Hopeless Family Tangle: Old Gentleman's Rashness It has been generally understood that, as compared with their countrymen, the inhabitants of that part of Germany in the occupation of British troops led a tranquil and—cosy life, says a writer in the "Daily Telegraph." But we learn, now that there is one village near Cologne where all is not well, and even the British officer cannot compose their quarrels. Marriage, indeed, has always been a source of trouble to conscientious administrators, who from, age: fo age and from clime to clime find it dificult to reduce the matrix monial adventures of humanity to any orderly legal system. But there was nothing illegal, nothing wild or passionate, nothing, in fact, polizcilich vi ten, done in "Hohenberg. Only an old gentleman was a: little inconsiderate. At the mature age of 68, a sprightly, debonair widower, with a promising son of 40 or so, he wooed the' belle of the: village, who was 22, He came, he saw, he conquered. They were married, and thus (it is important to make the matter quite clear) the matron of 22 was the stepmother of a young fellow of 40. From this point events require close intellectual attention. We have here vulgar repetition of that familiar theatrical menage a trois, the son and the stepmother enmeshed in the snares of passion. The step-. son was quite original. He approved his father's tastia, it is clear; but, instead of falling in love with his stepmother, it was hor mother that appealed to him. © The stepmother thus became the mother-in-law of her own mother. The father was the son-in-law of his. daughter-in-law, The son was the stepfather of his stepmother. All this, though confusing to simple minds, could have been endured by the people of Hohenberg, who, being German, are accustomed to deal with complex compound ideas. What first brought discord into the place was the birth of a daughter to the matron of 22. After a certain amount of discussion, it was generally agreed that this event produced a baby who was her grandmother's sister-in-law. But calm did not long reign in the village. For it got abroad that the grandmother also intends to, present her husband with a baby. What relation this infant will be to everybody or anybody is a problem which has made an end of peace and goodwill in Hohenberg. ance of Mr. Beerbohm's biographer that as Shelley sailed paper boats on the Isis, so Mr. Max Beerbohm the—undergraduate, if what is on the back of number three of these sketches be taken in evidence, was an enthusiastic player of noughts and crosses. 4
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.