at the Assistant-Secretary to the
PRIME MINISTER'S Principal Private Secretary's Secretary comes out and says
that the PRIME MINISTER has been called away suddenly to Geneva.

The public man then goes off after the new smells. A dog's life.

A.P.H.

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Visitor_ (_to actor friend_). "Y'KNOW, I WAS GOIN' ON THE
STAGE MYSELF ONCE, BUT MY PEOPLE DINE SO LATE."]

* * * * *

A SPORTING OFFER.

"Rabbit trapper would take so much the couple or rent them, or give so much
the couple and kill them."--_Scotch Paper._

* * * * *

A CORNISH LULLABY.

A.D. 1760.

Sleep, my little ugling,
Daddy's gone a-smuggling,
Daddy's gone to Roscoff in the _Mevagissey Maid_,
A sloop of ninety tons
With ten brass-carriage guns,
To teach the King's ships manners and respect for honest trade.

Hush, my joy and sorrow,
Daddy'll come to-morrow
Bringing baccy, tea and snuff and brandy home from France;
And he'll run the goods ashore
While the old Collectors snore
And the wicked troopers gamble in the dens of Penzance.

Rock-a-bye, my honey,
Daddy's making money;
You shall be a gentleman and sail with privateers,
With a silver cup for sack
And a blue coat on your back,
With diamonds on your finger-bones and gold rings in your ears.

PATLANDER.

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Motorist._ "THAT REMINDS ME--I NEVER POSTED THAT LETTER."]

* * * * *

POPULAR CRICKET.

DEAR MR. PUNCH,--I enclose a cut from _Le Radical_, one of the leading
Mauritius papers, and on behalf of the lovers of our national game in the
island venture to ask for information regarding the last match recorded:--

"Londres, 14 mai, 4 hres P.M.--Mary-le-bone a battu Nottingham par 5
wickets; Lancashire a battu Leichester; Sussex a battu Warrick. En second
lieu un joueur du Sussex a abattu H. Wilson par 187 wickets."

We are much perturbed at the strange developments that are evidently taking
place in the game at home. Was this match, we want to know, a single-wicket
game between the Sussex player and H. WILSON? If so how did he beat him by
187 wickets?

An ex-captain of the Cambridge eleven living here is of the opinion that,
in order to make cricket more popular,