A LOSS.

For many reasons the passing of the poster is to be welcomed. For one thing, it robbed the papers themselves of that element of surprise which is one of life's few spices; for another, it added to life's many complexities by forcing the reader into a hunt through the columns which often ended in disappointment: in other words the poster's promise was not seldom greater than the paper's performance. Then, again, it was often offensive, as when it called for the impeachment of an effete "old gang," many of whose members had joined the perfect new; or redundant, as when it demanded twenty ropes where one would have sufficed.

But, even although the streets may be said to have been sweetened by the absence of posters, days will come, it must be remembered, when we shall badly miss them. It goes painfully to one's heart to think that the embargo, if it is ever lifted, will not be lifted in time for most of the events which we all most desire, events that clamour to be recorded in the large black type that for so many years Londoners have associated with fatefulness. Such as ("reading from left to right"):—

FALL
OF
METZ. 		STRASBURG
FRENCH
AGAIN. 		ALLIES
CROSS
THE
RHINE. 		FLIGHT
OF
CROWN
PRINCE.

RUSSIANS
NEARING
BERLIN.


BRITISH
AND
FRENCH
NEARING
BERLIN.
 REVOLUTION
IN
GERMANY. 		FALL
OF
BERLIN. 		THE
KAISER
A
CAPTIVE. 		VICTORY!
And Finally—


AMERICA
DECLARES
WAR.

 PEACE!

It will be hard to lose these.