ly to the use of the word
_Metropolitan_, though I think it indefensible. Still, it is too bad of
them to persist in using the word _bye-laws_ for _by-laws_--so
establishing solidly a shocking error. The word _bye_ has no existence
in England except as short for _be with you_, in the phrase _Good-bye_.
The so called by-laws are simple laws by the other laws, and have nothing
to do with any form of salutation. In a bill of the Great Western
Railway I find the announcement that tickets obtained in London on any
day from December 20th to 24th will be available for use on _either_ of
those days--this _either_ meaning the five days from the 20th December to
the 24th inclusive. Either of five! After this I am not surprised that,
in a contribution of my own to a daily paper, the editor gravely altered
the phrase _the last-named_, applied to one of three people, to _latter_.
In a railway advertisement I read a day or two ago, "From whence." Now,
what is the good of such fine words as _whence_ and _thence_ if they are
thus to be ill-used? Surely the railway companies might have some one
capable of seeing that their grammar has some pretence to correctness.

--_Gentleman's Magazine_.

A WIDOW'S CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION.

Some time ago a railway collision on one of the roads leading out of New
York killed, among others, a passenger living in an interior town. His
remains were sent home, and a few days after the funeral the attorney of
the road called upon the widow to effect a settlement. She placed her
figures at twenty thousand dollars. "Oh! that sum is unreasonable,"
replied the attorney. "Your husband was nearly fifty years old." "Yes,
sir." "And lame?" "Yes." "And his general health was poor?" "Quite
poor." "And he probably would not have lived over five years?"
"Probably not, sir." "Then it seems to me that two or three thousand
dollars would be a fair compensation." "Two or three thousand!" she
echoed. "Why, sir, I courted that man for ten years, run after him for
ten more, and then had to chase him down with a shotgun to get him before
a preacher! Do you suppose that I'm going to settle for the bare cost of
shoe leather and ammunition?"

THE LADY AND HER LAP-DOG.

The following scene occurred at the high-level Crystal Palace line:--"A
newspaper correspondent was amused at the indignation of a lady against
the porters who interfered to p