Made against matrimony. Then a spouter,
Full of long words and windy; a wire-puller,
Jealous of office, fond of platform-posing,
Seeking that bubble She-enfranchisement
E'en with abusive mouth. Then County-Councillor,
Her meagre bosom shrunk and harshly lined,
Full of "land-laws" and "unearned increment";
Or playing M.P. part. The sixth age shifts
Into the withered sour She-pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and "Gamp" at side,
Her azure hose, well-darned, a world too wide
For her shrunk shanks; her once sweet woman's voice,
Verjuiced to Virgin-vinegarishness,
Grates harshly in its sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange new-fangled history,
Is sheer unwomanliness, mere sex-negation--
Sans love, sans charm, sans grace, sans everything.

* * * * *

[Illustration: A BIRD OF PREY.]

[Despite the laudable endeavours of "The Society for the Protection
of Birds," the harpy Fashion appears still, and even increasingly,
to make endless holocausts of small fowl for the furnishing forth of
"feather trimmings" for the fair sex. We are told that to obtain the
delicate and beautiful spiral plume called the "Osprey," the old birds
"are killed off in scores, while employed in feeding their young, who
are left to starve to death in their nests by hundreds." Their dying
cries are described as "heartrending." But they evidently do not rend