_Cecidomyia destructor_,
(What long names have little things!)
Comes o'er Ocean by conductor;
Straw, pestiferous, _pupae_, brings.
They turn, each, into a small gnat,
Not a blow-fly, bottle-blue;
_Cecidomyia_, _vulgo_, gall-gnat,
Galls both growths and growers too.

So the Farmers, full of trouble,
Help imploring go about,
They are told to burn the stubble;
No way else to stamp it out.
True the _Chalcis_ is reputed,
On the Gall-gnat's grub to feed;
But, for service to be suited,
How that parasite can they breed?

Yet there is a vermin-killer,
Like to thin the dipterous pest,
To the farmer and the miller,
Which instruction may suggest.
What may be, the question narrows,
If they doubt they can but try,
Is, if let alone, the sparrows
Might keep down the Hessian Fly.

* * * * *

BLESS HIS 'ART.--If there is anything in a name, the recently
suggested appointment of _Artin Effendi_ as Turkish Commissioner
at Sofia ought to mean something. Certainly the situation is one
demanding the exercise of no little diplomatic art. But the question
is, whether the proposed Commissioner has got, as ROBERT would put it,
his _art in_ the business. There's the point.

* * * * *

A PRETTY KETTLE OF FISH.--The Riots at Ostend.

* * * * *

THE SIGH OF THE SEASON.

[Illustration: Pilled at the Club.]

Good-bye dinner, good-bye lunch,
Good-bye turtle, good-bye punch,
Good-bye jambon soaked in cham.,
Good-bye venison, cutlets lamb,
Good-bye salmon, smelts, and sole,
Good-bye HEIDSIECK'S Monopole,
Good-bye hock, sauterne, and sherry,
Good-bye all that makes me merry,
Good-bye liqueurs, _petite verre_,
Good-bye Sauce _au Vin Madere_,
Good-bye all these joys of life,
Good-bye fork, and good-bye knife,
Good-bye all I take when out,
Good-bye _then_ this twinge of gout!

* * * * *

WORTH NOTICE.--There is this slight difference between the
conventional Yankee and the average Home Ruler, that whilst the former
swears "by Gum," the latter swears by G. O. M.

* * * * *

"THE STORY OF A KISS."--(_A "Novel" Reading._)--Kiss and tell! For
shame!

* * * * *

INTERIORS AND EXTERIORS. No. 51.

[Illustration: THE LATE PARLIAMENTARY HARVEST.