Tommy the Diplomatist
the Daily Mail of December 24, where we read, "The Daily Mail will not be published to-morrow, and for that reason we seize the occasion to-day of bidding our readers a Merry Christmas"
Tommy (dictating letter to be sent to his wife): "The nurses here are a very plain lot—"
Nurse: "Oh, come! I say! That's not very polite to us."
Tommy: "Never mind, Nurse, put it down. It'll please her!"
—and a very good reason too. Mr. Punch is glad to reprint a ten-year-old girl's essay on "Patriotism": "Patriotism is composed of patriots, and they are people who live in Ireland and want Mr. Redmond or other people to be King of Ireland. They are very brave, some of them, and are so called after St. Patrick, who is Ireland's private saint. The patriots who are brave make splendid soldiers. The patriots who are not brave go to America." And here is a topical extract from a letter written to a loved one from the Front: "I received your dear little note in a sandbag. You say that you hope the sandbag stops a bullet. Well, to tell the truth, I hope it don't, as I have been patching my trousers with it."
Tommy is adding to his other great qualities that of diplomacy, to judge from the incident illustrated above.
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