"Are we sending Christmas cards this year? Yes," said Blathers, "but not
next year, or the year after that, as we shall be retrenching. They are
quite modest trifles, yet at the mere sight of the envelope each
recipient will, cheerfully, I hope, pay twopence towards the sinews of
war. One hundred of these contributions will amount, I am told, to
sixteen shillings and eightpence; not much, but it is my little offering
to the country in her hour of need. This is the card I propose to send
out in a sealed and unstamped cover":--
MR. AND MRS. BLATHERS WISH YOU A HAPPY CHRISTMAS 1914, 1915 AND
1916, AND A BRIGHT NEW YEAR 1915, 1916 AND 1917.
_The Ferns, Tooting._
* * * * *
"The Russian mining engineers who have been sent to Galicia since
the occupation report that the oil districts will suffice to supply
the whole of South-Western Russia. The working of the fields will
start in the spring; moreover salt and iron abound, also
sporadicalli, silver, copper, lead and the rarer metals."
_Cork Examiner._
For vermicelli, however, it will still be necessary to go to Italy.
* * * * *