And MUGGINS's "twelve shillingers" became necessary to the existence of all the fashionable young City Clerks, Government Clerks, and goa-head Shopboys in the Metropolis. This was the history of the rise of Mural Advertisement Decoration all over England. Need we say that the hand that carried MUGGINS through the length and breadth of the land, was that of the Genius upon whom we first stumbled, chalking his farewell address to an unsympathetic world. Now, on the walls of nearly all Stations are works of art, not to be merely glanced at as advertisements, but calling for criticism based upon those canons that govern our connoisseurs in their remarks upon the annual Exhibition of the Royal Academy. HARLEQUIN SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. A PANTOMIME at the present time of year is about as seasonable a phenomenon as snow would be in harvest. Yet Europe is now being stein. The peculiarity of this piece is that, contrary to the usage which entertained by the outrageous absurdities of Harlequin Schleswig-Hol uniformly prevails on the boards of a British theatre, the two principal personages concerned in its comic business are an aged Clown, and a youthful Pantaloon. It is very funny to see how, in dividing the plunder of the Duchies, the old rogue takes the lion's share, pretending to buy Lauenburg, and cribbing out of his accomplice's portion the harbour of Kiel, exactly as the zany on our own stage at Christmas apportions fish or sausages to himself and the other thief on the principle of "one for you too, and two for me too." THE SANDS OF "LIFE."-Scarborough's. MUSICAL BENEVOLENCE. HE Season being over, there is AN IRISHMAN'S JUST REMONSTRANCE. TOUCHING us Irish and your Cattle. (If I may take the liberty of naming us in the same line with them.) I have been expecting the usual insult, Sir, and the Saxon taunt that Irishmen might be supposed to know the right way with Bulls. Taunt away, Sir, we are accustomed to be trampled on. Meantime, Sir, read this, if you can, and if you can't, when you come to this passage, tell somebody to read it to you. It is an extract from the Narrative of the Great Fire of London, your own overgrown and demoralised miserable metropolis. It is in the works of your famous DE FOE, but was not really written by the Unabashed One. But it is authentic, Sir. ВOHN's edition, Sir, page 221. Vide The Great Fire reduced your howling citizens to want and dismay, and what was the course of poor old trampled Oireland? "At the news of the fire, all the good subjects (0, we are good the utmost consternation (that's a lie, anyhow) upon that deplorable enough when you want to come over us) in Ireland were seized with The Lord-Lieutenant, the DUKE OF ORMOND (he was an accident. sufferers. 'It rose to a higher value than could have been expected in Irish Juke, mind ye) set on foot a subscription for the relief of the for the common necessities of the country (listen to that now, and then so distressed a country (Ah !) where there was not money to circulate abuse our posterity because they did not always pay their dirty debts), or to pay the public taxes. (Do ye see that? Wise English statesmen, lay on taxes, and make us no money to pay 'em-yah!) Therefore the subscription was made in Beeves, thirty thousand of which were sent to London." Happily, however, to prevent this sad necessity, MR. MELLON has the charity to give his pleasant Concerts, where, for the small sum of a shilling, the connoisseur may hear MOZART and MENDELSSOHN performed well nigh as well as they Beeves, Sir, means Oxen, and is the plural of beef, and quadrupeds are played at the guinea Philharmonic. He may hear, too, sweet- of the bovine species. That's the way poor old Oireland, in all her tongued LIEBHARDT, and clear-throated CARLOTTA PATTI, and he may distress, treated your hungry Cockneys. And now your Cockney hear such lively dance-tunes as will set his toes a-tingling. Moreover, newspapers abuse us because we won't have your unsalutiferous old just at this dull season, when people kept in town so sadly need amuse- cows. Blush, Sir, if you can, and anyhow believe me ment, MR. GERMAN REED invites them to his Operas di Camera, and Your indignant well-wisher, any one who wants to pass a pleasant evening cannot well do better than accept his invitation. Light lively little works are they, and tastefully produced: the wonder being, how a stage so small can show us so much scenery. If the singers have small voices to match the stage they sing upon, they at least have no big band over which to bawl and bellow; and their notes can reach the audience without the latter, so to speak, having to put their ears on tiptoe. THE YOUNG LADY'S HOPE. SOME Gentlemen and Ladies of the Archæological Institute that met in Dorset the other day visited the Norman Chapel of St. Catherine, at Milton Abbey. The REV. C. W. BINGHAM told them of a legend, according to which the young women of Abbotsbury used, on a certain day, to go there and pray to St. Catherine for husbands. Whereupon, says the Building News: "MR. BERESFORD HOPE, who at these gatherings is always equal to any emergency, modestly proposed that all gentlemen and married ladies should retire from the Church, so as to afford the young ladies present the opportunity of using so desirable a prayer." If this very hopeful suggestion of MR. BERESFORD HOPE's was adopted by those to whom he proposed it, the proposer himself, however, did probably not retire along with them. He perhaps considered that HOPE should remain behind, in Pandora's box, as it were, with the young ladies. It is to be hoped that hope, on this occasion, told many of those fair archæologists a flattering tale, which will be shortly realised. THE O'BLUNDERBUSS. GERMAN Students and professors, smoke-beclouded, steeped in beer, A SONG FOR THE SMALL GERMANS. A PRELATE IN PLAY. THE possibility of being at the same time serious and lively was illustrated the other day, at Salisbury, on the occasion of the meeting, in the Guildhall, of two great missionary societies, by a distinguished Prelate, whose brother of Sarum occupied the Chair. According to John Bull : "THE BISHOP OF OXFORD, who, it is needless to say, was loudly applauded, evening He did not hear the commencement of ARCHDEACON HARRIS's speech, but he had no doubt, he said, he would not have risen had it not been in obedience "The Teetotallers are to have a grand fête at the Crystal Palace on Tuesday next. said that the Christian grace of obedience had been eminently practised that Excursion trains will run from upwards of 500 stations." Many doubtless remarked, that of course the fountains would be all set playing for the accommodation of the multitude of water-drinkers. Some, possibly, expressed a hope that plenty of stretchers would be provided to take them home. LENIENCY. BETTING men and their betters are squabbling over a rule which says that the Bet should go with the Stake. An awfully tough one was brought us up by ELIZABETH, the ugly cook, at a Margate boardinghouse, the other day. But, as the rule seems in doubt, we gave her the benefit thereof, and only threw the stake out of window. to his diocesan. MR. WALPOLE preluded that noble oration of Christian statesman- Hey? What? "Fresh from palatial hospitality" and "loth to speak." Well; so a man naturally might be in the state ascribed to MR. HUBBARD by the BISHOP OF OXFORD. Was DEAN CLOSE present in the assembly to which BISHOP WILBERFORCE addressed the foregoing observations, and if so, what did he say? Of course we know that the Right Reverend SAMUEL was only joking, and we cite his words merely to show how the grave can be combined with the gay in episcopal eloquence, as oil and alkali are in soap. Landlady. "YES'M, AND IF YOU SHOULD HAVE ENOUGH WITHOUT IT, LOR', MR. BILKES WOULDN'T MIND A EATIN' OF IT FOR HIS SUPPER, IF THAT'S ALL." A PLEA FOR CHILDREN'S DINNER PARTIES. THE Hospital for Sick Children is a most excellent institution, and kindly care is taken of small invalids admitted there. Very many are the ills which, especially in London, infant flesh is heir to, and the hospital has always all the patients it can hold, while there are even children waiting to obtain an entrance. Scores of little ones now die for want of such assistance as this charity provides, but its funds are insufficient to permit of its enlargement. Need another word be said to stir the organs of benevolence, and extract a tenpound note from the pocket of the charitable? Meanwhile, until the hospital be doubled, trebled, and quadrupled, as speedily it ought to be, surely something may be done towards diminish ing the numbers of those waiting to be inmates. Prevention of an illness is still better than a cure, and many ailments of poor children come from causes which, by proper care, are easily preventible. For instance, want of nutriment, of course, occasions weakness, and becomes a sadly fruitful source of suffering. Many a young life might be saved by a timely change from cottage fare to more substantial diet. A good meal twice a week, even, may keep a child in health, who would otherwise be sickly; and surely this is no great gift to grant, Oh, ye philanthropists! Surely, most of us can spare a few shillings a-week to help some such a scheme as this, announced in the Spectator: about as sensible, kindly, and practical a philanthropist as exists in England. This good example be followed out wherever it is anyhow found possible, and surely there are few places, indeed, where it is not. Let children's dinner parties be given in all poor neighbourhoods, and let all little weakly ones have standing invitations to come and sit together twice or thrice a week. A doctors' bill may be prevented by a timely bit of beef; and pills and powders may be saved through a slice of batter pudding. The rich, who are more troubled to get appetites than dinners, can hardly put a proper value on the hunger of the poor, or rightly estimate the consequence of insufficient nutriment. Were an alderman to give up turtle, venison, and champagne, and for a month or so live on mutton broth and toast-and-water, he might form some faint conception of what hunger really is, and might entertain some sympathy for those who are half starving. Men who eat too much commit a wicked waste of food, and, indeed, a worse than waste, for over-eating brings on illness. Let them only spare the food they would be healthier without, and how many a poor child would be the healthier for having it? If old DIVES would but make a rule to lunch on bread-andbutter, he would relieve his digestion from a needless mutton chop, which might better serve to strengthen and to keep in health young LAZARUS. A Generous Offer. "There is a MR. G. M. HICKS somewhere in Bloomsbury, who, we take it, is MR. DISRAELI's proposition of "lateral reform" upon one conditionMR. JOHN BRIGHT says he would not in the least mind accepting gentleman and his wife have organised in Woburn Buildings, Clare Market, a daily which is, that he would make it "equilateral" instead; and that simply dinner for sick children, who are provided in a pleasant room with a full and means, as propounded for us by the Member for Birmingham, "equality healthy meal About twenty-five children, all rickety, or cripples, or more or less on all sides." However, he is going to America where he will find ill, are here fed at twelve o'clock on good food, under the careful supervision of a matron, and amid pleasant sights and sounds. The effect on the children, half of it to his heart's content! Example teaches a great deal more than whom are perishing for want of nourishment, is said to be extraordinary, and theory, and we should not be at all surprised if JOHN BRIGHT returned the entire cost of the place is under £237 a year. One poor lad had at first to be to England completely dis-Americanised. carried in a cripple, then hobbled in on irons, and now walks in, sickly but independent, the cure being mainly due to the food." ELECTION INTELLIGENCE FOR LADIES.-The Chignon is placed at Bravo, HICKS! we must exclaim, however vulgar it be thought in us to make that exclamation. Bravo, HICKS of Bloomsbury! May your the poll of the head. |