a wide berth.

* * * * *

=BACHELOR= From Latin _baculus_, a stick, unattached. Hence, an
unattached man, which any lady may stick, stick to, or get
stuck on.

* * * * *

=BACKBITER= A mosquito.

* * * * *

=BALANCE= Something wanted by book-keepers and often lost by
topers. May be found in a cash-book or the kangaroo gait.

* * * * *

=BANDIT= An outlaw. See =ALDERMAN=.

* * * * *

=BARBER= A brilliant conversationalist, who occasionally shaves
and cuts hair. Syn. for Phonograph.

* * * * *

=BARS= Things found in harbors, hotels, fences, prisons, courts
and music. (Those found in courts and in music are full of
beats).

* * * * *

=BARGAIN=

[Illustration]

A disease common to women, caught in the Sunday papers and
developed in department stores on Mondays. Symptoms, loud
talk, pushing and shoving, a combination prize-fight and
foot-ball scrimmage. (Old spelling _Bark-gain_).

* * * * *

=BASEBALL= A game in which the young man who bravely strikes out
for himself receives no praise for it.

* * * * *

=BAT= Senior partner of Bat, Ball & Co., and never found without
the rest of the firm, as it takes several high-balls to make
one short bat.

* * * * *

=BEACH= A strip of sand, skirted by water; covered with
lady-killers in summer, life-savers in winter, and used as a
haven--or heaven--for Smacks the year around.

* * * * *

=BENEDICT= A married male.

=BENEDICTINE= A married female.

=BENEDICTION= Their children.

* * * * *

=BERTH= An aid to sleep, invented by Pullman. Lower preferred.

=BIRTH= An aid to life, discovered by Woman. Higher preferred.

* * * * *

=BICYCLE-SKIRT= A abbreviated garment that makes women look
shorter and men longer.

* * * * *

=BIGAMY= A form of insanity in which a man insists on paying three
board bills instead of two.

* * * * *

=BILLIOUSNESS= A liv