o.

* * *

"I'll make the Line some day or jump into Great Salt Lake," warns
C. W. O. Pick out a soft spot, friend. We jumped into it one day and
sprained an ankle.

Alice in Cartoonland.

I.

"Hello!" said the Hatter. "I haven't seen you for a long time."

"No," said Alice; "I've been all over--in Wonderland, in Bookland, in
Stageland, and forty other lands. People must be tired of my adventures.
Where am I now? I never know."

"In Cartoonland," said the Hatter.

"And what are _you_ doing here?" inquired Alice.

"I'm searching for an original cartoon idea," replied the Hatter. "Would
you like to come along?"

"Ever so much," said Alice.

"The first thing we have to do is to get across that chasm," said the
Hatter, pointing.

Alice saw a huge legend on the far wall of the chasm, and spelled it
out--"O-b-l-i-v-i-o-n."

"Yes, Oblivion," said the Hatter. "That's where they dump defeated
candidates and other undesirables. Come on, we can cross a little below
here."

He indicated a thin plank that lay across the Chasm of Oblivion.

"Will it hold us?" said Alice.

"It has held the G. O. P. Elephant and the Democratic Donkey, and all
sorts of people and things. Let's hurry over, as here comes the
Elephant now, with Mr. Taft riding it, and the plank _might_ give way."

II.

"By the way," said the Hatter, "here is my hat store."

There were only two kinds in the window--square paper caps and high silk
hats. Alice had never seen paper caps before.

"They're worn by the laboring man," said the Hatter; "but you never see
them outside of Cartoonland. The plug hats are for Capitalists. I also
keep whiskers; siders for Capital and ordinary for Labor."

"O, there's a railroad train!" said Alice, suddenly.

"No use taking that train," said the Hatter; "it doesn't go. Did you
ever see an engine like that outside Cartoonland? And even if it did
work we shouldn't get very far, as the rock Obstruction is always on the
track."

"I'd just as soon walk," said Alice.

III.

"Mercy! there's a giant!" exclaimed Alice.

"Don't be alarmed," said the Hatter; "he's perfectly good natured."

"What an awful-looking creature!" said Alice.

"He's awfully out of drawing," said the Hatter, critically; "but, then,
almost everything in Cartoonland is. It's the idea that counts."

"You said you were searching for an original idea," Alice reminded him.

"But I don't expect to find one," th