y dress; a mite, a tiny mite, might have
made progress round my room, nor found a substance larger than itself to
stop its way. My lips at dinner were scalded with the steaming soup; the
eager waiters, rushing with the choicest sauce, in dread collision met,
and soused my well-brushed coat. I was once more number one!--all things
had changed again.

READER--Except the rainbow.

Ay, even that.

READER,--Indeed! how so?

If still impalpable to the gross foot of earth, it seemed to the charmed
mind a glowing passage for the freed spirit to mount to bliss!

READER.--May I ask what caused this difference?

You may, and shall be answered. I had received--

READER.--What?

TWENTY POUNDS!

FUSBOS.

* * * * *

CURIOSITY HUNTERS

There is a large class of people in the world--the business of whose lives
is to hunt after and collect trifling curiosities; who go about like the
Parisian _chiffonniers_, grubbing and poking in the highways and byeways
of society, for those dearly-prized objects which the generality of
mankind would turn up their noses at as worthless rubbish. But though the
tribe of curiosity-hunters be extremely numerous, Nature, by a wise
provision, has bestowed on them various appetites, so that, in the pursuit
of their prey, they are led by different instincts, and what one seizes
with avidity, another rejects as altogether unworthy of notice.

The varieties of the species are interminable; some of them are well
known, and need no description--such as the book-worm, the bird-stuffer,
the coin-taster, the picture-scrubber, &c.; but there are others whose
tastes are singularly eccentric: of these I may mention the snuff-box
collector, the cane-fancier, the ring-taker, the play-bill gatherer, to
say nothing of one illustrious personage, whose passion for collecting a
library of Bibles is generally known. But there is another individual of
the species that I have not yet mentioned, whose morbid pleasure in
collecting relics and memorials of the most revolting deeds of blood and
crime is too well authenticated to be discredited. I believe that this
variety, which I term "The Criminal Curiosity Hunter," is unknown to every
country in the world, except England.

How such a horrible taste should have been engendered here, is a question
not easily solved. Physiologists are inclined to attribute it to our heavy
atmosphere, which induces gloomy thoughts and fancies; while mo