ushes.

It is a singular fact that country cats have generally not half the
appetite of London ones. The voracity of these latter animals is indeed
prodigious; and hardly less surprising is the variety of their diet. We
have ourselves repeatedly known instances, where in a single night the
cat has been discovered to have eaten about a pound of beefsteak, and
more than three quarters of a leg of mutton; and we are informed by a
scientific friend of ours, who lives in lodgings, that he has even met
with cases well authenticated by his landlady, where in less than a week
her cat has consumed half a caddy of his tea, as well as an entire
bottle of his brandy.

* * * * *

SOMETHING LIKE LEATHER.

RUSSIAN HIDES WELL TANNED. By OMAR PACHA & CO. Tanners to the SUBLIME
PORTE, Moldo-Wallachia.

* * * * *

CENTRALIZATION IN THE CITY.

Whatever may be the nature of the thinking principle of man, there is no
doubt that the soul of business, Punctuality, is material. This
psychological truth has been judiciously recognised in the practical
philosophy of the City of London, which has devised a method of insuring
the virtue in question, based on a profound conviction of its
materiality. Of Committees for General Purposes, MR. THOMAS ROGERS, in
evidence before the Corporation Commission, stated that

"In order to induce Members to attend punctually the Chairman waits
five minutes. At the expiration of that time he drops his hammer,
and then all who are present have a right to dine with the
Committee, but all who come after the five minutes are excluded from
the dinner."

No doubt the attendance is generally full--at the commencement of the
proceedings as well as after the subsequent repast. But in case the
majority of the members are behind time, do the minority eat up the
dinner provided for the whole number? Should the persons present at the
fall of the hammer amount to just thirteen, does the popular
superstition, that objects to a baker's dozen at the mahogany, prevent
them from sitting down to table in a party of that number? If so, does
one gentleman retire, or is one more taken in from the excluded set, and
is the fortunate, or unfortunate, individual selected by lot? These are
questions that suggest themselves to most thinking minds, though they
did not occur to those of the Commissioners.

"_Domine Dirige Nos_" ought no longer to be t