ighted world,
kindly condescends, in the advertisement herewith given, to
retail his wisdom to anxious inquirers at a dollar a chunk:

"ASTROLOGY.--Dr. Wilson, 172 Delancey street, gives the
most scientific and reliable information to be found on
all concerns of life, past, present, and future.
Terms--ladies, 50 cents; gentlemen, $1. Birth required."

The last sentence is slightly obscure, and it was not quite clear
to Johannes that he would not have to be "born again" on the
premises. But at all events there was something refreshing in the
novelty of consulting a "learned pundit" in pantaloons, after all
the tough conjurers of the other sex that he had undergone of
late.

So he repaired to Delancey street in a joyous mood, nothing
daunted by the requirements of the advertisement.

Delancey street is not Paradise, quite the contrary. In fact it
may be set down as unsavory, not to say dirty in the extreme. The
man that can walk through the east end of this delicious
thoroughfare without a constant sensation of sea-sickness, has a
stomach that would be true to him in a dissecting-room. The
individual that can explore with his unwilling boots its slimy
depths without a feeling of the most intense disgust for
everything in the city and of the city, ought to live in Delancey
street and buy his provisions at the corner grocery. He never
ought to see the country, or even to smell the breath of a
country cow. He should be exiled to the city; be banished to
perpetual bricks and mortar; be condemned to a never-ending
series of omnibus rides, and to innumerable varieties of short
change.

The delegate picked his way gingerly enough, thinking all the
while that if Leander had been compelled to wade through Delancey
street, instead of taking a clean swim across the sea, Hero might
have died a respectable old maid for all Leander. And yet
Johannes says he doesn't believe that History will give _him_ any
credit for his valorous navigation of the said street.

He at last reached the designated spot, sound as to body, though
wofully soiled as to garments, and approached the semi-subterranean
abode of the great prophet, and immediately after his modest rap
at the basement door, was met by the venerable sage in person.
He walked in, and then proceeded to take an observation of the
cabalistic instruments and mysterious surroundings of the great
philosopher.

The room was a small, low apartment, about ten fee