Next round the Slasher's groggy, 'e 'angs 'is 'ands and gropes (I'd knocked him orf 'is legs at last) a-feelin' for the ropes. And, lor, 'e looked so cheerful with 'is face a mask of red That I bust myself with laughin' when I bashed 'im on the 'ead. Then they counted up to ten, But 'e couldn't rise again; 'E gasped a bit, and puffed a bit, and laid there in a 'eap. And I copped a thousand pounds For a fight of seven rounds, Which was all the time it took me for to put my man to sleep. Ah, the soft uns call it brutal; there's Mr. H.P. COBB, And 'is talk, which isn't pretty, about ruffians (meanin' us). I'd like to tap _'is_ claret when 'e's up and on the job, And send 'im 'ome a 'owlin' to 'is mammy or 'is nuss. But I'd rather take the chuck For a show of British pluck, And do my month in chockee, and eat my skilly free; And I'll leave the curs to snivel With their 'Ouse o' Commons drivel, Which may suit a pack of jaw-pots, but, by gosh, it don't suit me. * * * * * "What I suffer from, at this time of year, when I go into the country," says Mrs. R., "is 'Flybites.'" She pronounced it as a word of three syllables, and then added, "I rather think the learned way of spelling it is 'Phlybites.'" * * * * * [Illustration: CORIOLANUS. "I WOULD HE HAD CONTINU'D TO HIS COUNTRY AS HE BEGAN, AND NOT UNKNIT, HIMSELF, THE NOBLE KNOT HE MADE."--_Coriolanus_, Act. IV., Scene 2.] * * * * * [Illustration: HENGENIOUS IDEA. _Early Visitor._ "WHY, WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING, MATHILDE,--TURNING YOUR BOUDOIR INTO A POULTRY YARD?" _Mathilde._ "WELL, MY DEAR, AS IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO RELY ON GETTING NEW-LAID EGGS IN TOWN, I HAVE HAD MY PET COCHIN-CHINA UP FROM THE COUNTRY, AND SHE IS THOROUGHLY TO BE TRUSTED!"] * * * * * CORIOLANUS. "I would he had continu'd to his country As he began, and not unknit, himself, The noble knot he made." _Coriolanus_, Act IV., Scene 2. "His Majesty discriminates between the Prince BISMARCK of former times, and of to-day, and is anxious that his Government should avoid everything which might tend to diminish, in the eyes of the German nation, the familiar figure of its greatest Statesman."--_Instructions to Imperial German Representatives abroad:_-- Can this be he who "At the Gates"[1] Of Janus' Temple stood of old, Protective, vigilant, and bold, As one who calmly dares--and waits? "_So fancy limns him, who'll not cease To watch o'er what his brain upbuilt_," _Punch_ sang. And now he lifts the hilt, Warlike, against a Patriot Peace. Calm warder then, challenger now. The tower he reared would he attack, Because--they have not called him back Like CINCINNATUS from the plough?