ite an age,
Who had left his home some years before, and gone upon the Stage.

To this friend he soon narrated his distressing tale of woe,
And declared his case was hopeless. But the actor said, "Not so.
There's _one_ thing, my fine fellow, that as yet you haven't tried,
Where your face will be your fortune, and a pound or two beside.

"With a mouth like yours to grin with, and your too delicious
squint,
And the ears that Nature's given you with such a lack of stint,--
No matter what an author may provide you with to speak,
You're a ready-made Comedian--with your fifty quid a week."

And it was so. Though he started at a figure rather less
Than the one that I have mentioned, still the truth I but express
When I say he now is earning such a wage as wouldn't shock
A respectable Archbishop or a fashionable jock.

And the face that all men sneered at, now is very much admired,
And the public ne'er, apparently, of watching it grows tired,
And the Merchant who dismissed him, in the Stalls is wont to sit,
While the Sergeant and his sweetheart are applauding from the Pit.

The moral of my narrative is easy to espy.
But still I'd better mention it, lest some should pass it by:
"Though it's often very troublesome indeed to find it out--
There's a proper sphere for _everyone_, beyond the slightest doubt."

* * * * *

[Illustration: TECHNICALITIES.

_First Amateur Water-Colourist._ "DO YOU _WASH_ MUCH?"

_Second Ditto Ditto_. "NO; I _SCRATCH_ A GOOD DEAL!"]

* * * * *

"PUTTING ON THE HUG."

[During President CARNOT's tour he received at Aix-les-Bains
"a delegation of children." One of these, clad in a Russian
dress, offered him a bunch of flowers, repeating a stanza
written for the occasion. M. CARNOT, amid cries of "_Vive
la France!_" "_Vive la Russie!_" "_Vive Carnot!_" "_Vive la
Republique!_" kissed the little girl, saying, "_J'embrasse la
Russie!_"]

Yes--"_Vive la France!_"--and "_Vive la Russie!_" too.
_Vive_--why not?--everybody!
Called once, "_Monsieur le President Faute-de-Mieux_"[2]
(By _Punch_, that foe of shoddy).
I fancy I have justified the name,
Ay, to the very letter.
I may not be a THIERS, but all the same,
France has not found a better.

Tall-talk is tedious, but one must not flinch
When asked the task to tackle;
And h