I flicked the blue-and-white minnow free of the rod. Old John knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and grasped the oars. For the rest of the morning Perca Labrax held the stage.
W. H. Adams.
SIGNS AND NOTICES ON THE WESTERN FRONT.
BY F. J. SALMON.
From the military landing officer’s placard, telling you where to report and what to do, which faces you on the quay before landing in France, to the stencilled board informing you that the recently captured portion of German trench you are standing in was called ‘Stellung 19,’ the ‘Front’ is plastered with notices and signs of every description.
Some are bald official orders of little interest, others are full of meaning and sometimes bring the grim realities of war home to one more than any other feature of the landscape, and yet others—the unofficial ones—are full of humour and eloquent of the cheerful spirit which comes uppermost in the British soldier, be his surroundings ever so miserable.
The most conspicuous ones are those that are intended to be seen by the swiftly passing motor-car—Speed Limit X Miles Per Hour,—Go Slow Past The Column,—Aerodrome, Dead Slow To Avoid Dust Spoiling The Engines.
It is regrettable that sufficient notice is not always taken of such injunctions and those who are affected often have recourse to other tactics. Some are frankly threatening: Drivers’ Numbers Taken And Reported To The A.P.M. Others appeal to our better feelings—the notice is put in the form of a request, and a large Thank You at the end of the restricted stretch shames the scorcher who has kept his foot on the throttle. Others again resort to subterfuges, such as Mind The Bump! There is, of course, no bump, but by the time the driver has found this out and got up his speed again the column of lorries, or whatever it may have been by the roadside, is passed.
In addition to the military road restrictions there are still, of course, the curious mystic signs of the French Auto Club—the grid showing the level crossing gate, the cross for the cross roads and the V or Z for single or double corners.