"The Bank now gives employment to 6,000 persons, 2,000 of whom are women. In order to accommodate them outside premises have been acquired from time to time. The chief of these new establishments is St. Luke's Hospital for Lunatics."
—Sunday Paper.
Farmer. "So you want a job of work, eh?"
Applicant. "I said a job. I never said a job o' work."
MAGNANIMOUS MOTTOES.
A writer in The Evening Standard calls attention to the latest ornamentation of the fine old Elizabethan Hall of Gray's Inn, in the shape of the arms of Lord Birkenhead, who as a past Treasurer of the Inn is entitled to this armorial distinction in his lifetime. But, he goes on, "it was not so much the arms as their motto which attracted me—the motto of a man who began his brilliant career as plain Mr. F. E. Smith. Now the Latin for 'smith,' as an artisan, is faber (artificer or fabricator in the primal sense); so, with a fine democratic courage, Lord Birkenhead has chosen as his family motto: 'Faber meæ Fortunæ' (Architect of my own Fortune)."
We agree; but it must not be supposed that Lord Birkenhead has an entire monopoly of this frank spirit. Other eminent men who have recently been ennobled or decorated have shown a similar frankness. Thus it may not be known that Lord Riddell has adopted a motto which reveals the comparatively modest beginnings of his greatness. Lord Riddell was, and we believe still is, the proprietor of The News of the World. Now the Latin for news or newness is novitas (novelty or unfamiliarity in the primal sense); so with a noble democratic courage he has chosen as his family motto: "Sæculorum vetustati præstat novitas mundi" (The news of the world surpasses the antiquity of the ages). It is rather a long motto, but it is eminently Ciceronian in its cadence.