The suggestion we made yester-lay that the habit which many Jocal residents have cultivated of sending books and magazines the troops might now be diverted in favour of the local gunboats, merits the most favourable con sideration. This is especially so when one considers some of the things which occurred during the war when literature was scarce. Tu one case a lady's journal found its way into a front line trench, and being the nearest approach literature which had been seen there for long, it was eagerly welcomed. For' days thereafter the troops could discuss _glibly the prices of all manner of garments, and their remarks on the subject of lingerie were illuminate ing. Of course, it was very wrong for soldiers to worry about thes things, but then reading mari was at a premium. A second case which might be mentioned was that of a couple of men, aho had never been out of the United:
Kingdom before, pondering over a rth-China Herald" share list which they found there, doubtless on the same principle that one reads the railway by-laws while awaiting a train. Then we might also mention a youth who had gloried in reading Miss Ethel M. Dell's "Way of an Eagle." When finished he found he had_ nothing more to read, so like a hero he went through it, again. These {things will happen when literature is scarce, so we may the more warmly recommend to the public the needs of the gunboats.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.