A telegram from Berlin states that Dr. PFEIFFER, a son-in-law of Professor KOCH, has succeeded in discovering the cause of influenza and its infection in a bacillus, which, when seen under the microscope, appears in the shape of a most minute rod. The best thing that can be done with this rod is to put it in pickle, and keep it there. * * * * * It is satisfactory to know that, at the approaching revival of _Hubando, the Brigand_, the handkerchiefs used by the Brigands in their famous scene of contrition at the end of the Third Act, are entirely of British manufacture. We understand that they are from the looms of Messrs. PUFF AND RECLAME. * * * * * In the First Act of the same piece, it will be remembered that the bridal party is captured whole by _Hubando_, disguised as a mendicant, in the recesses of one of the forests of the Abruzzi. The real pine-trees, which are to figure in the foreground of this striking scene, have been grown, with immense labour and expense, in the well-known nurseries of Messrs. WEEDEM AND POTTER, at Ditchington. The mendicant's rags, it should be added, are from one of our most celebrated slop-shops in the Ratcliff Highway. * * * * * [Illustration: TRIUMPH OF ART OVER NATURE. _Serious Artist_. "I THINK YOU KNEW THE MODEL FOR THIS FIGURE--POOR BEGGAR, DEAF AND DUMB." _Light-hearted Friend_. "I KNOW,--USED TO SIT AT CORNER OF STREET. DEAF AND DUMB! BY JOVE, YOU'VE MADE A _SPEAKING_ LIKENESS OF HIM! WONDERFUL!!"] * * * * * "THERE'S THE RUB!" (_AN OLD STORY WITH A NEW APPLICATION._) _Champion Bill-Poster, loquitur_:-- "Bill-stickers beware!" Ah! that's all very well, A wondrously wise, if conventional, warning. But _I_'m the legitimate "Poster"--a swell In the paste-pot profession, all "notices" scorning. A brush surreptitious, and Bills unofficial, No doubt, are a nuisance to people of taste, To Order offensive, to Law prejudicial, But who can object to _my_ pot and _my_ paste? 'Tis time that this Poster were up! _Slap-dap-slosh_! I think it a telling one. Brave, Big, Blue letters! Some rivals about, but _their_ programmes won't wash; Those Newcastle noodles must own us their betters. I'm Champion Bill-Poster! Even Brum JOEY, Who flouted me once will acknowledge that fact. My Bills are so goey, and fetching, and showy, My paste so adhesive, my brush so exact! _Slap-slop-slidder-slosh_! There's "stick-phast," if you like. Bill-sticking like this is an Art, and no error. Bold letters, brave colour! A poster to strike,-- Admiration with some, and with some, perhaps, terror. I wish I quite knew that the former preponderate,-- That is, _sufficiently_. Mutterings I hear,-- But there, 'tis a Bill to admire, and to wonder at. Why, after five seasons' success, should I fear?