ut a certain chance
To lose his own precious skin!
There may be a few, perhaps, who fail
To see it in quite this light,
But when the fur flies I had rather be
The outside dog in the fight.

I know there are dogs--most generous dogs
Who think it is quite the thing
To take the part of the bottom dog,
And go yelping into the ring.
I care not a pin what the world may say
In regard to the wrong or right;
My money goes as well as my song,
For the dog that keeps out of the fight!

Mr. Webb, like Charles Lamb and the late Mr. Travers, stammered just
enough to give piquancy to his conversation. To facilitate enunciation
he placed a "g" before the letters which it was hard for him to
pronounce. We were talking of the many sad and sudden deaths from
pneumonia, bronchitis, etc., during the recent spring season, and then
of the insincerity of poets who sighed for death and longed for a
summons to depart. He said in his deliciously slow and stumbling
manner: "I don't want the ger-pneu-m-mon-ia. I'm in no ger-hurry to
ger-go." Mrs. Webb's drawing-rooms were filled with valuable pictures
and bronzes, and her Thursday Evenings at home were a delight to many.

How little we sometimes know of the real spirit and the inner life of
some noble man or woman. Mrs. Hermann was a remarkable instance of
this. I thought I was well acquainted with Mrs. Esther Hermann, who,
in her home, 59 West fifty-sixth Street New York, was always
entertaining her many friends. Often three evenings a week were given
to doing something worth while for someone, or giving opportunity for
us to hear some famous man or woman speak, who was interested in some
great project. And her refreshments, after the hour of listening was
over, were of the most generous and delicious kind. Hers was a lavish
hospitality. It was all so easily and quietly done, that no one
realized that those delightful evenings were anything but play to her.
She became interested in me when I was almost a novice in the lecture
field, gave me two benefits, invited those whom she thought would
enjoy my talks, and might also be of service to me. There was never
the slightest stiffness; if one woman was there for the first time,
and a stranger, Mrs. Hermann and her daughters saw that there were
plenty of introductions and an escort engaged to take the lady to