So I cast--in no derision-- From my 'bus-top garden-seat These few violets, with precision, At what I must call thy feet. 'Tis not that thy mien is stately, 'Tis not that thy grace is rare, 'Tis not that I care so greatly For thy quaint heraldic air; But contemptuous men neglect thee, Load thee with invective strange, So with violets I have decked thee, And with verses, as a change. * * * * * THE NEW DISCOVERY.--"Argon" is described as "a gaseous constituent." In most constituencies can be found plenty of "Argons." * * * * * [Illustration: HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF; OR, THE MODERN ORACLE OF AMMON. "The people (the Libyans) deeming themselves not Egyptians, and being discontented with the institutions, sent to the Oracle of Ammon, saying that they had no relation to the Egyptians. The god, however, said, 'that all the country which the Nile irrigated was Egypt.'"--_Herodotus_, II., 15. B.C. 452. "I stated that, in consequence of these claims of ours and the claims of Egypt in the Nile Valley, the British sphere of influence covered the whole of the Nile waterway."--_Sir E. Grey in House of Commons_, A.D. 1895. _John Bull._ "YOU SEE, NILUS, THE FATHER OF HISTORY AND I ARE OF THE SAME WAY OF THINKING. SO YOU'RE ALL RIGHT, MY BOY, WHILE I'M HERE!"] * * * * * HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF; _Or, The Modern Oracle of Ammon_. _Nilus_ (_referring to Parisian Press_). But--won't it make our French friends furious? _Mr. Bull._ Gammon! _Nilus._ Are you, then, the new Oracle of Ammon? _Mr. Bull._ Well, ALEXANDER claimed the god his sire. So why not I? _Nilus._ I own I rather tire Of all these squabbles. Peace is what I want. Oh why did your intrusive SPEKE and GRANT* Disturb my forty centuries of quiet? Since then it's been all rumpus, and red riot. _Mr. Bull._ How about RAMESES, old cockalorum? _Nilus._ Oh! better all the Pharoahs in full quorum Than Condominiums. The Control called Dual---- _Mr. Bull._ Oh, don't you bother! _That_ has got its gruel. _Nilus._ But these Exploring Expeditions?