A collection of short, often hurried essays and sketches ranges from light humor to pointed social criticism, treating topics such as modernism and its snobbery, philanthropy and the risks of moral coercion, anonymous journalism, patriotism, sport, religion, literary quarrels, and everyday urban life. The writer combines paradox and playful irony with straightforward argument, shifting between whimsical observation and earnest polemic, and consistently argues for common sense, individual responsibility, and skepticism toward fashionable or coercive social doctrines.