... IN ENGLAND NOW! A WEEKLY LETTER FROM BLANCHE. Illustrated by HELEN McKIE LONDON, December 30, 1918 DEAR COUSIN-- SEASONABLE greetings-- or is that what you say for Christmas? One gets a bit buzzy in the brain department these celebratory peace days, don't you find? But. in any case, happy New Year As to which, whatever happens, there's always this consolation, isn't there Can't be so bad as ...

... OUR GREAT AFRICAN FLIGHT.-- VIII DESCRIBED BY THE BYSTANDER'S TAME PROFESSOR. i ii- i A A. OUR African heroes have achieved yet another stage in their all-conquering progress. Prof. Clump, in the despatch we print to-day, pays a generous tribute to the gallantry and endurance of the pilot, on whose ample shoulders lies the heaviest burden of responsibility. Captain Draggle has had a varied ...

... RACING NOTIONS By Carbine Winter Sport WE said good-bye to the flat at Manchester and Lingfield at the week-end, and now we are wondering what sort of National Hunt season it is going to be. Quite a different atmosphere is noticeable in National Hunt racing from that to which we are accustomed during the campaign on the flat. A new crowd of people appears to turn up at the jumping meetings, ...

... London Nights Wartime Dinner, Dance and Cabaret The Bystander's Going-Out Guide The Ritz L'ABRI du RITZ still shines out its message in safe blue underneath the arches in Picca dilly. Follow the indication of that, go crown the stairs to wards what you used to know as the Grill (or the Bar perhaps), and you come-- at right-time. anyway to the new Popote. La Popote du Ritz is probably ...

... At the Sign of the Times The Happy Season Whether we wish it or no, the opening of the New Year is, as a rule, comparatively happy. For one thing, it represents the period which philosophers have declared to be most conducive to real happiness, that, namely, of recovering from previous pain or depression-- caused in this case by overdoing it in one way and another at Christmas. Most people ...

... More caustic comments by the Blasi Debutante 1 2. Waltz. I did not catch his name, but he came with the North-Lindsay's, and Mamma says they know the right people. Anyway, he had an arm like a boat-hook, and waltzed as if he had a starting- gate continually in front of him. It was a most distressing exercise. I believe we collided with the Richardson girl, the one who drives Jim Deacon's motor ...

... At the Sign of the Times THE AGE OF SHORT CUTS That the Age is not Faultless This is not an age of learning; it is an age of short-cuts, motor cars and games. Such is the painful indictment brought against the twentieth century by a writer in the Lady's Reaim. I venture to quote it partly because --this not being an age of learning-- we may not have studied the Lady's Realm for ourselves; ...

... POLITICS ^us/ness Governors By FITZWILLIAM IT seems a long time since 1912, when Mr. Bottomley was agitating for a business Govern ment. Since then, a business Government has faced the terrible job of running a European War. It ran it badly, but any Government would have run it badly. We expected too much, because the word business Government brings up rather too simple a conception. The ...

... r°7 The Very Gentle Art of Burlesque STAGE-STRUCK AT THE EMPIRE THEATRE BY JINGLE V THE programme at the Empire Theatre was full of good things, but chiefly what we went out to see was the new burlesque, entitled Stage Struck, in which Mr. Fred Farren and Miss Ida Crispi did some excellent work. The idea of the burlesque was that a theatrical company had gone on strike, and, consequently ...

... A Word to the Stay-at-Homes And What His Feeling Is But of actual hatred we seem to have little. We want to beat them; we mean to beat them; we shall beat them. But upon my soul I really believe that Tommy and officer alike are animated more by the spirit that helps Eton to beat Harrow or vice versa than by actual hatred. JNo one pities those whom the Germans have maltreated more than Tommy ...

... 1 i BY FRANK ELIAS [Now that Parliament has scattered there will he general curiosity to know where Ministers have gone to spend their holidays. We have pleasure, there fore, in communicating the follow ing information, the precise accu racy of which, however, we cannot absolutely guarantee TRAVELING very simply with only five hundred private secretaries, the Prime Minister left last week for ...

... >f^TANDIK. gMMENI/ The Ins and Outs of It A club friend, who is a great wire-puller, is be moaning his lot. In the early years of the war I was besieged with appeals to get commis sions for youngsters, he moaned, and it was difficult to get the boys in. Later it was frightfully hard, in the compulsory days, to keep some of my pals out, but now it needs a miracle to get anybody out! The ...