity, the Ethical Movement, temperance legislation, futurist art, and--for some insane reason--the Mechnikoff lactic acid bacillus treatment. As we have said, it is, except in spots, most interesting and most amusing, but, except in spots, it is not significant. LLEWELLYN JONES. Dr. Flexner on Prostitution Prostitution in Europe, by Abraham Flexner. [The Century Company, New York.]