_Thursday._--In Court. Unknown Counsel opposed to me. Seem to recognise his face. _Can_ it be the stranger who dined in Hall last night? It is. New rule has thrown the Courts open to amateur pleaders! What _are_ we coming to? Must say stranger pleads uncommonly well. And Judge _so_ deferential to him! _Friday._--Wonders never cease. To-day my stranger of yesterday found seated on Bench! Judge ill--has appointed him as Commissioner in his place. New rule allows this sort of thing. What is the reason of this sudden democratising of the Profession? _Saturday._--Mystery explained. One of the Benchers wants to be made a L. C. C. Alderman! In his Election Address he even stoops so far as to give way to the vulgar delusion that Law is expensive, and recommends a rule that costs should always be "on the lower scale." Perhaps he is right. Everything on the lowest possible scale at Bar nowadays! * * * * * [Illustration: RE-GILDING THE GOLDEN EAGLE. (United States Loan, February, 1895.) _John Bull_ (_Painter and Decorator_). "ALWAYS READY TO OBLIGE SO GOOD A CUSTOMER!" _Brother Jonathan._ "GUESS THIS TIME THE OBLIGATION'S MUTUAL!"] * * * * * RE-GILDING THE GOLDEN EAGLE. ["The amount subscribed in England for the United States Loan was £120,000,000, or twenty times the sum reserved for London."--_Daily Paper._] "Why, I was a thinking, Sir," returned MARK TAPLEY, "that if I was a painter, and was called upon to paint the American Eagle, how should I do it?" "Paint it as like an Eagle as you could, I suppose." "No," said MARK. "That wouldn't do for me, Sir. I should want to draw it like a Bat, for its short-sightedness; like a Bantam, for its bragging; like a Magpie, for its honesty; like a Peacock, for its vanity; like an Ostrich, for its putting its head in the sand, and thinking nobody sees it----" "And like a Ph[oe]nix, for its power of springing from the ashes of its faults and vices, and soaring up anew into the sky!" said MARTIN. _Martin Chuzzlewit._ BROTHER JONATHAN _loquitur:_-- He was prejudiced, that _Mark_, a Eur[=o]pian, in the dark, Concernin' of our Glorious Institutions. _He_ paint our Bird o' Freedom? Lots have tried, but we don't heed 'em; And revolvin' years bring curus retributions. _We_ don't care a brass farden! DICKENS had to beg our pardon, And that MAX O'RELL will eat his words one day, Sir! The real Yankee Eagle is as strong-winged as a Sea-gull, With a beak as sharp as any Sheffield razor.