de guide-books." Which I am not in a position to deny.

* * * * *

BY ONE OF THE UNEMPLOYED.--"It is a curious fact," wrote the Recording
Angel, a very superior sort of person to "the Printer's Devil," on
the _Daily Telegraph_, "that in Greater London last week the births
registered were just one more than twice the number of deaths. Thus
grows the population in this great Babylon." Very appropriate, in
this instance, is the title of "Great Baby-lon." If you put it down
an "e," my Lord, and spell it "berths," then these are by no means in
proportion to the unemployed youth in search of them.

* * * * *

[Illustration: DISSOLUTION--(AS THE ENEMY OF THE LONDON SEASON).]

There was a sound of revelry by day,
And England's Capital had gathered then,
Her Beauty and her Masherdom, and gay
Spring's sun shone o'er smart women and swell men;
A thousand shops shone showily; and when
MAY came to Mayfair, FLORA to Pall-Mall,
Shrewd eyes winked hope to eyes which winked again,
And maids heard sounds as of the marriage-bell.
But hush! hark! a harsh sound strikes like a sudden knell!

Did ye not hear it? Is it howling wind?
The tram-car rattling o'er the stony street?
The groans of M.P.'s wearily confined