kness. Just as they begin to
sharpen their pencils, presto! the war is over, and the occupation of
these hardy gentlemen is gone.

Can nothing be done about this? If a protest--"firm and
dignified"--would really do no good, what about some _new_ excitement,
which, as every one knows, we _must_ have or perish! Will no other
jealous contiguous nations fall out? Must we fall out ourselves?
Election is still a good way off, and, really, we don't see what's to be
done. Fights are few, and suicides are falling off. The Indians are
disgustingly peaceful, and even the Mormons have subsided. It is two
years and over to the next Presidential election; and there is no more
cholera.

Really, this is too bad! We must muse on the situation for a season,
and, meanwhile, shall confidently expect something or other to turn up
almost any day.

* * * * *

PUSS AS A PORT-MONNAIE.

The following eccentric freak of a cat is reported in a daily paper:

"A two dollar note was taken to one of the Lebanon banks for redemption
last week, which had been taken from the intestines of a cat, in
Montgomery county. The cat had stolen the note and swallowed it, was
caught and shot, and the note thus recovered."

There is nothing new in getting notes "from the intestines of a cat."
PAGANINI got no end of notes from catgut. So do VIEUXTEMPS, and OLE
BULL, and TOM BAKER, and others too numerous to mention. The cat that
swallowed the greenback should have been added to BARNUM'S "Happy
Family," however, instead of being sacrificed to Mammon. With its
two-dollar bill it would have been a formidable rival to the
_Ornithorynchus Paradoxus_, or beast with a bill, of Australia.

* * * * *

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

A TREATISE ON THE BANKRUPT LAW, FOR BUSINESS MEN. By AUDLEY W. GAZZAM,
Solicitor in Bankruptcy, Utica, N. Y. New York: GEORGE T. DELLER, No. 95
Liberty Street.

This book contains not only all the latest amendments to the Bankrupt
Act, with copious notes covering the latest English and American
decisions, but it also has a prefatory chapter of "Hints to Persons
contemplating Bankruptcy." PUNCHINELLO, feeling a deep interest in the
welfare of _The Sun_, _The Free Press_, and certain others of his
contemporaries, earnestly requests their attention to that chapter. Some
such advice as it contains is evidently needed by them for their
guidance through the financial gloom that seems to be