ling
The pain of life's long thrall,
Forsook their pleasant places, and came stealing
Outside the city wall,

Craving, with wish that brooked no more denying,
So long had it been crossed,
The blessed possibility of dying,--
The treasure they had lost.

Daily the current of rest-seeking mortals
Swelled to a broader tide,
Till none were left within the city's portals,
And graves grew green outside.

Would it be worth the having or the giving,
The boon of endless breath?
Ah, for the weariness that comes of living
There is no cure but death!

Ours were indeed a fate deserving pity,
Were that sweet rest denied;
And few, methinks, would care to find the city
Where never any died!

* * * * *

Does the reader recall DEAN SWIFT'S account of the immortal Strudlbrugs
and their undying miseries--it is in the City of Laputu, we believe.
Their life was passed as if in such a city. Ah, death! it is, after all,
only birth in another form. And to step to the ridiculous, we are
reminded of an

EPITAPH IN A DEDHAM CHURCHYARD.

I've paid the debt which all must pay,
Though awful to my view,
On frightful rocks where billows poured,
And broken buildings flew.
The cruel Death has conquered me;
The victory is but small,
For I shall rise and live again,--
And Death himself shall fall.

* * * * *

There are not many of those who 'read the papers,' who have not met from
time to time with the quaint experiences of THE FAT CONTRIBUTOR,--a
gentleman who, in the columns of the _Buffalo Republican_, and more
recently in the spicy _Cleveland Plain Dealer_, has often wished that
his too, too solid flesh would melt. It is with pleasure that we welcome
him to our pages in the following original sketch:--

THE 'FAT CONTRIBUTOR' AS A GYMNAST.

'But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks.'

RICHARD III.

Says the cardinal in the play--'In the bright lexicon of youth
there's no such word as fail.' Without stopping to discuss the
reliability of a lexicon that omits words in that careless manner,
I must say that in the dictionary of fat men who aspire to
gymnastics that word distinctly occurs. I had my misgivings, but
was over-persuaded by my friends. They said gymnastics would
develop muscular strength, thus enabling me to _hold_ my flesh in
case it attempte