" WENT THE "BILLY!"]

So it is around the great arena of political fame and power. "Whack!"
goes the "billy" of popular opinion; and politicians, like old "Tow
Breeches," spin 'round with the broken noses of misguided ambition and
disappointed hope. In the heated campaign many a would-be Webster lies
down and dreams of the triumph that awaits him on the morrow, but he
wakes to find it only a dream, and when the votes are counted his
little bird hath flown, and he is in the condition of the old Jew.
An Englishman, an Irishman and a Jew hung up their socks together on
Christmas Eve. The Englishman put his diamond pin in the Irishman's
sock; the Irishman put his watch in the sock of the Englishman; they
slipped an egg into the sock of the Jew. "And did you git onny thing?"
asked Pat in the morning. "Oh yes," said the Englishman, "I received a
fine gold watch, don't you know. And what did you get Pat?" "Begorra,
I got a foine diamond pin." "And what did you get, Jacob?" said the
Englishman to the Jew. "Vell," said Jacob, holding up the egg. "I got
a shicken but it got avay before I got up."

THE PHANTOM OF FORTUNE.

I would not clip the wings of noble, honorable aspiration. I would not
bar and bolt the gate to the higher planes of thought and action, where
truth and virtue bloom and ripen into glorious fruit. There are a
thousand fields of endeavor in the world, and happy is he who labors
where God intended him to labor.

The contented plowman who whistles as he rides to the field and sings as
he plows, and builds his little paradise on the farm, gets more out of
life than the richest Shylock on earth.

The good old spectacled mother in Israel, with her white locks and
beaming face, as she works in her sphere, visiting the poor, nursing the
sick, and closing the eyes of the dead, is more beautiful in her life,
and more charming in her character, than the loveliest queen of society
who ever chased the phantoms of pleasure in the ballroom.

The humblest village preacher who faithfully serves his God, and leads
his pious flock in the paths of holiness and peace, is more eloquent,
and plays a nobler part than the most brilliant infidel who ever
blasphemed the name of God.

The industrious drummer who travels all night and toils all day to win
comfort for wife, and children, and mother, and sister, is a better man,
and a far better citizen, than the most successful speculator on Wall
Street, who plays with the fo