TArroos.
In recent years the popularity of the Tattoos has grown steadily. And quite right, too. For our part, we shall always be conscious of a thrill of pride and a glow of reas- surance as we watch these prodigies of showmanship. England, we feel, is in small danger of standing elsewhere than where she did as long as our horse artillery can, so to speak, write the Lord's Prayer on a tennis court, while our gallant
lads, habituated to refighting, in the course of a single summer, most of the eighteen decisive battles of the world, will have little to fear from stage-fright, at any rate, in any future contest with a foreign foe. But why they should always be Military Tattoos we cannot imagine. We should like to see a Civilian Tattoo—the more so since we believe that certain sections of the public are still lamentably sceptical about the Romance, the Colour, and the Spirit of Adventure which leaders of modern thought profess themselves able to discern in even the least spectacular walks of contemporary life. We should like to see a Musical Ride by the London General Omnibus Company. We should like to have a little com- munity singing by the R.S.P.C.A. The massed bands of the Royal Institute of Chartered Accountants might oblige with a few inspiriting airs. Glamour and historical interest could hardly be better provided than by a scene representing the founding of the Empire Crusade. Humour—apart from the antics of a few professional clowns from Westminster—could be left in the hands of the Post Office, a dramatization of whose activities would almost certainly be laughable. And, finally, what more fitting climax could be provided than a Grand March Past of all the citizens who have written letters to the papers during the past year ! We should dearly love to see this animated correspondence column—the torchlight flickering on the august heads of half a hundred Paterfamiliases, effacing with its soft radiance the wrinkles on the furrowed brows of rank upon rank of " Puzzleds." " Sanity " would march shoulder to shoulder with "Safety First," "Old Blue" keep step with "Mother of Ten." It is positively affecting to think of—this laying bare to the public gaze of a great nation's heart and mind. We should like to see the whole idea put in hand at once, under the direction of a committee selected from the following : Mr. John Drinkwater, Miss Maisie Gay, the Editor of the Spectator, Sir Oswald Mosley, Miss Virginia Woolf, Mr. John Drinkwater, Marshall and/or Snelgrove, M. Chaliapin, the Office of Works, Rin-Tin- Tin, Sir James Jeans, Lord Brentford, the Thames Conservancy, Mr. John Drinkwater, and, of course,
Mom.
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