linds are down,
For "the Family is gone, Sir,"--not a soul is left in Town.

South to Switzerland they hurry, to explore each snowy fell;
North to Scotland's moors and forests, where the grouse and
red-deer dwell;
Carlsbad, Homburg, Trouville, Norway, soon their jaded eyes will
view;
For Society is speeding "to fresh woods and pastures new."

Everyone is gone or going,--everyone, that is, one knows,--
And the "Great Elections'" Season fast is drawing to its close.
Never surely was a poorer; such dull dinners, so few balls,
Such an Epsom, such an Ascot, or so many empty stalls.

Gone the Season, with its dances, with its concerts and its _fetes_,
With its weddings and divorces, with its dinners and debates;
Gone are all its vapid pleasures, all its easy charities,
Gone its _causes celebres_ and scandals, gone its tears and
tragedies.

Weary legislators envy still more weary _chaperons_;--
Much they know the truth who deem them of Society the drones;--
All the maidens are _ennuyees_, vow they "can't do anymore,"
All the gilded youth are yawning--everything's a horrid bore.

Hearken then, ye youths and maidens, favoured Children of the West,
East and South and North are children, who are hungering for rest.
They have never seen the country, never heard the streamlet flow:
London pavements, London darkness, London squalor,--these they know.

Not for them to range the moorland, or to climb the mountain-side;
They must linger on in London, till the grave their sorrows hide.
From year's end to dreary year's end they must pace the noisy
street.
Do you hear the ceaseless echo of their weary, weary feet?

Just one day without your wine, Sir! Madam, just one ribbon less,
And one wearied child in London from afar your name will bless.
Think, ere now you seek your boredom in fresh pleasure-draughts to
drown,
Three or four benighted Millions still are left behind in Town!

* * * * *

GENERAL OPINION ON APPOINTMENT OF NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF INLAND
REVENUE.--"MILNER's Safe."

* * * * *

CANVASSERS AND CANVASSED.

(_AN ELECTIONEERING REMINISCENCE._)

SCENE--_A narrow South London Street of two-storeyed houses,
with a Rag-and-Bone Shop at one end and a Public House at the
other. Time, about four o'clock on a warm Saturday afternoon.