RAGGING 221 



inspired with the brilhant notion of forming 

 what he called a Society for the Promotion of 

 Human Gaiety, and it would be no idle boast 

 to claim that during the whole of this happy 

 decade the Society has fully earned the title so 

 felicitously conferred upon it by my cousin at 

 its inception. 



Like all successful institutions, the S.P.H.G. 

 (to give it the popular name) is controlled by a 

 small and select committee, of which I am the 

 Managing Secretary, my cousin is the Vice- 

 President, while to his aged mother have been 

 entrusted the duties of Honorary Treasurer. 

 The fact that Mrs. Bifhn is partially blind and 

 completely bedridden detracts but little from 

 her capacity to fulfil the delicate financial func- 

 tions associated with her office, since, although 

 she is not too blind to sign cheques, she is suffi- 

 ciently bedridden to be unable to spring across 

 to the bank and stop their payment; her physical 

 disabilities therefore qualify her in a peculiar 

 degree for the important post to which she is 

 annually and unanimously re-elected. 



It is not necessary to explain that the by- 

 laws and regulations of the Society are all framed 

 with one object — namely, to stimulate healthy 

 human laughter by any innocent means that 

 may occur to individual tastes. The vulgar 

 practical joke is actively discouraged; the cruel 



