Punch (86.1884)

April 19, 1884.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 133

A FOOLISH BIRD,

“ The Ostrich (Species Gladstonensis) after depositing its eggs in the burning sand of the desert, leaves them to the chances of incubation,
addleation, or destruction. This naturally shy but nervously daring Bird, then hides its head in any hole, hollow, or covert in the sand or
rock, in the vain hope to avoid peril by deliberately blinding itself to danger.”—Buffoon’s Natural History.

Digest of Laws of Digestion.

The following advertisement sounds well, if read straight off
“ Food and Feeding by Sir Henry Thompson F.R.C.S. considerably
enlarged.” If anyone goes in heavily for Food and Feeding, the
chances are that like Sir Henry he will be “ considerably enlarged.”
But this treatise tells us how to go in carefully for it, and it is
one of the best hooks on the subject with which we are acquainted.
The hints on dinner-giving are, as they should he on such a subject,
most entertaining. Would that all hosts resembled these hints ; but
it does happen that those who most entertain are themselves least
entertaining.

Socialist Economy.—Taxation of the higher classes, and Govern-
ment by the lower orders.

The Drama at a Distance.

There are some things which no fellow can make head or tail of.
The subjoined advertisement, for instance, which appeared on the
University Boat-Race Day, in the Times, is a startler :—

MR. HENRY IRVING, Miss Ellen Terry, and the Lyceum Com-
pany.—STAR THEATRE, New York. TO-NIGHT.—Hamlet, Mer-
chant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Louis XI., Charles I., The Lyons
Mail, Eugene Aram, The Belle’s Stratagem, and The Bells.”

Plenty for the money ! Nine plays to be performed on one night at
New York ? “ On such a night ”—we ’re glad we weren’t there. _ How
the audience must have sung out, “ Oh, what a night we ’re having ! ”

Speculative Builders’ Society.—-The London School Board.