N.B. The female skate is more delicate than the male.

Persons who indulge in conundrums, charades &c. are invariably poor
creatures; as are those who have a knack at finding out such trifles.
The same remark applies to punsters. It is difficult for a man of
sterling talent to perpetrate a pun, or to solve an enigma. On the
latter account, Oedipus must have been an ass.

A fact.--Nine-tenths of the catsup which is sold in the shops is a vile
compound of liver and the roan of fish, seasoned with vinegar, pepper,
and other condiments. If you wish the article genuine, you must procure
mushrooms, and make it yourself.

* * * * *


FERDINAND VII. OF SPAIN.

There is no court in Europe about which so little is known as that of
Madrid, and certainly no European sovereign whose character and habits
have been so studiously misrepresented as those of Ferdinand. The first
time we beheld this monarch, we could scarcely credit the evidence of
our senses. Walking in the gardens of the Retiro, at the time crowded
with company, we encountered a portly old gentleman, quite unattended,
habited in a plain, blue coat and nankeen trousers. This was Ferdinand,
_El Rey absoluto_, whom, in our mind's eye, we had long sketched
with the dark pencil of a Murillo. On a countenance that we expected
to have seen marked by all the dark and fiery passions of a Caesar
Borgia, we beheld an expression of _bonhomie_--a total absence of
hauteur, still less of ferocity; in fact, so totally different was he