* * * * *

HISTORY PLAGIARIZES FROM FICTION.

"Mr. Ginnell: Everybody in the House is excited but myself.
Even you, Mr. Speaker, are excited."--_Parliamentary Debates_.

"'It's my opinion, sir,' said Mr. Stiggins ... that this
meeting is drunk, sir. Brother Tadger, sir ... _you_ are
drunk, sir.'"--_Pickwick Papers_.

* * * * *

AN OLD SONG RESUNG.

"O Ever since the world began
There never was and never can
Be such a very useful man
As the railway porter."

So ran the rhyme that in my youth
I thought perhaps outstripped the truth,
But now, when longer in the tooth,
Freely I endorse it.

In calling out a station's name
He is undoubtedly to blame
For failing, as a rule, to aim
At clear enunciation;