25 MAY 1918, Page 12

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] FTR,—I once saw

this notice in a railway carriage in Lombardy : " It is defended to throw jugs out of the window." A friend of mine found an electric bell in an hotel in Venice which had written under it : " Hit him briskly on the head." I heard from another friend of another bell in Venice which was inscribed thus :

Ring once for the Waiter, twice for the Chambermaid, and three times for the Jackanapes." Who could have resisted the invita- tion to ring three times to call such a spirit from the vasty deep?