thrown by hand into the wings.

It is not easy at a first performance to take in everything with both
eye and ear, and I shall excuse myself from attempting to do justice to
M. RAVEL'S music. But I was free (the curtain being down) to listen to
one long orchestral passage which followed the capture of _Chloe_. It
was of the nature of a dirge, and it seemed to me to suggest very
cleverly the sorrows of a poultry-yard. I suppose _Chloe_ must have been
in the habit of feeding them and they missed her.

I hate to say one word of disparagement about a performance for which I
could never be sufficiently grateful. But I agree with a friend of mine
who complained to me of the way in which _Pan_ was presented. It was
this beneficent god who caused a panic among the brigands and so enabled
_Chloe_ to return to her friends, though I don't know why he ever let
her be captured, for he was there at the time. Well, I agree that he
ought to have been represented by something more satisfactory than a
half-length portrait painted on a huge travelling plank of pasteboard,
which was pushed about from Arcadia to Scythia (if this was the
brigands' address) and back again, appearing in the limelight, when
required, like a whisky sky-sign.

O. S.

* * * * *

[Illustration: "CAN YOU LEND ME A COUPLE O' BOB, GEORGE? I'VE JUST HAD
MY POCKET PICKED."]

* * * * *

TEMPORA MUTANTUR.

[Suggested by recent correspondence in a leading journal.]

WHY USE SPECS?

_A Centenarian's Testimony to the Editor of "The Chimes."_

SIR,--I was 117 on the 1st of April and have never used any artificial
aid to eyesight, yet I can read the articles for ladies on the Court
Circular page of your splendid publication without turning a hair. It is
true that I am, and have always been, of an iron constitution, having
practically dispensed with sleep for the last sixty years. For some
considerable time I have been able to do without physical sustenance as
well, owing to the extraordinarily nutritious nature of the contents of
your superb South American Encyclopaedias.

Yours faithfully,

NESTOR PARR.

A PERFECT CURE.

_To the Editor of "The Chimes."_

SIR,--Is my experience worth recording? Until two or three years ago I
was entirely dependent on spectacles, and suffered unspeakable
inconvenience if I happened to mislay them. But since I became a
subscriber to your unique and unparalleled organ I have f