provision, and as protests have been made against it by nearly every European Power, conceivably the President may find some method of preventing its serious operation. The Bill also contains, as a concession to Protectionist sentiment, a provision for imposing retaliatory duties upon certain commodities, notably wheat and potatoes, when coming from a country which imposes duties on the same commodities coming from the United States. This is apparently aimed at Canada, and if enforced may have an appreciable effect upon tariff controversies in the Dominion.

The broad features of the great tariff revolution which President Wilson has effected are wholly satisfactory. They mark a tremendous advance towards freedom of trade throughout the world, and though such a change as this must produce hardships to some people, which may temporarily even be out of proportion The Spectator.

to the benefits that others derive, yet the final result means an economy of human effort, and consequently an increase of human satisfaction. Protection always means economic waste, for it means the diversion of effort into political instead of into commercial channels, with a consequent loss of industrial efficiency. Hitherto Free Traders have been apt to argue that when once a democratically governed country had adopted a protective system it was practically impossible to get rid of the evil because of the great influence which protected interests are able to exert over the electorate. President Wilson's triumph has proved that this view is too pessimistic. He has shown that it is possible for an honest man with a wave of popular enthusiasm behind him to overcome the most powerful protected interests, even when entrenched in such an assembly as the American Senate.

has begun to express her thoughts with fluency and distinction, while her sense of morality is wonderfully developed. Her favorite plaything is a pen, and, while displaying a healthy contempt for teddy-bears and dolls, she invariably refuses to go to bed unless accompanied by the bust of Shakspeare, which during the daytime reposes on the principal bookcase. I may mention that she has converted the library into her nursery, and it is a significant fact that on entering that apartment yesterday I found her absorbed in The Woman Thou Gavest Me, over parts of which she was busily engaged in pouring the contents of the inkpot. Yours faithfully,

Theophrastus Knibbs.

The Acorns, Flowery Way,
Crunkley Garden Suburb.

Dear Sir,-Believing as I do that the perfect life is only attainable by a strict adherence to vegetarian principles, I spent the months preceding my son's birth in daily communion with the products of Mr. Eustace Miles, Mr. G. B. Shaw, and other leaders of the same school of thought. Carrots (as we call him, though his baptismal name is Bernard) is now seven months old, and whenever he has been put to the test he has refused meat in the most uncompromising fashion. He is a strong, healthy lad, and takes an unaffected delight in the physical and breathing exercises which he is set to perform every morning. Intellectually he shows the greatest promise, and from certain expressions, as yet indistinct, which I have heard him let fall, I believe he will develop into an accomplished linguist. This I attribute to my own customary diet of French beans, Brussels sprouts, and Spanish nuts. Yours sincerely,

Semolina Simpkins.

365, Contango Terrace. West Hampstead.

His

Sir, I am willing to wager that my firstborn, Montagu, is the most business-like baby in the kingdom. mother and I took care of that. Before he arrived she used to come down to my office every day and go through the books, and when I mention that I am a financial agent in the West-end of London you will appreciate what this means. Montagu already knows what's what. I recently gave him some coins to play with, in order that early in life he should become familiar with the value of money. The other day I handed him a shilling and asked him to change it for me. He solemnly counted out eleven pennies and pushed them towards me; the her penny, of

Funch.

course, he had kept for himself as commission. He can already do sums in simple interest (from sixty per cent). I enclose my business card in case you or any of your friends should wish to consult me, and remain,

Yours obediently,

Ephraim Montmorency.

Belfast.

Dear Sir,-The wife and I are both staunch Unionists, and have thrown ourselves heart and soul into the AntiHome Rule movement. A few weeks after the opening of the present campaign, during which we attended scores of meetings, our baby girl, whom we have named Effie Carsonia, made her appearance. She is of a fierce fighting disposition, and from the moment of her birth has never ceased to declaim day and night. The light that comes into her eyes when she is shown a Union Jack is beautiful to see. I regret to say, however, that she is now suffering from an ulsterated throat.

Yours faithfully,

Pater and Patriot.

Portland.

Sir,-Unfortunately for myself, I happened to be born shortly after the discovery of the great Bank Swindle of '64. Doubtless my parents, who took a deep interest in current affairs, were full of it at the time, and this explains certain defects in my character which have always caused me great pain, and which I have never been able to eradicate. Perhaps now that attention has been drawn to this will be important subject my case investigated scientifically, and steps will be taken to have me removed from my present uncongenial surroundings. Thanking you in anticipation,

Yours hopefully,

A. Crook.

"Children are the flowers of the world," say the Arabs; and their word for family means literally "those who are cared for." But they wear their flowers with a difference which is marked at the very beginning of life. When a little stranger comes to an Arab home musicians are waiting round the door. If it opens, and a glad voice proclaims, "To us a son is born!" the response comes promptly, "If it be the will of Allah, may he be kept to you!" Then the musicians beat their drums, blow their shepherds' pipes, and pluck at their strange stringed instruments, while they chant a welcome to the newcomer, the praises of his family, and a forecast of the great deeds to be done by him. But if the stork has brought a daughter, the door is set ajar for a moment, a head is shaken silently, or a sad voice says, "It is the will of Allah," and the orchestra goes empty away; there is no need of music or feasting to usher in another superfluous woman.

But human nature being what it is, the undesired little girl is by no means unloved. A pretty name is chosen for her, such as Latifeh ("gracious"), Zarifeh ("pretty"), Jamîleh ("pleasant"), Selma or Salome ("peace"), or she becomes Star or Dawn, Rose or Lily, Pearl or Diamond. But if two or three girls are born in succession, these pet names give place to Tammam or Kafah, both of which mean "enough;" or, as the irate Scotsman put it, "We'll ha'e nae mair o' that." Boys for the most part bear the names familiar to us in the Old Testament-Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Isaac, Moses, &c.; though Mustapha and Hassan or Hussein are almost equally common among the Moslems. Names of animals, such as Saba (lion), Caleb (dog), Dub (bear), are often

given by parents who have lost one child after another, in the hope that by this self-humiliation they may avert the evil eye or appease the demon who has made their home desolate. Children are sometimes called after a dead relative, but rarely after their father; though his name is often used as a sort of surname, as Simon, son of Jonas. On the other hand, in this topsy-turvy country a father is called after his son; Ya Abu Mustapha ("Oh Father of Mustapha"), Ya Umm Mustapha ("Oh Mother of Mustapha), being the proper form of addressing the parents of a first-born son. title is retained ever after, even should Mustapha die or be only the first of a quiverful.

This

The new baby, whether boy or girl, is usually rubbed with salt, and has a blue bead tied round its neck, so that no evil spirit may take possession of its small body; its eyes are blackened with kohl, its arms laid straight by its sides, and it is tightly wrapped in swaddling-clothes and strapped to a pillow. For the first few weeeks it is a sort of chrysalis, able to move its head only, easily carried on its mother's back or hung on the branch of a tree. As soon as he can sit up, the mother carries her little son astride on her shoulders, his tiny hands clinging to the top of her head, just as Egyptian mothers did four thousand years ago. The country people say that the habit of gripping with the knees thus early acquired is the secret of their unrivalled horsemanship. The daughter is seldom carried in this fashion; at first she may ride on her nother's hip, or be carried on her back or in the pocket made by the belting of her robe; but very soon she must learn to toddle on her own bare brown feet, and to put on what

scanty raiment is thought necessary.

The peasant children in summer wear very little but their "birthday dress"-perhaps a scrap of colored cotton bestowed somewhere upon them, and the inevitable blue bead. In the villages-Bethlehem, for example Christian girls wear a small copy of their mother's dress, a blue cotton robe embroidered in gay colors, a long white veil thrown back, and a headdress of coins which suggest a premature halo; the Moslems are shrouded in black or white mileihs, and closely veiled.

In the towns you see an infinite variety. Many natives think it advanced to dress their children "Frangi fashion," which means cheap ready-mades imported from France or Germany; to others it is a point of honor to keep up the traditional costume of their race or sect. You may meet any day a little fellow of six in the full uniform of a Turkish officer, his majestic bearing somewhat spoiled by the sword which will get between his fat legs and trip him up; and your next glance may fall on a boy "vowed" from his birth, and therefore wearing the Franciscan's brown habit and the rope that goes all round.

In Jerusalem, some years ago, the Russian church on the top of the Mount of Olives boasted a "wonderchild," a sweet little maid of seven summers, who stood before the altar in trailing black garments, and led the devotions of the Sisters in a silvery treble. Attempts to make her acquaintance were foiled by the lack of common language and by the extraordinary dignity of her curtsy, to which we could make no adequate response. But a timid offering of chocolate was accepted with reassuring alacrity; for in Palestine, as elsewhere, the red lane leads straight to the heart of a child. So one sees in the bazaars, where Turkish officer, lit

Oh

Here, as always, children's play is mostly "making-believe" that they are grown-up. You may see a mite of five or six paying a visit of ceremony to a pasha of equally tender years, exchanging such compliments with him as "Rest, I pray you!" "Nay, he who sees you is rested!" and finally backing out of his presence, while he gathers up handfuls of dust and sprinkles it on his head. Holding a lawcourt, with melon-seeds to represent the bribes, is a popular game, and so is a raid of fierce men from the desert. The selling of Joseph and his subsequent interviews with his brethren are rendered with much dramatic action; also the afflictions of the man of Tz, with new details, such as Job's wife cutting off her hair and selling it for bread. Church processions are reproduced, especially at Easter-tide, and marriages and funerals are as frequent now as they evidently were when Christ likened the Pharisees to sulky children who would play at neither. "Doing bride" is naturally the chief amusement of the Moslem girl, as it is the one great event of her later life. This is not a speaking part; for the truly modest Eastern bride should

give no sign of life, but should sit for hours without an eyelash flickering while her maidens deck her with ornaments and sing songs in her praise.

Such are the games of the town-bred children. In the country they build houses and set up miniature tents like their own homes. It was strange and touching to find tiny, flat-roofed houses between two great pillars in one of the ruined cities beyond Jordan; the child-builders of centuries ago had made for themselves a monument no less enduring than their elders' dreams in marble. But the country children have little time to play, for at an incredibly early age the boys begin to lead out the animals to pasture, and the girls to carry wood, fetch water, gather and dry fruit, and make dungcakes for fuel. It seems hard work for the little folk, but it has its compensations. An Arab boy guiding the "hairy-scairy camuel," which could kili him by the simple process of stepping on him, is as proud as a pasha; and a girl tastes joy when she first carries her water-jar on her head without holding it, and hears her mother say, "Herb of my heart, thou art clever! A star shalt thou be in the house of thy husband."

The town children, too, if their parents are poor, are early set to work, and you see them in the Damascus bazaars blowing the bellows for the smith or learning to punch the background of the brass bowls so dear to the heart of the tourist.

In Palestine there is no Children Act and no compulsory education. The children of the tents and the mudvillages grow up as best they can, much loved indeed, but no more trained than the tiny black kids that gambol with them on the stony hillsides. If they are Moslems they may go occasionally to a little school, where they sit cross-legged chanting selections from the Koran, and learn

ing to form Arabic characters on the sand-strewn floor. Jews are taught in much the same way, only the Talmud is substituted for the Koran, and they learn by heart many thanksgivings, the first of which is, "We thank Thee, Almighty One, that Thou hast created us men, and not women." The little Moslem does not reckon up his mercies in this way; but he is carefully instructed that there are six things never to be mentioned without a preliminary "By your leave." These are a Jew, a Christian, a dog, a pig, a woman, and his boots. Such is elementary education in the country districts.

But in the towns, especially in Jerusalem, you find all the higher branches -nature lessons, typewriting, Esperanto, even Shakespeare and the use of the globes. The clashing of new ideas with age-long prejudices gives some strange results. For instance, the head of a mission school in Damascus began lately to give physical exercises and drill to her girls, who learned with surprising quickness and enjoyment. On the third day the most zealons of the little pupils was absent. The teacher went to inquire for her, and was met by a tearful mother. Zarîfeh could never come back to the school, for an evil spirit had entered into her, and made her toss her arms and legs unceasingly, and mutter strange words. The holy man of the mosque said she was assuredly possessed, and had given her a charm, but it was all in vain. "Behold the afflicted one!" and she pointed a trembling finger to the flat roof, where the "afilicted one" was practising arm and leg exercises, and counting "One, two, three, four."

Droll, too, was our first visit to a Turkish official. We went, eager for a glimpse of a real Eastern interior; but, alas! the Illustrated London News lay on the divan, the tea was à