[_Exit_ German Servant _resignedly, his idea of a Lord Mayor somewhat lowered_; Miss REDTAPE _stamps letters with the serenity of conscious rectitude. Scene closes in._ * * * * * Arms and the (Police) Man. "THRICE is he armed who hath his quarrel just." But sure that Force in self-defence will fail Whose only armour, 'gainst the critic thrust, Is found to be "Black Mail." * * * * * VISITING LISZT.--The latest and one of the most interesting papers on this erratic Abbé, is to be found in the _Month_ for July. _Tolle, lege._ Also see _London Society_ for _The Hired Baby_. The story is pathetic with here and there a vein of cynical humour. As for the moral----well, you can't expect much of a moral from a hired baby. * * * * * A Dark Look-Out. "There is no public career in India for the native of India."--_Echo._ "THE world's mine oyster" 'tis in vain to sing, If for a "Native" there's no "opening." * * * * * _CUCUMBER Chronicles_, by ASHBY STERRY. Light reading, easily carried, and not at all cu-cumbersome. Nothing Melon-choly about them. Can't say any more because it's so hot, and we've only just cut the cucumber. Of course you must be in a cucumber frame of mind to thoroughly enjoy them. * * * * * TAG FOR THE THIRSTY.--One swallow does not make a summer--drink. * * * * * [Illustration: DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIES UNDER CIVILISATION. '_Arriet._ "OW, 'ARRY! I S'Y! _H'YN'T_ 'E A UGLY COWVE!"] * * * * * NEWTON AND THE APPLE. _A Modern Version of an Old Story._ ALL wisdom is not to be found, In immortal philosopher's pages; Common-sense in its common-place round Sometimes floors all the saps and the sages. The doses administered thus, Are regarded as nauseous drenches, But oftentimes folly and fuss, Are discovered on woolsacks and benches; And big-wigs in bumptiousness solemnly solus, Will find themselves better sometimes for a bolus. The dignified mazes of Law, 'Tis parlously easy to trip in, The truth that a _savant_ once saw, In the casual fall of a pippin, The Bench's calm height ought to scan, More clearly than mortals thereunder. But--your Magistrate is but a man, And Man is much given to blunder. An obstinate Beak or a cynical Q.C., Sometimes plays the fool--that is wisdom _in nuce_!