A new cathedral.
It has been under construction in Liverpool for about twenty years. Its completion will be an epoch in the religious history of England, because you have to go back more than a century to find an identical effort and also because it will be the most imposing nave in the United Kingdom. It will be much larger than St. Paul's or Canterbury Cathedral, and almost twice as spacious as the famous Westminster Abbey. In fact, its dimensions will bring it closer to St. Peter's in Rome.
A curious feature: although intended for Protestant worship, this magnificent cathedral has a Catholic as its architect, whose case is moreover something out of a novel.
This pure artist worked for another architect, who had decided to compete for the best plan for the future cathedral. While still very young, Mr. Gilbert Scott decided to compete too, at his own risk. After his hours in the studio, he had to work every evening, and often well into the night, on the marvelous drawings that he managed to make prevail. His boss was unaware that he had a competitor in him and was surprised to see him arrive in the morning, haggard and defeated, at the studio. He was shocked when he learned of the success of the student whom everyone had come to regard, if not as a dunce, at least as a rather frivolous boy and much too inclined to pleasure. Mr. Gilbert Scott's revenge was complete. Letting gossips talk, he had devoted his evenings to study and art. He found himself rewarded by a sudden fame, which has made his fortune since then.

Superfluous recommendation.
THE ARTIST. - Watch out for that canvas. It's not dry.
THE COMMISSIONER. - Oh! never mind. I have my old jacket.

From the fantastic to the bizarre. In many English weddings, it is customary to throw handfuls of rice at the newlyweds. The same is true in China, where this bizarre tradition has been found since time immemorial. Here, apparently, is the explanation.
It takes us back to some fifteen centuries before our era. At that time, there lived in the populous province of Shan-Si, a certain sorcerer with the disturbing name of Chao. This Chao was very jealous of a young and beautiful fortune teller, who answered to the poetic nickname of "Peach Blossom". Suspecting her of loving his son Pang and of being loved by him, he went to find her, under the guise of arranging their marriage, in reality with the intention of getting rid of her evilly. He saw the parents of the beautiful woman, came to an agreement with them and fixed the marriage on a date that he knew to be inauspicious, because it coincided with the ascension of an evil spirit, the Golden Pheasant. He thought that the latter, won over by his invocations and sacrifices, would put the bride to death as soon as she had taken her place on the wedding chair. He forgot only one detail, which was nevertheless important: Peach Blossom's gift of divination. That is to say, she clearly read his game. She did not show it, because the contempt she had for the wicked man was equaled only by her esteem for Pang, the virtuous son of this unworthy father and future model of spouses. But she acted accordingly and took care, on the morning of the wedding, to have handfuls of rice thrown on the forecourt of the pagoda. When the fearsome Golden Pheasant showed up, his first care was to peck at them, the glutton that he was. And while he was gorging himself on them, the ceremony, dispatched by a diligent monk, took place without incident, so that the cruel and cunning Chao was out of pocket for his mischief. From then on, in China, the custom was established of throwing rice to the evil spirits at each wedding to ensure the happiness of the spouses. But who had the idea of ​​importing this custom to England? Here the author gets embarrassed and, on this point, he himself gives up.

Misunderstanding.
THE DOCTOR. - You look better today.
THE LADY. - Don't you? This hat suits me so well!

It is commonly supposed that the profession of globetrotter, if it is one, demands extraordinary qualities of endurance from its adepts. Now, a couple is in the process of traveling around the world (they have already done more than three-quarters of it), just as if, before setting out, which takes us back two years, the man had not been condemned by the doctors for a supposedly incurable condition! This astonishing dying man and his courageous companion had refused to believe Aesculapius. Determined to try a cure of air, but not having the means to afford a vacation in some fashionable climatic resort, they decided to make a bet. There was an original fellow-citizen who proposed this wager to them: to leave with three cents in your pocket, no more, no less, and to complete the loop around our round machine. Since then, the man has been doing very well, and his case has been the subject of heated discussions among the American medical profession. What does our own Faculty think of it?

Opportunism.
THE CLIENT. - I would like a dress of the very latest model.
THE TAILOR. - If madam would be so kind as to sit down for a moment, fashion is changing.

Advice to women tennis players.
Take care of your serve! Nothing is more essential. If you have a good serve, you will always come out of trouble honorably, however difficult the match in which you are engaged and however remarkable the virtuosity of your opponent. In France, this is generally the weak point of our players. If the Cochets, the Borotras, the Lacostes are not yet quite in the class of the great American rackets, the fault lies in their service, which has neither all the efficiency nor all the vigor that it could have. Lack of method or training. Indeed, good service is acquired above all by practice and, to practice, there is no need for a partner, since it is exclusively a question of placing the ball where one wants. Nothing is more difficult, moreover, when one brings the necessary energy to it. It is only by dint of practice that one succeeds. To be precise and dry when serving is to be irresistible one game out of two. Miss Lenglen knows this very well and the secret of her superiority is not elsewhere.

CLÉGUER.