Periodicals Books

TRADE REPORT. (FROM OUR OWN REPORTER.) The market has been in a most extraordinary state all the morning. Our first advices informed us that feathers were getting very heavy, and that lead was a great deal brisker than usual. In the fish-market, flounders were not so flat as they had been, and, to the surprise of every one, were coming round rapidly. The deliveries of tallow were very numerous, and... more...

THE IDEAL TENDENCY. We are all interested in Art; yet few of us have taken pains to justify the delight we feel in it. No philosophy can win us away from Shakspeare, Plato, Angelo, Beethoven, Goethe, Phidias,—from the masters of sculpture, painting, music, and metaphor. Their truth is larger than any other,—too large to be stated directly and lodged in systems, theories, definitions, or formulas.... more...

IF I WERE A FAIRY.If I were a fairy slight and small,Say, about as tallAs a span-worm forming the letter O,What do you think I would do? I know!In the bell of the lily I'd rock and swing,Twitter and sing;And, taking the gold-dust under me,I'd splash the hips of the buzzing bee,That he might have meal to make his bread,With honey spread,For his thousand babies all in rows,Each in a bandbox up... more...

SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.CIRCULAR BUILDING FOR LIONS, TIGERS, &c.INTERIOR OF CIRCULAR BUILDING.ROCKWORK FOR BEAVERS, &c. SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. [Although the reader will scarcely fail to recognise the typographical amendments contemplated in the Preface to our last volume, we may be allowed to point attention to the most important change. To give our souls "elbow-room," we have... more...

No. III.—REALISATION. Scene—Theatre Royal, Blankbury, on the first night of the performance of the well-known Comedy of "Heads or Tails?" by the "Thespian Perambulators." Time, 7:50 P.M. A "brilliant and fashionable assemblage" is gradually filling the house. In the Stalls are many distinguished Amateurs of both Sexes, including Lady Surbiton, who has brought her husband and... more...

WILLIAM BLAKE. My antiquarian tendencies bring me acquainted with many neglected and obscure individuals connected with our earlier English literature, who, after "fretting their hour" upon life's stage, have passed away; leaving their names entombed upon the title-page of some unappreciated or crotchetty book, only to be found upon the shelves of the curious. To look for these in Kippis,... more...

THE DELIGHTS OF THE SEASIDE.H merry, merry sports had we, last summer on the beach,—  Lucy and Oliver and I, with Uncle Sam to teach!  At times, clad in our bathing-suits, we'd join our hands, all four,  And rush into the water, or run along the shore.The wet sand, how it glistened on the sunny summer day!And how the waves would chase us back, as if they were in play!And when, on the... more...

COUPON BONDS. PART I. On a certain mild March evening, A. D. 1864, the Ducklow kitchen had a general air of waiting for somebody. Mrs. Ducklow sat knitting by the light of a kerosene lamp, but paused ever and anon, neglecting her stocking, and knitting her brows instead, with an aspect of anxious listening. The old gray cat, coiled up on a cushion at her side, purring in her sleep, purred and slept as... more...

September 23, 1914. THE ALIEN Chorus. "Boo! 'oo kissed 'er 'and to the Kaiser larst time 'e come over? Yar! Bloomin' German!" The Kaiser, we are told, travels with an asbestos hut. We fancy, however, that it is not during his lifetime that the most pressing need for a fire-proof shelter will arise. "The Germans," said one of our experts last week, "are... more...

CAST. The auctioneer glanced at his book. "Number 29," he said, "black mare, aged, blind in near eye, otherwise sound." The cold rain and the biting north-east wind did not add to the appearance of Number 29, as she stood, dejected, listless, with head drooping, in the centre of the farmers and horse-dealers who were attending the sale of cast Army horses. She looked as though she... more...