spirit bride!

Day after day she grew fairer,
As she pined away in sorrow, at my side;
No pearl in the ocean could be rarer
Than the angel
Elaine!
My spirit bride!

The hours passed away all unheeded,
For love hath no landmarks in its tide.
No child of misfortune ever pleaded
In vain
To Elaine!
My spirit bride!

Here, where sad Tamesis is rolling
The wave of its sorrow-laden tide,
Forever on the air is heard tolling
The refrain
Of Elaine!
My spirit bride!

[Decoration]

[Decoration]

XI.

_THE TELESCOPIC EYE._

A LEAF FROM A REPORTER'S NOTE-BOOK.

For the past five or six weeks, rumors of a strange abnormal development
of the powers of vision of a youth named Johnny Palmer, whose parents
reside at South San Francisco, have been whispered around in scientific
circles in the city, and one or two short notices have appeared in the
columns of some of our contemporaries relative to the prodigious _lusus
naturae_, as the scientists call it.

Owing to the action taken by the California College of Sciences, whose
members comprise some of our most scientific citizens, the affair has
assumed such importance as to call for a careful and exhaustive
investigation.

Being detailed to investigate the flying stories, with regard to the
powers of vision claimed for a lad named John or "Johnny" Palmer, as his
parents call him, we first of all ventured to send in our card to
Professor Gibbins, the President of the California College of Sciences.
It is always best to call at the fountain-head for useful information, a
habit which our two hundred thousand readers on this coast can never
fail to see and appreciate. An estimable gentleman of the African
persuasion, to whom we handed our "pasteboard," soon returned with the
polite message, "Yes, sir; _in_. Please walk up." And so we followed our
conductor through several passages almost as dark as the face of the
_cicerone_, and in a few moments found ourselves in the presence of,
perhaps, the busiest man in the city of San Francisco.

Without any flourish of trumpets, the Professor inquired our object in
seeking him and the information we desired. "Ah," said he, "that is a
long story. I have no time to go into particulars jus