A DISAGREEABLE SMELL!
WONDER WHAT IT CAN BE?"

_Lady_. "OH! THAT'S GUNPOWDER, GENERAL."

_Brigadier-General Woodford_. "GUNPOWDER?--AW! IS IT? NEVER SMELT
ANYTHING OF THE KIND BEFAW."]

* * * * *

HIGH-HANDED OUTRAGE.

EDITOR OF PUNCHINELLO: Sir:--I am the young lady, travelling in New
Jersey (perhaps they will next make a crime of _that_!), and mentioned
in a recent paragraph as having been asked by a person (called a _man_)
"if _this_ was ELIZABETH?"

I insist, Sir, that I was right in resenting, as I did, the impudent
familiarity of this person (called a _man_), who, after sitting for an
hour or two in perfect silence (having first intruded himself into the
seat beside me without making any kind of apology), abruptly turns to me
and says, "Is _this_ ELIZABETH?"

I insist, Sir, that I was right in asking the ruffian what he meant.
Consider the abruptness, Sir, of this question--this selfish question,
as it turned out, after a grim and gruff silence of an hour and a
quarter. Could not this unamiable person (called a _man_), have prepared
me for it by a few moments' affable conversation? Why should he dare
intrude his "Is this ELIZABETH?" with such brutal abruptness? Not a
sudden proposal from one of my numerous suitors could have startled me
more.

Look at the question, Sir, as pointing at my supposed Christian name (I
_have_ one, but it is _not_ ELIZABETH, nor yet ELIZA); can you imagine
anything more odiously familiar? "Well known for his mild and gentle
disposition" this "gentleman" of Brooklyn may be; but there was no
mildness, no gentleness this time, I assure you! The language alone
proves _that_!

The rudeness was all the more shocking and discomposing, from the fact
that I was at that moment contemplating the elegant features of a
gentleman at the other end of the car, who seemed not altogether
indifferent to my appearance (which he would have been, perhaps, had I
seemed of "uncertain age," as the low fellow observes who wrote this
paragraph), and there was every appearance of a growing interest in two
susceptible hearts, when this cold-blooded (but "mild and gentle")
person launched his brutal interrogatory, so selfish and unfeeling, with
such violent abruptness.

Look, if you will, Sir, at the question as referring purely to the city
which we were approaching. How did I know that my new found, but already
dear friend was not about to alight (as, indeed, he seemed