prove attractive and amusing. We have only space to quote briefly from
one of the most desultory of the papers--an ingenious one, on "Solecisms
in Language."]

"Is it your _pleasure_," now and then asks a dentist, "is it your
_pleasure_ to have your tooth out to-day?"

"I do not care a pin," is a very ordinary figure of speech, but of
doubtful propriety; for one's indifference, it appears to me, must very
much depend on the position of the pin. In the cushion of one's chair,
for instance, it is absolutely disagreeable, and what one should care
very much about.

The word "poor" is an epithet in very common misuse. It is often brought
into play, especially in its plaintive sense, in situations, where, poor
thing, it scarcely knows itself, and where there is not the slightest
provocation to account for the use of it. It is degraded to the
condition of a mere expletive; and, where there is a real good call for
it, how often is it thrust upon the wrong person, the one who, were he
consulted, would disclaim all compassion.

"_Poor_ Mr. ----, only think of him, _poor_ fellow! How very
odd! I believe he was not in joke. He told me a distant connection of
his, of another name, whom he never knew till after he heard that the
thing happened, who had been transported to New South Wales a matter of
sixteen years ago, is to be hanged to-morrow, by way of a secondary
punishment, for coming back from transportation."

The audience were profuse in their repetition of the epithet--generous
to excess in the free gift of it to Mr. ----. They did not happen to