_Edith._ "MABEL DEAR, WOULD YOU GET ME _BAEDEKER'S SWITZERLAND_ AND
THE LAST NUMBER OF THE _WORLD_."
_Mabel._ "WHAT DO YOU WANT _THEM_ FOR?"
_Edith._ "OH, I'M WRITING LETTERS, AND WE'RE IN THE ENGADINE, YOU
KNOW, AND I JUST WANT TO DESCRIBE SOME OF OUR FAVOURITE HAUNTS, AND
MENTION A FEW OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE STAYING THERE--HERE, I MEAN."]
* * * * *
AN OLD CRUSTED PORT.--The "Battle of the Mails" is again
raging in Ireland. Queenstown seemed to have conquered, but, according
to the _Cork Daily Herald_, the partisans of Southampton are
insidiously working in favour of that port, because it is believed that
"a Unionist Government with a powerful majority will be less amenable
to Irish pressure than the late Home-Rule Government was." And the very
idea of the Post Office breaking through the contract with the Cunard
Line, the Dublin Steam Packet Company, and the London and North-Western
Railway is denounced as a monstrous offence. That is all right, and it
is refreshing to find so much respect for contracts still surviving. In
postal and steamer matters Ireland is Conservative to the backbone. She
won't doff her "coat of mail" in a hurry. Home-Rulers and Unionists are
united on this point: "one touch at Queenstown makes all Erin glad."
* * * * *
The _South Wales Daily News_ tells us that "policemen on bicycles are a
very common thing in Cardiganshire."