e Third Act, are
entirely of British manufacture. We understand that they are from the
looms of Messrs. PUFF AND RECLAME.

* * * * *

In the First Act of the same piece, it will be remembered that the
bridal party is captured whole by _Hubando_, disguised as a mendicant,
in the recesses of one of the forests of the Abruzzi. The real
pine-trees, which are to figure in the foreground of this striking
scene, have been grown, with immense labour and expense, in the
well-known nurseries of Messrs. WEEDEM AND POTTER, at Ditchington.
The mendicant's rags, it should be added, are from one of our most
celebrated slop-shops in the Ratcliff Highway.

* * * * *

[Illustration: TRIUMPH OF ART OVER NATURE.

_Serious Artist_. "I THINK YOU KNEW THE MODEL FOR THIS FIGURE--POOR
BEGGAR, DEAF AND DUMB."

_Light-hearted Friend_. "I KNOW,--USED TO SIT AT CORNER OF STREET.
DEAF AND DUMB! BY JOVE, YOU'VE MADE A _SPEAKING_ LIKENESS OF HIM!
WONDERFUL!!"]

* * * * *

"THERE'S THE RUB!"

(_AN OLD STORY WITH A NEW APPLICATION._)

_Champion Bill-Poster, loquitur_:--

"Bill-stickers beware!" Ah! that's all very well,
A wondrously wise, if conventional, warning.
But _I_'m the legitimate "Poster"--a swell
In the paste-pot profession, all "notices" scorning.
A brush surreptitious, and Bills unofficial,
No doubt, are a nuisance to people of taste,
To Order offensive, to Law prejudicial,
But who can object to _my_ pot and _my_ paste?

'Tis time that this Poster were up! _Slap-dap-slosh_!
I think it a telling one. Brave, Big, Blue letters!
Some rivals about, but _their_ programmes won't wash;
Those Newcastle noodles must own us their betters.
I'm Champion Bill-Poster! Even Brum JOEY,
Who flouted me once will acknowledge that fact.
My Bills are so goey, and fetching, and showy,
My paste so adhesive, my brush so exact!

_Slap-slop-slidder-slosh_! There's "stick-phast," if you like.
Bill-sticking like this is an Art, and no error.
Bold letters, brave colour! A poster to strike,--
Admiration with some, and with some, perhaps, terror.
I wish I quite knew that the former preponderate,--
That is, _sufficiently_. Mutterings I hear,--
But there, 'tis a Bill to admire, and to wonder at.
Why, after five seasons' success, should I fear?

Hist! What is that? Thought I heard a low g