, if you can slay
Those horrid germs that kill us,
You'll be _the_ hero of the day,
Great foe of the Bacillus!
What champion may we match with you
In all the world of fable?
St. George, who the Great Dragon slew,
The Knights of ARTHUR's Table,
E'en gallant giant-slaying JACK,
The British nursery's darling;
Or JENNER, against whom the pack
Of faddists now are snarling,
Must second fiddle play to him
Who stayed the plague of phthisis,
And plumbed a mystery more dim
And deep than that of Isis.
For what are Dragons, Laidly Worms,
And such-like mythic scourges,
Compared with microscopic germs
'Gainst which the war he urges?
Hygeia, goddess, saint, or nymph,
We trust there's no big blunder,
And hope your votary's magic lymph
May prove no nine days' wonder.
We dare not trust each pseudo-seer
Who'd powder, purge, or pill us;
But pyramids to him we'll rear
Who baffles the Bacillus.

* * * * *

STRANGE TRANSFORMATION.--From the _Times_ Correspondent, U.S., we
learned, last week, that somebody who had been "a Bull," was now "a
Bear." What next will he be?--A donkey? Or did he begin with this, and
will he end by being a goose?

* * * * *

PROSPECT FOR CHRISTMAS.--"TUCK," i.e., RAPHAEL of that ilk. The
"Correct (Christmas) Card."

* * * * *

"A PAIR OF SPECTACLES."

[Illustration]

The first spectacle classic and Shakspearian: t'other burlesquian,
and PETTIT-cum-SIMS. The one at the Princess's, the other at the
Gaiety. _Place au_ "Divine WILLIAMS"! _Antony and Cleopatra_ is
magnificently put on the stage. The costumes are probably O.K.--"all
correct"--seeing that Mr. LEWIS WINGFIELD pledges his honourable
name for the fact. We might have done with a few less, perhaps, but,
as in the celebrated case of the war-song of the Jingoes, if we've
got the men, and the money too, then there was every reason why the
redoubtable LEWIS (whose name, as brotherly Masons will call to mind,
means "Strength") should have put a whole army of Romans on the stage,
if it so pleased him.

[Illustration: The Last Scene of Antony and Cleopatra.]

For its _mise-en-scene_ alone the revival should attract all
London. But there is more than this--there is the clever and careful
impersonation of _Enobarbus_ by His Gracious Heaviness, Mr. ARTHUR
STIRLING; then ther