s flat." HENRY (AUTHOR SHAKSPEARE) IV., Part I.,
Act I., Scene 3.]

* * * * *

A TRIO.--Congratulations to Sir WILLIAM CUSINS, who from his known
admiration for WAGNER, is generally known as "Cusins German." He was
a "King's Scholar," and KING, whoever he was, must have found him
a remarkably apt pupil. He has composed a Comic Opera called _Giddy
'Un_. The next Knight is JOSEPH BARNBY, a name suggestive of pure
rustic music. The last of the Knights, Sir WALTER PARRATT, has chosen
as his device the ancient legend always associated with the head
of the PARRATT family, i.e., "Scratch a Poll." This dates from very
ancient times, and was an inscription found in a temple of Apollo.

* * * * *

OMINOUS.--Unfortunate name for a piece is _Cigarette_. So suggestive
of "paper," and of "ending in smoke." _Absit omen!_

* * * * *

[Illustration: STUDIES IN IDIOCY.

_She._ "MRS. MOFFAT'S THE ODDEST WOMAN! SHE'S FOND OF MEETING CLEVER
PEOPLE, YOU KNOW, AND SHE NEVER OPENS HER LIPS, BUT LISTENS TO EVERY
WORD THEY SAY, AND PUTS IT ALL DOWN IN A DIARY AFTER!"

_He._ "HAW--BY JOVE! SHALL TAKE PRECIOUS GOOD CARE WHAT _I_ SAY BEFORE
HER!"]

* * * * *

AIDS TO LARCENY.--(_By an "Outside Croaker."_)--I find that since
I started off shopping this morning, I have lost my purse, my
handkerchief, the keys of all my boxes and drawers, a silver-mounted
scent-bottle, my season-ticket, and a pocket-book containing priceless
materials for the plot of a three-volumed novel. This comes of riding
on the outside of an omnibus with garden-seats.--Conductor, the
gentlemanly person who sat just behind me, and who is now proceeding
rather quickly up Chancery Lane, seems to have been unable to resist
the temptation afforded by my hanging coat-tails, and has walked off
with a few unpaid bills which were in the pockets, under a mistaken
impression that they were bank-notes. Would you mind explaining to him
his mistake?--Would it be possible for the excellent Directors of the
London General Omnibus Company and the London Road Car Company, so to
board up the open backs of their otherwise delightful garden-seats
as to prevent a ride on the top of an omnibus from being a constant
series of (generally unwarranted) suspicions of the people seated in
one's rear?

* * * * *

AN AFTERNOON SAIL.

S