When bleak, bluff, blatant blizzards blew,
And hats from storm-tossed heads were carried,
My enterprising friend, then you
Got married!
Soon spring had come, when doves can coo,
And flowers blossom, had you tarried;
Instead, in January you
Got married.
Then in your honeymoon you two
The gloom and snow of winter parried;
It's two to one two won when you
Were married.
And thus henceforward may you do;
By life's rough storms be never harried,
Together face them all now you
Are married.
* * * * *
More Anglomania!
[M. FÉLIX FAURE, having gone out into the garden at about six
o'clock in the evening, was making for the door leading to his
private apartments, when he was stopped by a sentinel. The
President could not give the pass-word, and was accordingly
marched off to the Elysée guard-room, where he was fortunately
recognised.--_Daily Paper._]
That Gallic statesmen rather like
Trade Union methods can we doubt?
President PERIER went "on strike";
Now, FAURE has been "locked out."
* * * * *
DEUX MOTS.--The retirement of one of the oldest and most popular
actors of the Comédie Française may be summed up in two words, "GOT:
gone."
* * * * *
"ART IS LONG----"
The _Daily Graphic_ of February 1, commenting on the time-contest
between two pianists, suggests that exponents of the other fine arts
should follow their example. The idea has been taken up at the Royal
Aquarium with great success, as will be seen from the following
press-cuttings:--
_From the "Magazine of Art."_
The Directors of the Aquarium are to be congratulated on their new
departure, which takes the form of a highly exciting and sportsmanlike
contest between those two well-known entertainers Professor HERR KOMER
and Señor HARDLI DUDDI in their great poster-painting exhibition. This
consists of a trial of strength and endurance, the challenger, Señor
DUDDI, having given out that he will beat Professor KOMER'S previous
record in time and area combined by one hour and a hundred square
yards. As the public are well aware, the latter performer's
sensational achievement, "_Miss Letty Lind_," stands at present
unbeaten as an artistic poster, having far eclipsed his "_All
Beautiful in Naked Purity_," which attracted such attention on the
Royal Academy hoardings last year. As to time, his LIND _tour de
force_ (shown at the Society of Portrait Painters at the New Gallery
last autumn) was painted in one continuous whirl or sitting of fifty
hours duration, and would have taken even longer, had not the
accomplished _danseuse_ fainted from exhaustion. (It is understood, by
the way, that Miss LIND has issued a challenge that she will pirouette
against the world, including Lord YARMOUTH and Little TICH.)
Señor DUDDI has hitherto made his mark with presentments of
ultra-_chic_ young ladies, which have certainly taken up a great deal
of space, and fulfilled their purpose as "eye-openers." We have no
details as to the time in which they were designed, but we should
think about twenty minutes on an average.
As the Aquarium contest will not be concluded until after we go to
press, we cannot give the result, but at the time of writing, after
three days' painting without cessation, Mr. KOMER had covered a
quarter of an acre of canvas, while Mr. DUDDI had traversed three
hundred yards of advertisement hoarding. Both were going well and
strong, the only people showing signs of exhaustion being the umpires
and spectators.
_From the "Sporting Times."_
What will our dear friends of the Anti-Sporting League say to this?
Here's yet another form of iniquity, the Poet Stakes at the Aquarium!
We looked in last night at that classic abode, and found them all hard
at it in the Bijou Theatre. We soon made a pretty book, and only
regret we hadn't entered BALLYHOOLY and DOSS CHIDERDOSS. A
black-haired colt was making the pace with what he called "beautiful
prose music," quite as good as any we turn out in our first page. But
the backers rather fancied a Chestnut Pegasus, who was going well
within his stride with his "Odes and Poems." There were one or two
other dark horses in the field, that we put down for a place. That
worthy and veteran sportsman, and cutest of tipsters, G. ALLEN,
wielded the flag, and got his little lot off, as we were told, with
only ten false starts. We left at the fifty-seventh hour, when the
leaders had completed two hundred and twenty laps of very blank verse
and other paces, it being a go-as-you-please contest. A sonnet divided
the first and second, and there was an epigram and a half between the
second and the third. As it promised to be a long-winded affair, and
rather too noisy for our refined and delicate constitutions, we
retired early. We give the odds, however, on another page.
* * * * *
[Illustration: A PARLIAMENTARY HOUSE WARMING!
(PARTIES ARE OFTEN RENDERED VERY ATTRACTIVE BY THE ADOPTION OF FANCY
DRESS!)]
* * * * *