At a meeting of the Drury Lane Lodge of Freemasons, said the _Daily
Telegraph_, "with all due solemnity was Mr. S.B. BANCROFT installed in
the Chair of King SOLOMON." This, whether an easy chair or not, ought
to be the seat of wisdom. Poor SOLOMON, the very much married man, was
not, however, particularly wise in his latter days, but, of course,
this chair was the one used by the Great Grand Master Mason before
it was taken from under him, and he fell so heavily, "never to rise
again." How fortunate for the Drury Lane Masons to have obtained this
chair of SOLOMON's. No doubt it was one of his wise descendants,
of whom there are not a few in the neighbourhood of Drury Lane, who
consented to part with this treasure to the Masonic Lodgers. So here's
King SOLOMON BUSY BANCROFT's good health! "Point, left, right! One,
two, three!" (_They drink._)
* * * * *
[Illustration: LEGAL IMPROVEMENTS.
THE CHANCERY JUDGES WILL BE EXPECTED TO TAKE THE INFANT SUITORS OUT
FOR AN AIRING IN THE PARK. N.B.--AFTER 4 P.M.]
* * * * *
A QUERY BY "PEN."--There was a "Pickwick Exam." invented by CALVERLEY
the Inimitable. Why not a "Pendennis" or "Vanity Fair" Exam.? _À
propos_, I would just ask one question of the Thackerayan student, and
it is this:--There was one _Becky_ whom everybody knows, but there was
another BECKY as good, as kind, as sympathetic, and as simple, as the
first _Becky_ was bad, cruel, selfish, and cunning. Where is BECKY the
Second to be found in W.M. THACKERAY's Works?
* * * * *
HER NOTE AND QUERY.--Mrs. R. was listening to a ghost-story. "After
all," observed her nephew, "the question is, is it true? True, or not
true 'there's the rub!'" "Ah! 'there's the rub!'" repeated our old
friend, meditatively. "I wonder if that expression is the origin of
the proverb, 'Truth is stranger than Friction?'"
* * * * *
LOCAL COLOUR.--"I should like to give all my creditors a dinner,"
quoth the jovial and hospitable OWEN ORLROUND. "Where shall I have
it?" "Well," replied his old friend JOE KOSUS, "have it at Duns
Table."
* * * * *
CITY MEN.--"Hope springs eternal," and the motto for a probable
Lord Mayor in the not very dim and distant future must be "_Knill
desperandum_."
* * * * *
DOGS AND CATS--(CORRESPONDENCE.)--Sir,--A recent letter to the
_Spectator_ mentions the case of a man who "barked like a dog in his
sleep." The writer would like to know if anyone has ever had a similar
experience. Well, Sir, I knew a whole family of BARKERS, but I never
heard them bark. I knew three CATTS, sisters, who kept a shop, and
came from Cheshire; yet they were very serious persons, and never
grinned. Since this experience I have doubted the simile of the
Cheshire specimen of the feline race being founded on fact.--Yours,
&c.,