Philadelphia, for asserting that no animate beings could survive their
transference from the atmosphere of Venus to that of our planet for more
than fourteen days. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the members of
the Royal Commission may be successful in impressing upon our aërial
visitors the imperative necessity of a speedy return. In these
negotiations it is anticipated that the expressive pantomime of Dr.
Parker, and Mr. Hall Caine's mastery of the Manx dialect, will be of the
greatest possible assistance."

To the _Daily Telegraph_ Sir Edwin Arnold contributed a poem entitled
"Aphrodite Anadyomené; or, Venus at the Round Pond." My mother can
remember only the last stanza, which ran as follows:

"Though I fly to _Fushiyama_,
Steeped in opalescent _Karma_,
I shall ne'er forget my charmer,
My adorable _Khansamah_.
Though I fly to Tokio,
Where the sweet _chupatties_ blow,
I shall ne'er forget thee, no!
_Yamagata, daimio_."

A shilling testimonial to the Wenuses was also started by the same
journal, in accordance with the precedent furnished by the similar
treatment of the Graces, and an animated controversy raged in its
correspondence columns with reference to mixed bathing at Margate, and
its effect on the morality of the Wenuses.

A somewhat painful impression was created by the publication of an
interview with a well-known dramatic critic in the periodical known as