GENTLEMEN who bet on every event in life--who cut cards to decide
whether they shall go into the City by cab or by underground train, and
toss up to see whether they had better dine at home or at the Club, may
be interested to know of a new game of chance which can be played at
dinnertime, and in which ladies not only may but must take part.
"Betting on the _menu_" it is called; and it is done in this way. You
ask the lady next to you on the right--the one you have taken in to
dinner--permission to speculate as to what dishes she will choose from
among those inscribed on the _menu_; and you back your selection in a
series of bets either with the lady herself, or--if she happens not to
be what the French call "_sportive_"--with any gentleman who may be
willing to do business with you. Suppose the lady takes you? You make a
pencil-mark against each dish which, it seems to you, she will fancy;
and if you are right more often than you are wrong, you win--and the
lady does not pay you. In the contrary case you lose--and you pay the
lady. It need scarcely be said that you annotate your own copy of the
_menu_, and that the lady does not see it until the dinner is at an end.
The same principle is observed in betting with a gentleman in reference
to a lady's probable selection; but in this latter case neither of the
parties interested is at liberty to express any opinion, directly or
indirectly, as to the merits or demerits of the different dishes from
which the lady has to choose. Any member of the unfair sex may make sure
of winning from her antagonist--who will naturally have marked a certain
number of dishes--by simply abstaining from food throughout the dinner;
though the lady of the house might think this impolite. _Menu_-betting
is in any case an agreeable pastime for both sexes. It promotes
digestion; and any woman of moderate ability may make money by it.
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"MORE LIGHT!"--The British Museum is, it appears, presently to be opened
at night, its (Elgin) marble halls and others being illuminated with the
electric light. Concurrently with this happy event Mr. LOUIS FAGAN, of
the Departments of Prints and Drawings, announces a course of three
popular lectures on the Treasures of the Museum, to be delivered next
month at the Steinway Hall. No one knows more about the Museum than Mr.
FAGAN, and, with the assistance of 170 photographic reproductions,
exhibited by oxyhydrogen light, he will teach the public a thing or two
about its foundation, progress, and present contents.
* * * * *
[Illustration: PHENOMENAL.
NEAR-SIGHTED MAN IN CHURCH, INSPECTING SHAM INSECT ON
LADY'S BONNET. HE IS SO EXCITED BY THE DISCOVERY, THAT
HE HURRIES OUT OF CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SERVICE,
IN ORDER TO WRITE TO THE PAPERS TO ANNOUNCE THE SUDDEN
APPEARANCE OF A MAGNIFICENT SPECIMEN OF THE LARGE
TORTOISE-SHELL BUTTERFLY ON OUR SHORES IN MID-JANUARY,
AS A PROOF OF THE MILDNESS OF THE CLIMATE.]
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