thin end of the wedge slip in,
By Jove, they'll open wide the public eyes,
And smash up all our snug Monopolies.

* * * * *

AN AMUSEMENT SCARCELY LIKELY TO BE POPULAR WITH CHILDREN.--The
Switchback.

* * * * *

[Illustration: LONGING FOR A NEW SENSATION.

_Jack (a Naughty Boy, who is always in disgrace, and most deservedly)._
"I SAY, EFFIE, DO YOU KNOW WHAT I SHOULD LIKE? I SHOULD LIKE TO BE
ACCUSED OF SOMETHING I'D NEVER DONE!"]

* * * * *

FIRE AND WATER.

(_With Apologies to the Shades of the Authors of "Rejected Addresses."_)

THE Fire Fiend was curst with unquenchable thirst,
And his gnomes to his aid having beckoned,
From Cornhill to Clapham he flew at a burst,
And furious flames soon arose from the first,
And volumes of smoke from the second.

The Fire Fiend was hungry as Moloch of old,
And knew not the meaning of pity.
The new _Edax Rerum_; voraciously bold,
His maw a red gulf that was ready to hold
The calcined remains of a City.

That Phlegethon-gorge might have served as the grave
Of man and his works altogether;
But SHAW, the new Life-guardsman, swordless but brave,
Was ever at hand to extinguish and save,
And hold the Red Ogre in tether.

The Fire Fiend as usual went at full pelt,
But SHAW at his heels followed faster,
Of leather well tanned were SHAW'S boots and his belt,
And his helmet was brazen for fear it should melt,
And the Fire Demon knew him as master.

The Fire Fiend possessed a most hideous phiz,
Polyphemus's was not more horrid,
Unkempt and unwashed was that visage of his,
For water that touched it went off with a whiz!
It _was_ so tremendously torrid.

But SHAW on his enemy kept a cool eye,
Of vigilant valour the symbol.
Affrighted no more by the Fire Demon's cry
Than the squeak of a rat; if the Fire Fiend was spry,
His opponent was equally nimble.

For Water, Fire's foe, at his best freely flows,
And the Fire Demon dares not to linger
Whenever his enemy turns on the hose;
He stands in much fear of this foeman and those
Who flock at the lift of his finger.

The Fire Fiend has schemes, it is credibly said,
For laying half London in ashes;
But Water--and SHAW--are the things he must dread,
And at sight of an engine he shakes his red head,
And his teeth like a