The Book of Cats. 9 



such as have eyes to lose, to wander where the 

 epidemic rages. 



In the North, however, the same game is called 

 ** Piggie." I learn by the newspaper that a young 

 woman at Leeds nearly lost her eye-sight by a blow 

 from one of these piggies or cats, and the magis- 

 trates sent the boy who was the cause of it to an 

 industrial school, ordering his father to pay half-a- 

 crown a week for his maintenance. 



The shrill whistle indulged in upon the first night 

 of a pantomime by those young gentlemen with the 

 figure six curls in the front row of the gallery are 

 denominated cat-calls. This is, I am given to un- 

 derstand, a difficult art to acquire — I know I have 

 tried very hard myself and can't ; and to arrive at 

 perfection you must lose a front tooth. Such a 

 thing has been known before this, as a young coster- 

 monger having one of his front teeth pulled out to 

 enable him to whistle well. Let us hope that his 

 talent was properly appreciated in the circles in 

 which he moved. 



With respect to cat-calls or cat-cals, also termed 

 cat-pipes, it would appear that there was an instru- 

 ment by that name used by the audiences at the 

 theatre, the noise of which was very different to 

 that made b)- wliistling through the fingers, as now 



