.

But play out the part of buffoon,
And show thyself only in jest;
Return to help old PANTALOON,
And HARLEQUIN JOHN, and the rest.
Return, or the Grand Christmas Piece
Will prove an unlucky affair;
And COLUMBINE help to release,
Now clutched in the grip of the Bear.

Alas! by that Bear hangs a tail,
I fear me, for all we are told,
Which, lifting obscurity's veil,
A very short time will unfold.
Meantime let the Ministers weep,
Of such a supporter bereft,
Until they their handkerchiefs steep,
Crying, "PALMERSTON'S taken and left!"

* * * * *

A BRUSH WANTED.

A spirited young lady, in service in a very genteel family, remarks, "I
should be sorry to reduce English sailors to a menial situation, but I
own I should like to hear that our gallant fellows in the Black Sea had
been scouring the Steppes."

* * * * *

THE FOOTPRINTS OF TIME.--Crow's-feet.

* * * * *

CLERGYMEN IN THE FARCE OF "TURNING THE TABLES."

Table Turning seems to be turning the heads of the parsons, and Spirit
Rapping is likely to give a rap to certain Reverends which they will not
speedily recover from. We confess to some experience in the practise of
Spirit Rapping in connection with Tables, but the spirits employed in
rapping have always been in tumblers of one kind or another. We have
frequently suspected Satanic agency in some portions of our furniture,
particularly in a quantity of cheap stuff which we purchased at a
furniture mart, and which is scarcely worth the rap we have bestowed on
it. We are in possession of a round table which is subject to fits of
groaning and creaking, with an occasional tendency to the splitting of
its sides, as if in very mockery of merriment. We must confess that the
refractory table has been occasionally a good deal put upon.

The Clerical Table Turners seem to imagine that the Satanic agency is
confined to a particular kind of furniture, but our own opinion is, that
we are just as likely to find the "old gentleman" in the chair as in any
other portion of our moveables. We do not see why the presence of the
evil one should be confined to the work of the cabinet-maker or the
carpenter, and indeed there are several articles of hardware which
appear to be liable to visitations from invisible beings. Our own stock
of crockery is undoubtedly exposed to such continge