[Illustration: CRITICAL INTELLIGENCE.

_Able Critic._ "BUT WHAT SORT OF A CREATURE IS THAT UPON WHICH THE YOUNG
WOMAN STANDS?"

_Artist (who likes to "sell" bores.)_ "O! THAT'S A GONOPH."

_Able Critic._ "AH! YES. I THOUGHT SO." _(And he wonders what in thunder
a "gonoph" is.)_]

* * * * *

A SONG OF THE NEW BABEL.

[_Dedicated with sentiments of the most inexpressible respect to the
Members of the Forty-First Congress._]

I.

Oh! who, for any payment auriferous or argent,
Would undertake to do the work that Mr. Speaker does--
With nobody to help him except the trembling Sergeant,
While still begin and never end the shout and scream and buzz?
Oh, never any where, save in desert groves Brazilian,
Was ever heard such endless and aimless gabble yet.
For there the tribes of monkeys to the number of a million,
Screech and chatter without ceasing, from the sunrise to the set.
Rap! rap! rap!
To quell the rising clamor;
Order! order! order!