C C Spectator" Competitions RULES AND CONDITIONS Entries must be

typed or very clearly written on one side of the paper only. The name and address, or pseudonym, of the competitor must be on each entry and not on a separate sheet. When a word limit is set worth must be counted and the number given. No entries can bo returned. Prizes may be divided at the discretion of the judge, or withheld if no entry reaches the required standard. The judge reserves the right to print or quote from any entry. The judge's decision is final, and no correspondence can be entered into on the subject of the award. Entries must be addressed to :—The Editor, the Spectator, 99 Gower Street, London, W.C. 1, and bo marked on the envelope Competition No. (—).

Competition No. 46 (SET BY " DUGLI.") A PRIZE of £2 2s. is offered for an essay in not more than 250 words on Private Superstitions.

Entries must bn received not later than Monday, February 29th, 1932. The result of this competition will appear in our issue of March 12th, 1932.

Competition No. 47 (SET BY " CARD.") A PRIZE of £2 2s. is offered for the best six lines of verse to complete either of the two fragments by Thomas Lovell Beddoes, published on page 256.

Entries must be received not later than Monday, March 7th, 1932. The result of this competition will appear in our issue of March 19th, 1932.

The result of Competition No. 45 will appear in our next issue.

Limerick Competition No.. 17

A PRIZE of £1 Is. is offered each week for a new and original English Limerick verse on some subject dealt with in the current number of the Spectator. The seventeenth of these competitions closes on Monday, March 7th, 1932. Entries should be marked " Limerick

No. 17." •

The result of the fifteenth of these competitions will be announced in our next issue.

jIt is requested that to facilitate the work of the judges, entries should, when possible, be submitted on postcards.]

Report of Competition No. 44

(REPORT AND AWARD BY " DUGLI.")

A nu= of 62 2s. was offered for a new and original Song for Saint Valentine's Day. Songs might be serious, sentimental, amusing or satirical, but might not exceed twenty-five lines of English verse. Saint Valentine's Day has meant to most competitors a clay on which early Victorian misses hoped for greetings in verse—with pierced hearts and frills of lace paper—in which " be mine " was the rhyme to Valentine :

" Dear Valentine " [says L. C. Streatfield], " Now fallen so low, You have become a kind of Cupid, vulgar, too ;

Poor Valentine, forgotten and despised. . . ."

One competitor presumed so far on the permission to be "amusing " as to call Saint Valentine " good old bean."

" If he is kept awake every night by owls, and the starlings build in his chimney, I hope he will realize that he is only getting what ho deserves - - Several competitors, most notably C. M. S., Eveline Collins, C. R. Haines anti Damon, remembered that Saint Valentine blesses the birds wedding day. Damon was particularly successful with a song made of three triolets. Joe tells what happened when : " Yon were six and T was nine."

Aries writes a ballade which might well have won a prize if it had had an Envoy—though that would have put it beyond the word length-!—and if the competition had not been for a song. . •

The Prize is . awarded ,to Prudence, who is asked to send

name and address. L. B. Hewitt and M. are Highly Com- mended, in addition to those already mentioned.

THE WINNING SONG.

SONG FOR ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.

St. Valentine ! St. Valentino !

They say that men despise you,-

That nowadays we go our ways

Nor stay to recognize you ; -

But all the while, when lovers mile

And vows are given and taken,

St. Valentine ! St. Valentinel You are not yet forsaken.

Result of Limerick Competition No. 14 'DIE most popular subjects for Limericks this week were Drinking Imperially, Organized Leisure in Italy, Voices at Geneva, Shanghai and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The entries of J. P. Sloan, W. A. Rathkey, Dr. Norman Haire, H. C. Swingler, Miss M. Griffiths, Dorothy Sillar, A. H. P. Humphrey, and G. W. Clarkson are commended ; and the prize is awarded to Commander J. L. Cather, Upmeads, Bexhill Old Town, Sussex.

THE WINNING ENTRY.

ORGANIZED LEISURE IN ITALY (page 173).

In Italia, Duce Detente,

Si divertono colturalmente : Soltanto deplore Ch'il Depolavoro Fa nulls del " fare niente."

[Around Rome, by the Duce's construing, " Recreation " means culture-pursuing : It gives me small pleasure When Organized Leisure Makes naught of my "sweet nothing doing."]

J. L. CATHER.

Commended :

LETTER {page 182).

Sir James Marehant need make no apology For writing on Christian Theology ; But he's off his own ground And his views are unsound On the ethics of State Birth Confro/ogy.

NORMAN HAIRE.

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK.

Dear Auspex,—It really is true

That " cocktail " is ugly as 'flu,

But you simply can't call

It in French, when we all

" Buy British " and say British, too

(Miss) M. GRIFFITHS.

Datsxiso IMPERIALLY (page 172).

P. M. S. says that wine-snob and dandy

Will rejoice when they taste Empire brandy.

To be candid, oh !Shand, The best drink in this land

[It beats wine, any brand] is just shandy.

H. C. S.

Lanza (page 183).

Oh, is ignorance sent just to test us ?

I was lacking a box of Swan Vesta,

If only I'd read

Of the chknated thread,

Pd have known that an ordinary vest does. St. Valentine ! St. Valentine I

Believe not men forget you, Though man and maid in forest glade Unknowing may have met you,

And passed you by, nor knew you nigh Though all your flowers were springing, St. Valentine ! St. Valentine !

Your name their bells were ringing.

St. Valentine 1 St. Valentine !

Ever the wide world over, When spring returns and lover yearns His mistress to discover, Would not his plaint provoke a saint To pagan bow and arrow ?

St. Valentine St. Valentine I From Cupid will you borrow ?

PRUDENCE.

J. P. SLOAN.