Sir Algernon Borthwick, who edits the _Post_, Had received the first news from the opposite coast; And the maids of our isles and the maids of the States In special editions were told of their fates. “Peace with honour” at once was proclaimed ’twixt the fair (As neither had won what did either set care?); And the Duke was much praised on both sides by the Press, And the little French Duchess is quite a success. To the Fog. A thousand welcomes let us sing To that dear old November fog Which harbingers the days that bring The early gas, the flaming log. Ah! well we know, sweet fog, when first You wrap the town in your embrace, The winter from its shell has burst, And come to bless the human race. I love the merry winter when The day is darker than the night, For then, contented in my den, I sit beside the fire and write. I love the fog that wraps in gloom My second-class suburban square; For then within my dingy room I light the gas, and let it flare. I hate the dreary days and love The nights that shut the black world out; And so I prize, all things above, The fog that puts the day to rout. The Reminiscences of Mr. John Dobbs. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. (WITH THE SPELLING CORRECTED, THE GRAMMAR LOOKED TO, AND THE LANGUAGE TOUCHED UP BY A LITERARY FRIEND.) My name is John Dobbs. In the year ’58 I was born in a street which I fear was fifth-rate. My pa was a gent who had had a reverse, And my ma took in other folks’ babies to nurse. Thus early my life-long acquaintance began With the folks who are first in Society’s van; In the cradle next mine slept the son of a peer, Who had gone to the dogs all through skittles and beer. At six I developed a beautiful voice, Which made the fond hearts of my parents rejoice; I was sent out to sing with a man in the street, But I plied my vocation among the élite. We sang in the squares where proud nobles reside; And often a duchess’s face I espied, As she peered o’er the blind at the little artiste; Thus I grew to mind duchesses not in the least. I pass o’er my youth, merely pausing to state That I met many folks who were famous and great, And it frequently happened my supper I took With a tip-top celebrity’s housemaid or cook. I was just in the twentieth year of my age When I made my début on the music-hall stage; And ’twas there that I soon made a very big name, And earned all my subsequent fortune and fame. I’d a song with a chorus of “jammy jam-jam,” That was sung from Southend to Seringapatam; And often, when singing my song at the halls, I have seen lords and marquises smile in the stalls.