* * *

RIGHT TO THE SPOT.

Additional spots on the disk of the sun are reported. An ingenious
writer, who candidly states that he is not an astronomer, accounts for
them by suggesting that they are caused by stray shots from the Prussian
sharpshooters who tried to bring down GAMBETTA'S balloon.

* * * * *

A QUERY FOR STEEPLE-CHASERS.

We hear a great deal about "featherweights" in connection with racing.
If there _are_ such things as feather weights, why on earth don't the
managers of Jerome Park races stuff the steeple-chase jockeys with them,
to prevent them from being injured by such accidents as happened there
on the opening day of the Autumn meeting?

* * * * *

POEMS OF THE CRADLE.

CANTO VIII.

JACK SPRAT could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean;
And so between them both,
They licked the platter clean.

JACK SPRAT was a near neighbor to the Poet. He was a remarkably delicate
man, cadaverous and thin. A dyspeptic, always ailing, he was a subject
of pity for his friends, and of wonder to his acquaintances. But behold
the eternal fitness of things. Providence blessed him with a wife, his
opposite in every respect. When extremes meet, a perfect whole is the
result; and in this case it was a perfect marriage, fit to be sung by
poets and embalmed in verse.

When JACK SPRAT met SALLY STUBBS, at a husking party, she took his eye,
and kept it. She filled his heart completely. A rosy-cheeked, buxom
lass, healthy and hearty, dimples and dumplings combined, she captivated
and carried, by sheer force of weight, the delicate soul of poor JACK.

It was a case of latitude against longitude; strength against weakness,
smiles against tears, laughter against groans. And so the poor fellow,
feeling an unacknowledged desire to find some one able to support and
protect him, yielded to the advice of his friends and his own
inclinations, and laid his attenuated hand, with his poor little heart
in it, at the fat feet of fair SALLY STUBBS.

He was smiled upon, broad-grinned upon, and accepted; and thereby
rendered for the nonce the happiest of men. Tradition has it that the
next day he actually ate a hearty dinner, and did not complain of his
digestion immediately after. But this is considered doubtful by many.

Fair SALLY, overflowing with the milk of human kindness, and yearning in
her soul to bestow her attentions and corp