ocks;
"Whatchy goin' t' gimme?" asks the wretched and the poor,
Living in their penury a stone's throw from your door.

"Whatchy goin' t' gimme?" asks the great big world, of you;
"Lifetime full of usefulness, heart sincere and true?"
"Whatchy goin' t' gimme?" Hear it everywhere you go--
Always comes the answer, "Oh, just sumpin, I dunno."

_Baltimore American._

THE ORIGINAL GRAFTER.

"And Croesus lifted up his voice and cried, 'Solon!
Solon!' And King Cyrus ordered that the fire be extinguished
and the captive released."--_Herodotus._

There's a basis for a thesis in the history of Croesus--
Mr. Croesus, Greece's captain of finance;
It contains an exegesis on the clippings of the fleeces
Of the lambs, when Wall Street's breezes are not tempered, and the
geese's
Ravished feathers pay the piper for the dance.

"In the days of old Rameses, this here story had paresis"--
So says Kipling, and what he says goes with me,
But old or new, it pleases me at times to save the pieces
Of the stories of the glories and the grandeurs that were Greece's,
When they prophesy a modern case, you see.

The capture of old Croesus was a stunt of the police's
That for up-to-dateness seizes me with joy.
He was roasted like a cheese is, out there on the Chersonesus,
Till he hollered for his lawyer--"Solon!"
Ay, that's where the squeeze is--
"Technicality"--trial ceases--"vindication"--this release is
What the grafters count on nowadays, my boy!

_Cleveland Leader._

The Devil and Tom Walker.

BY WASHINGTON IRVING.

Washington Irving was born in the city of New York, April 3,
1783, and died at Sunnyside, near Tarrytown, New York,
November 28, 1859. Irving is frequently spoken of as the
founder of American literature. Though fond of reading, he
had little taste for study in his youth, and did not attend
college.

Failing health caused him to go to Europe, where he traveled
for several years. His first literary work of importance was
his "Knickerbocker's History of New York." Shortly
afterward, while engaged in a commercial venture with his
brothers, he found it necessary to make a second visit to
England. The firm failed, and, while still in England,
Irving again devoted all his attention to literature.

The "Sketch Book" wa