mother to me!--I was studying my part." This is probably merely one
of those cynical stories with which the sharp people of Paris love
to environ and encircle every one who stands a dangerous chance of
becoming too popular. But smaller artists than Mademoiselle Rachel
have sometimes had recourse to curious expedients to give their
dramatic personations a show at reality. The French _prima donna_, who
not very long ago appeared in M. Clapisson's poor opera, "Jeanne la
Folle," is said to have shut herself up in the _Salpêtrière_, by way
of studying _her_ part, and to have been rewarded for her zealous
curiosity by receiving a basin of scalding soup dashed in her face by
one of the poor miserable objects of her examination.

* * * * *

A Frankfort journal states that the colossal statue of Bavaria, by
SCHWANTHALER, which is to be placed on the hill of Seudling, surpasses
in its gigantic proportions all the works of the moderns. It will have
to be removed in pieces from the foundry where it is cast to its place
of destination,--and each piece will require sixteen horses to draw
it. The great toes are each half a metre in length. In the head two
persons could dance a polka very conveniently,--while the nose might
lodge the musician. The thickness of the robe--which forms a rich
drapery descending to the ankles--is about six inches, and its
circumference at the bottom about two hundred metres. The Crown
of Victory which the figure holds in her hands weighs one hundred
quintals (a quintal is a hundred-weight).

* * * * *

The death of SIR ROBERT PEEL, says the _Literary Gazette_, has