"Baron H. DE WORMS informed Mr. LAWSON, that the Board of Trade had communicated with some of the Railway Companies as to the nuisance caused to the inhabitants of the Metropolis by the constant use of railway whistles at night, and the Board were assured that every effort would be made to reduce the nuisance."--_Parliamentary Report._ AIR--"_The Whistlin' Thief._" When one is tired or ill, And fain asleep would be, A whistle loud and shrill Oft brings the "big, big D." "DE WORMS," young LAWSON said, "This whistling is a bore." "All right," says the Baron; "don't you be afraid. They'll whistle at night no more." "I've lived a long time, Baron," Says _Punch_, "in the world, my dear, But of a nuisance settled _at once_, I never yet did hear. Yet if you'll lessen nocturnal shines, And let us sleep or think, Your jolly good health all the commonwealth In a bumper deep will drink." * * * * * ECCENTRIC CONDUCT OF A JOURNALIST ON THE SPREE.--The Editor of the Berlin _Echo_ has offered a prize for the best Poem in praise of the Mother-in-Law. This singular demand proves that the gentleman cannot be married. * * * * * CHANGE OF NAME. If thus Penny Papers are freely allowed To fling right and left their absurd imputations, To find a new name for the quill-driving crowd Will surely be one of our first obligations. The Penny-a-Liner for long has been known As a genial gusher, a fine phrase-refiner; But now that he false and malignant has grown, We must call him "The Penny Maligner." * * * * * THE FLY AND THE FARMERS. "The Hessian Fly is causing great alarm amongst the agriculturists. Its extinction is attracting the attention of the Faculty."--_Daily Paper._ [Illustration: Catching Perch with a Fly.] Now we number the Potato Beetle 'mong the scares gone by; But a cuss has found its way to Fields of corn--the Hessian Fly. _Unde derivatur_ "Hessian"? Named from whence the fly had flown, Under quite a wrong impression, No such thing in Hesse's known. _Cecidomyia destructor_, (What long names have little things!) Comes o'er Ocean by conductor; Straw, pestiferous, _pupae_, brings. They turn, each, into a small gnat, Not a blow-fly, bottle-blue; _Cecidomyia_, _vulgo_, gall-gnat, Galls both growths and growers too. So the Farmers, full of trouble, Help imploring go about, They are told to burn the stubble; No way else to stamp it out. True the _Chalcis_ is reputed, On the Gall-gnat's grub to feed; But, for service to be suited, How that parasite can they breed?