For some reason there has been a great increase of late in what London folk call "hooliganism." The riotous street demonstrations on "Mafeking Night," and in celebration of the close of the Boer War, taught the stream of toughs who poured out from Whitechapel into the West end that the renowned London "bobby" could not be everywhere at once, and that with a ration of 20 hooligans to one bobby quite a bit of lawbreaking might be done in more safety than had been supposed.

Since then a number of solitary wayfarers have been attacked and robbed, and two or three have been murdered - all of which was most disconcerting to the independent English woman, who has taken to going on bicycle rides into the country by herself, and to walking about the city streets in the daytime without the chaperone who was considered so necessary a few years ago. Lady Jeune had her purse wrenched from her recently by a hooligan in the fashionable Kensington district of London and Lady Mary Sackville was robbed of her bag by a rough who struck her and decamped. Many other attacks of the sort have been made on less famous folk.

In consequence of this state of affairs it occurred to a young French woman, the wife of a famous French swordsman, Pierre Vigny, to undertake the instruction of Englishwomen in the art of self-defense with a parasol or walking-stick, according to a system devised by her gallant husband who has devoted years to its perfection. It may best be described as a mixture of the various different methods of self-defense, practised in England, France, Germany and Japan. Many of the passes, thrusts and wards used in fencing are comprised in it. Some of the guards used by boxers and movements of the leg and foot practised by

exponents of French boxing are introduced, as well as certain methods peculiar to German swordsmen and professors of the rapier. Numerous tricks are borrowed from the marvellous Japanese system known as "Ju Jit Su," or "weakness against strength," against which Fitzsimmons would be as helpless as a babe, and any delicate lady who becomes proficient in the art can rest assured that she is a match for at least one or two roughs so long as she retains her presence of mind and her umbrella!

The accompanying photograph, made for the Kansas City Star, and for which Mme. Vigny consented to pose, gives a better idea of the system than any description could.

Miss Baden-Powell, the sister of the famous general, impressed by her brother's agate that "a smile and a stout stick will carry one through any difficulty," has become proficient in self-defense with a parasol and walking-cane.

The method of self-defense with an umbrella or walking-stick does not take long to acquire, after three months tuition an average young girl would be equal to almost any emergency. No matter how well a rough might box, he would have no chance to get in a blow, and he would be powerless to protect himself from terrible punishment in the shape of thrusts or prods, and while staggering from the effects of these he would receive blows on the head and face that would speedily dispose of him. Furthermore, the pupils are taught how to trip an adversary up and throw him with the handle of the umbrella, and how to throw him, should he close, after the manner of the Japanese. A combined knowledge of the laws of dynamics and anatomy can always defeat mere strength, and in a street fight where the Queensberry rules of the ring are not observed the skilled pugilist would be at the mercy of the girl who understands these arts and possesses the nerve to put them to practical account.