[Illustration: HOIST WITH HIS OWN PETARD.

MR. RAMSAY MACDONALD (_Champion of Independent Labour_). "OF COURSE
I'M ALL FOR PEACEFUL PICKETING--ON PRINCIPLE. BUT IT MUST BE APPLIED
TO THE PROPER PARTIES."]

* * * * *


=BLANCHE'S LETTERS.=

WAR FEVER.

_Park Lane_.

[Illustration: THE LAST STRAW.]

Dearest DAPHNE,--Juno ffarrington's wedding to the Oldcastles' boy,
Portcullis, the other day, quite the best done of Allotment Weddings
that are having a little vogue just now. Juno's white satin gown was
embroidered with mustard and cress and spring onions in their natural
colours, her veil was kept in place by a coronal of lettuce leaves,
and, instead of a Prayer-Book or a posy, she carried a little
ivory-and-silver spade. The effect was _absolutely!_ The 'maids had on
Olga's latest in Allotment Wedding frocks, carried out in potato-brown
charmeuse and cabbage-green chiffon; also they'd garden-hats, tied
under the chin with ribbon-grass and with a big cluster of radishes at
the left side, and each of them carried a bunch of small salad and a
darling little crystal-and-silver watering-pot (Portcullis's gifts).
The Duke of Southlands gave his daughter away, and Juno _insisted_ on