GEOGRAPHICAL.

"Low-lying" districts are much talked about just now as
breeding-grounds for the pestiferous Influenza microbe. The worst
"low-lying" districts _Punch_ knows are the editorial offices of
certain scurrilous journals, and the social pestilences they engender
and disseminate sorely need abatement. Perhaps when they have duly
fumigated the House, they will turn their attention to the Office.

* * * * *

[Illustration: A JUDGE OF CHARACTER.

_Sympathetic Friend_ (_to Sweeper_). "WHAT'S THE USE O' ARSTIN' _'IM_,
BILL? _'E_ DON'T GIVE AWAY NOTHINK LESS THAN A GOVER'MENT APPOINTMENT,
_'E_ DON'T!!"]

* * * * *

THE BITTER CRY OF OUTCAST COMPETITION.

"The breakfast at St. James's Hall, which we reported
yesterday, and which was held in order to allow those who
partook of it to discuss the possibility of establishing
in this country a 'non-competitive system of university
examination,' was, in some respects, a natural outcome of the
revolt against competition which has of late years made itself
felt in many different quarters."--_The Times_.