for mankind and all the
worse for the fishes.--_O.W. Holmes_.

A man's own observation, what he finds good of, and what he finds hurt
of, is the best physic to preserve health.--_Bacon_.

MEEKNESS

One evening just before dinner a wife, who had been playing bridge all
the afternoon, came in to find her husband and a strange man (afterward
ascertained to be a lawyer) engaged in some mysterious business over the
library table, upon which were spread several sheets of paper.

"What are you going to do with all that paper, Henry?" demanded the
wife.

"I am making a wish," meekly responded the husband.

"A wish?"

"Yes, my dear. In your presence I shall not presume to call it a will."

MEMORIALS

Two negroes were talking about a recent funeral of a member of their
race, at which funeral there had been a profusion of floral tributes.
Said the cook:

"Dat's all very well, Mandy; but when I dies I don't want no flowers on
my grave. Jes' plant a good old watermelon-vine; an' when she gits ripe,
you come dar, an' don't you eat it, but jes' bus' it on de grave, an'
let de good old juice dribble down thro' de ground!"

"That's rather a handsome mantelpiece you have there, Mr. Binkston,"
said the visitor.

"Yes," replied Mr. Binkston, proudly. "That is a memorial to my wife."

"Why--I was not aware that Mrs. Binkston had passed away," said the
visitor sympathetically.

"Oh no, indeed, she hasn't," smiled Mr. Binkston. "She is serving her
thirtieth sojourn in jail. That mantelpiece is built of the bricks she
was convicted of throwing."

MEMORY

"Uncle Mose," said a drummer, addressing an old colored man seated on a
drygoods box in front of the village store, "they tell me that you
remember seeing George Washington--am I mistaken?"

"No, sah," said Uncle Mose. "I uster 'member seein' him, but I done
fo'got sence I jined de chu'ch."

A noted college president, attending a banquet in Boston, was surprised
to see that the darky who took the hats at the door gave no checks in
return.

"He has a most wonderful memory," a fellow diner explained. "He's been
doing that for years and prides himself upon never having made a
mistake."

As the college president was leaving, the darky passed him his hat.

"How do you know that this one is mine?"

"I don't know it, suh," admitted the darky.

"Then why do you give it to me?"

"'Cause yo' gave it to me, suh."

"Tommy," said his mother rep