J. H._ To the Crystal Palace, where they have got _Cinderella_
this year. It's first-rate!

* * * * *

"VANITY UN-FAIR."--A week ago a caricature of one of the most popular
and pleasant-looking of officials--a scholar and a gentleman--Mr. EDWARD
PIGOTT--the Examiner of Plays, was published in _Vanity Fair_.
Unrecognisable as a portrait, the picture was painfully hideous. Why it
should have been allowed to appear is a mystery, as Mr. PIGOTT is a man
that either is, or should be, without an enemy. There is only one thing
to be done--our contemporary (following a recent precedent preserved in
its own columns) should publish an apology.

* * * * *

"SPEED THE PARTING."--The last four weeks of BARNUM at Olympia are
announced. If this is a fact, won't there arise a chorus of general
jubilation from Theatrical Managers? Rather!

* * * * *

"ANA."--_Obiter dicta_ anent the Parnell Commission will be published in
one supplementary volume, entitled, _Osheana_.

* * * * *

[Illustration: GRADUAL TRANSFORMATION SCENE.--FLIGHT OF THE DEMON
INFLUENZA AT THE APPROACH OF SPRING.]

* * * * *

THE DITTY OF THE DAGGER.

[A writer on Fashion says, "The latest fad is the wearing of large
daggers in the hair, which renders a lady quite dangerous to her
neighbours."]

ETHELINDA hath a dagger; IRVING gave it; calmly there,
As the fashion is, she sticks it in her coronal of hair.

It looks very like the dagger 'bout which _Macbeth_ told such fibs,
That cold steel which tickled _Duncan_ underneath his royal ribs.

Whomsoever she approaches, that three-cornered dagger prods,
And a hecatomb of corpses follows when her head she nods.

KATE and MARGARET were wounded as if they'd been to the wars,
HILDA too and OLGA owe her very aggravating scars.

BEN and TED have both been prodded, and unhappy LIONELLO,
Looks as if he'd been engaging in a terrible _duello_.

If the fashion thus continues of stilettos worn like this,
Men must case their heads in helmets, or ne'er go near girls, I wis.

Nathless, were I ETHELINDA'S mother, I would say, "Beware!
If you must keep such a dagger, leave it upstairs--with your hair."

ETHELINDA fiercely would repel the base insinuation,
But the hint might save her neighbours any further laceration.