And having sat him down, the waiter came And asked His Excellence what he would have; To which his Gothic Excellence replied: “I want a bottle of your noblest wine, With it a soup of highest quality, And after that a roast San’ Spirito!” “A roasted—WHAT? Signore,” cried the man, As one who had not rightly understood, While all the guests around did glare amazed. “I said,” resumed the Northern warrior, “A _Spirito Santo_, such as you have got Upon your sign outside—a _bird_, you know, That moves its wings like this”—and here he moved His bended arms like wings, both up and down, While with his voice he murmured _Coo-oo-oo!_ Or what is called in French a _roucoulement_, Or _girren_ in the German. Hearing this, All who were present promptly understood; And though they all were naturally polite, And never laughed at any foreigner Before his face, because he erred in words, This was too—too—too much, and all burst out In a tremendous—an Homeric roar. They drew the line at pigeons; and the Goth When ’twas explained laughed loudest of them all; And thus it was he learned another word. And thus strange things do happen in the world. ----- [12] A very peculiar Viennese slang word, signifying stylish or elegant. It is supposed to be an abbreviation of the mispronunciation of the English word fashionable—_Germanicé_, _feshionable_. REFLECTIONS IN A PRINTING-OFFICE Faust means a fist—a fist can hit, I ween: Faust made the greatest hit that e’er was seen. I know not if ’twas Guttenberg Or Faust who first began To print—the honour was too great For any single man. Printing is called the Art of Arts, And typos then are artists—right— They are the nobler counterparts Of those who work in Black and White. APPENDIX ORBUS IN TACTU MAINET.—P. 2 THERE were in Philadelphia, forty years ago, two sailors’ groggeries in Water Street, both having the sign of The Boy and Barrel, derived from the infant Bacchus. One of these had for motto the words exactly as here misspelt and divided. TIME FOR US TO GO.—P. 64 In one of his admirable papers, “At the Sign of the Ship,” published in the _Cornhill Magazine_, Mr. Andrew Lang, in discussing Sea Songs, wrote the following:—