This "conductor" is as dangerous as some (of the "lightning" species) which we have seen dangling disjointed from the roofs and walls of dwelling-houses in the country. At the first shock, good-bye to you! if you are anywhere around. Or, rather, he may be compared to the miasma from ditches and stagnant ponds, inhaled at all times by our rustic fellow citizens, with the trustfulness (if not relish) of the most extreme simplicity. And yet, it kills them, all the same. No one out West would have cared a pin about WILLIAM'S "disobedience" and "negligence," if these trifling eccentricities hadn't occasioned the killing or maiming of several car-loads of passengers. It is hard to shock these Western folks' sense of honor and fidelity; but kill a few of them, and the rest begin to feel it. We suppose that just now this BILL can't pass there. But, our word for it, he'll soon be in circulation again. Perhaps he may yet have the pleasure of Conducting some of _us_ to that Station from which, etc., etc. Before we take our contemplated trip to the West, therefore, we fervently desire to have this ODOR neutralised, even though one should do it with strychnine. * * * * * ~INFORMATION WANTED.~ The correspondent of a Boston paper writes as follows, after having visited the _Reichstag_: "You may be sure that that man is BISMARCK; if from time to time he irons out his face wearily with his hands, as he studies a long document, or if by chance some unlucky member, attracting his disdain, calls his mind to the fact that he is in Parliament, then he starts to his feet like a war-horse, and talks with great grace and ease, always rapidly, always briefly." Why is it that BISMARCK irons out his face? Is it because he has just washed it--or is it to conceal his identity, as the features of the Man in the Mask were ironed out? And why does the great Minister start to his feet like a war-horse? PUNCHINELLO, not having been an Alderman or Member of Congress, recently, is not very familiar with the getting up of war horses; but the ordinary equine animal does not assume the upright posture with great readiness or grace. If PUNCHINELLO were to become a member of the _Reichstag,_ an event now highly probable, he would like to have every adversary in debate "start to his feet like a war-horse." * * * * * [Illustration: ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE. _Boy (with basket.)_ "WHAT'S THEM PICTERS, JIM?--ANOTHER MURDER, OR A NEW DIVORCE?" _Jim._ "NOT MUCH. ONLY AN OLD EXECUTION,--WARMED OVER!"] ~THE ROMAUNT OF THE OYSTER.~ In the moonlight at Cattawampus We sat by the surging sea, "And O how I long for an oyster," Said FELICIA FITZ-SNYDER to me. Then I said, "Would were mine the power, Deep, deep, to the deepmost sea I would fly on the wings of an oyster To gather a pearl for thee.