At thought of Father's tragedy;
_His morals were so low._

* * * * *

Our Courtly Contemporaries.

"The Earl of Athlone walked away on foot, as is the simple way of
our Royal Family." _Sunday Paper._

* * * * *
"High-backed chair of Tudor period, about
1660."--_Advt. in Daily Paper._

We don't question its genuineness, but infer that it has been subjected
to Restoration.

* * * * *

"Furnished House, consisting of dining, drawing, eight breakfast
rooms, etc." _Sunday Paper._

Would suit a large family inclined to be short-tempered in the morning.

* * * * *

[Illustration: A TOO-FREE COUNTRY.

ALIEN RIOTER. "DOWN WITH EVERYBODY!"

P.C. JOHN BULL. "WELL, WE'LL MAKE A START WITH YOU."]

* * * * *

[Illustration: PEOPLE WE ADMIRE.

THE HERO WHO KEEPS UP HIS ARMY EXERCISES, STRIKE OR NO STRIKE.]

* * * * *

A LETTER TO THE BACK-BLOCKS.

DEAR GINGER,--So you have bought a very promising little gold-mine from
a rollicking Irish nobleman called Patrick Terence O'Ryan, who is
retiring on Mayo to take up the paternal estates. H-m!--have you? And
you think you yourself will be retiring home presently on the proceeds
of the said mine? H-m! again. There is a certain familiarity in your
description of the gentleman. Tell me, has this Hibernian philanthropist
a slight squint, a broken nose and a tendency to lisp in moments of
excitement?

I think I see you nod.

Ginger, I once bought a mine from that man. His name was Algernon Maddox
Cholmondely _then_, and he was homeward bound to assume the ancestral
acres in Flint. He escorted me down the hole and displayed visible gold
sparkling all along the reef. A week after he had gone I found that he
had put it there with a shot-gun--an old "salter's" trick, but new to me
at the time. You are not likely to be seeing Patrick Algernon Terence
Maddox O'Ryan-Cholmondely again, but, if you should, remember me to him,
please--with the business end of a pick-axe. Always delighted to keep in
touch with old friends.

Ginger, _you never can tell_. This is not an original remark. One of our
brainy boys--George Bernard, unless I err--thought of it before I did;
went away into the wilderness, wrapped his grey-matter in wet Jaeger
bandages, subsisted on a diet of pre