COPY FOR AESOP.
If Aesop were alive now he would not have to invent his animal fables. He would only need to read the newspapers, for hardly a day passes without prominent space being given to some Aesopian item. Three in particular have recently caught my eye. There was the Kitten Who Fell into the Lock —and was rescued by tender-hearted lockmen who, in order to prevent her from drowning, emptied away no less than eleven million gallons of water (or it may have been thousands : water is such misleading stuff). There was the Beaver who Upset the Flower-Vase : he escaped in the middle of the night from his pen in a wild life exhibition, wandered into the manager's office, overturned a bowl of flowers and, as soon as he felt the water flowing away, began to improvise a dam by sawing off the legs of tables and chairs. Most charming of all, there was this week's story of the Kind Aeroplanes which carried the Sixty Thousand Starving Swallows to Venice from stormswept Vienna, saving their lives and helping them on their journey southward. All that Aesop would have to do to these anecdotes is to tack on a suitable moral. I can suggest none, save perhaps this : The Editor Who Does Not Realize the News Value of Animals is a Poor Wet Smack. * * * *
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