,)
as we strive earnestly to eradicate other morbid troubles. And the
position is true regarding moral as well as physical invalids. Who has
not often been doubly irritated by the removal of his source of
irritation? Thus Paterfamilias Bloggs, having been 'riled' by the
overcrowding of the omnibus in which he proceeds homeward, makes up his
mind that if Materfamilias B. has not provided fish-balls for supper, he
will 'raise a row.' And he so gloats in expectancy over the imaginary
denunciation that he will inflict on that long-suffering female, that he
is quite disappointed, on entering his basement, to discover at a glance
that a dish of beautifully-browned fish-balls decks the evening table.
So Bloggs' wrath is smothered, and smoulders for the rest of the
evening, finding insufficient vent in boxed ears for the children, and
short, crisp replies to civil questions from the older members of the
family. Thus you see that removing a cause does not always do away with
a consequence.

--WHO EVER GAVE A SATISFACTORY EXCUSE FOR AN INOPPORTUNE LAUGH?
Certainly, no child transgressing in this particular ever failed to
receive less than ten-fold its due of punishment therefor, as many grown
persons will join me in testifying. Especially is this true in instances
of church cachinnation. I solemnly aver that I have felt a stronger
tendency to hearty laughter in a church than I ever experienced in a
theatre, and yet I could not and can not give any satisfactory reason
for the inclination. I wanted to laugh for the child's reason,
'Because.'

Not many months since, in a land thousands of miles hence, I was
stretched upon a bed of sickness. In pursuance of the humane duties of
his calling, the minister of the Episcopal Church called upon me, and
after a short conversation, proposed addressing the throne of grace.
This he did in a few eloquent extemporaneous phrases, closing with the
Lord's prayer. Now, from the outset, I felt an uncontrollable
inclination to laugh; but for a time succeeded in restraining it. But
when, in close succession upon the minister's words, there arose from
the next room (separated from us by a thin board partition) a sepulchral
echo in the voice of my room-mate, a grim and swarthy miner, who
probably had not heard the prayer since he repeated it after his mother
at her knee, and from the still potent though long dormant force of
habit, now joined in its utterance, the incongruity of my surroundings
ov