_"Whose talents have been seen to better advantage:" i.e.,_ "A cruel bad actor--but can't say so." _"When the nervousness of a first night has been got over;" i.e.,_ "Never saw a worse play--but it may catch on." _"The Author's modesty prevented him from responding to loud calls;" i.e.,_ "Timid youth, probably. Foresaw brickbats." * * * * * "BRAVO, TORO!"--M. CONSTANS will not allow Bull-fighting in Paris, even for "the benefit of the Martinique sufferers." Quite right! But if he would only discourage "Bull-fighting" in Egypt--the sort of "Bull-fighting" desired by Chauvinist M. DELONCLE--he would do good service to the land of the Pyramids, to the poor fellah, and to civilisation. * * * * * NOTE FROM BRIGHTON.--The exterior of the recently-opened Hôtel Métropole, is so effective, that the Architect, Mr. WATERHOUSE, R.A., is likely to receive many commissions for the erection of similar hostelries at our principal marine resorts. He will take out letters patent for change of name, and be known henceforward as Mr. SEA-WATERHOUSE, R.A. By the way, the Directors of the Gordon Hotels Co. wish it to be generally known that they have not started a juvenile hotel for half-price children, under the name of the Gordon Boys' Hotel. * * * * * OUR BOOKING-OFFICE. [Illustration] Who remembers a certain story called, if I remember aright, _The Wheelbarrow of Bordeaux_, that appeared in a Christmas Number of the _Illustrated London News_ some years ago? If no one else does, I do, says the Baron; and that sensational story was a sensational sell, wherein the agony was piled up to the "n'th," and just as the secret was about to be disclosed, the only person who knew it, and was on the point of revealing it, died. This is the sort of thing that Mr. RUDYARD KIPLING has just done in this month's _Lippincott's Magazine_. It is told in a plain, rough and ready, blunt style, but so blunt that there's no point in it. And the idea,--that is if the idea be that the likeness of the assassin remains on the retina of the victim's eye, and can be reproduced by photography,--is not a novelty. Perhaps this story in _Lippincott_ comes out of one of Mr. RUDYARD KIPLING'S pigeon-holes, and was just chucked in haphazard, because Editorial _Lippincott_ wanted something with the name of the KIPLING, "bright and merry," to it. It's not very "bright," and it certainly isn't "merry."