The Century Co. has a postcard received from Major and Mrs. E. Alexander Powell, now in Northern Africa, posted at Hellville, Island of Nossi Be, Madagascar. Under its supercription is the note, "120 in the shade;" on the reverse side is a photograph of some twenty or more white-clad, topi-topped backs along a verandan railing, the owners facing a door-the caption is: "Waiting for the bar to open". And the message:

It's near ten thousand mile

To the lazy little isle,

Where the native never labors

But chattens' with his neighbors;

Why work where clothes aren't needed

And the kindly breadfruit grows!

Forecasting the weather or the stock market seems a relatively easy matter compared with foretelling the effect of a book on the minds of official and unofficial censors of literature here or abroad. According to a recent letter from Paris, Mr. Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio", which has been appearing in a French magazine, has been "suppressed" this in the capital where Mr. James Joyce's "Ulysses" first saw the light!

It seems to have been generally forgotten that our new Attorney-General of the United Sates, Harlan F. Stone, served during the war on the Board of Inquiry that appraised the sincerity of conscientious objectors. The following description of Attorney-General Stone by one of the men he examined is quoted in "The Conscientious Objector in America" by Norman Thomas (Huebsch):

"Dean Stone was rubicund, smooth-shaven, cheerful-a jovial good fellow in any other atmosphere, I thought. And keen! Startling questions popped out of his mouth, several times leaving me gasping weakly like a fish and chasing my poor brains in a jog-trot down a dusty, cloudy track. He had me in front of him,. hat in hand, at attention with a confounded stenographer peering at my face with the watchfulness of a setter dog whenever my answers were slow in issuing. I wish I had a transcript of the testimony, for when I emerged I found I couldn't recall a third of other argument".

Bertrand Russell's "Political Ideals" is being reprinted by The Centary Co, for third time.

A NOTE ON ELDERLY MEMBERS OF LITERARY CLUBS

We're panting up the golden stair

With bonnets all askew,

We're chasing Old Man Culture,

We aim to ketch him tew.

We aim to grab him by the tall,

Or pin him to the wall,

But when we reach the place he's at

Why! He ain't there, that's all.

-Marion MacCalman in the Gossip Shop, May Bookman.

In connection with the recent flurry at Northwestern University, over the fact that a few undergraduates pledged themselves not to fight in the event of another war, it would be pertinent to inquire what the word "pacifist" means today when there is no war in sight. Even in time of war there seem to be some fine distinctions to be observed ir, making such a definition. Mr. Norman Thomas's "The Conscientious Objector in America" is a book that is helping intelligent people to understand the type of mind that refuses to accept war as a necessity. It is rather strikingly dedicated to "The Brave, who went for Conscience's Sake to Trench or to Prison."