18 MAY 1929, Page 30

Summer is optimistically proclaimed in every page of the 1929

Summer Number of Punch (1s.) from the lovely lady nn the second advertisement page, whose beauty is due to the correct use of "skin freshener," to the fractious steed who, in 'more senses than one, lets its fair rider down into the seas of (shall we say ?) Bognor. There are some good jokes in this nqmber and some _clever drawings—particularly charming is the "Touching Scene from the Childhood of the World," But we feel this Summer Number is disappointing, and we are forced to agree with the general verdja—which, as a matte/ of fact, is passed upon anything not in its first youth—that Punch is not what it was.' There is no bold election cartoon ; there seems to be no desire to give any -serid-u3 criticism of the life and events of -the day. hut perhaps-1n tile murder we should forget the quarrels of the unh-erse: The advertisements are, as usual, well worth looking at.

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