[In his lecture at the Royal Institution, to which Mr. Punch recently referred, Mr. Alfred Noyes said that "our art and literature were increasingly Bolshevik, and if they looked at the columns of any newspaper they would see the unusual spectacle of the political editor desperately fighting that which the art and literary portions of the paper upheld.">[
Scene.—A Club-room near Fleet Street. The Political Editor and the Literary Editor of "The Daily Crisis" are discovered seated in adjoining armchairs.
Political Editor. Excuse me, but haven't I seen you occasionally in The Crisis office?
Literary Editor. Possibly. I look after its literary pages, you know.
P.E. Really? I run the political columns. Did you read my showing-up this morning of the Bolshevik peril in the House of Lords?
L.E. I'm afraid I never read the political articles. Did you notice my two-column boom of young Applecart's latest book of poems?
P.E. No time to read the literary columns, and modern poetry's as good as Chinese to me. Who's Applecart?
L.E. My dear Sir, is it possible that you are unfamiliar with the author of I Will Destroy? He's the hope of the future as far as English poetry is concerned.
P.E. (cheerfully). Never heard of him. What's he done?
L.E. (impressively). He has overthrown all the rules, not only of art, but of morality. He has created a new Way of Life.