WINDOW TAX
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.}
SIR,—But this is grotesque ! Had I ever conceived it possible that -anyone could ever have taken my " proposal " literally and not figuratively, I would cheerfully have sacrificed what seemed to me the appropriately symbolic casement for the more usual bed, as the unit upon.; which hotels might volun- tarily assess and tax themselves in the interest of those societies that are striving to protect the surrounding countryside by which the innkeepers largely live.
I attempt to make my perfectly good proposal arresting by giving it a deliberately provocative and startling heading, and, taking.not theslightest notice of the appeal itself, virtuous persons insist on lecturing me, on my obsolete ideas, my general barbarity and " the health-giving effects of ultra- violet rays."
Really . . . ! No doubt, hoWever, had I advocated a bath tax instead, an equal number of equally indignant citizens would have explained to me the well-known advan- tages of water as a cleansing medium and the deplorable hygienic consequences that would be entailed by any general adherence to my dangerous doctrines.
An abundance of fresh air and sunlight and pure water by all means, but some of us want even more—an undefiled out
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