SG4 



TABLE-TALK AND VARIETIES. 



my oAvn individual exertions. As 

 I elbow my way through the 

 crowded vale of life, I will never 

 in any emergency call on my sel- 

 fish neighbour for assistance. If 

 my strength give way beneath the 

 pressure of calamity, I shall sink 

 without his whine of hypocritical 

 condolence ; and if I do sink, let 

 him kick me into the ditch, and go 

 about his business. I asked not 

 his assistance while living; it will 

 be of no service to me when dead. 

 (Henry Kirke White.) 



IBRAHIM PASHA'S AUTOGRAPH. 



During Ibrahim Pasha's visit to 

 England, in the summer of 1846, 

 his autograph was requested for 

 the royal album. He was obliged 

 to confess that he was unable to 

 write. Yet how could he refuse 

 a request from such a quarter 1 

 Various expedients were succes- 

 sively proposed and rejected for 

 compromising matters. At length, 

 however, it was suggested that he 

 should learn to write his name for 

 the occasion. A copy was marked 

 for him, as for a school-boy, and 

 after one or two unsuccessful at- 

 tempts, he managed to produce a 

 tolerable resemblance of his name ; 

 and the royal album can boast the 

 first and last autograph of the great 

 Egyptian warrior. " We have this 

 anecdote," says Prater's Magazine, 

 " from one who witnessed the whole 

 proceeding." 



A MADMAN'S ART. 

 A madman was conveyed from 

 Bye to Bedlam. They slept in the 

 Borough, and he suspected whether 

 they were taking him. He rose 

 before sunrise, went to Bedlam, and 

 told there that the next day he 

 should bring them a patient, " but 

 that, in order to lead him willingly, 

 he had been persuaded that I am 

 mad ; accordingly I shall come as 

 the madman. He will be very out- 



rageous when you seize him, but 

 you must clap on a strait waist- 

 coat." Accordingly the sane man 

 was imprisoned, and the lunatic 

 returned home He entered a room 

 full of his relations and friends, 

 told the stoiy with exceeding glee, 

 and immediately relapsed into his 

 madness. The other man had a 

 strait waistcoat for about four days 

 before he was exchanged. (Sou- 

 they's Commonplace Book.) 



A FAITHFUL SCRIBE IN THE FIELD 

 OF BATTLE. 



I now dismounted from my 

 horse, and asked (without much 

 hope) if any one had pen and pa- 

 per? "Sahib!" replied a well- 

 known voice behind me ; and, turn- 

 ing, I observed Suddah Sookh, the 

 mooushee of my office, pulling out 

 a Cachmere pen-box and paper 

 from his girdle, just as quickly as 

 if he had been in cutcherry. He 

 had no sword, or other implements 

 of war, but merely the writing ma- 

 terials with which it was his duty 

 to be furnished; and, though he 

 looked serious and grave, he was 

 perfectly calm amid the roar of 

 hostile cannon, and men's heads 

 occasionally going off before his 

 eyes. " What are you doing here, 

 Suddah Sookh 1" I asked in as- 

 tonishment. He put up his hands 

 respectfully, and answered, " My 

 place is with my master ! I live by 

 his service ; and when he dies, I 

 die !" A more striking instance of 

 the quiet endurance of the Hindoo 

 character I never saw. (Edwardes' 

 Year on the Punjab Frontier.) 



LONG SOUNDING LINE. 



The United States Government 

 has in process of construction at 

 Plymouth,a line ten thousand yards 

 long. The object is to sound the 

 Atlantic Ocean, and ascertain its 

 depth and the exact shape of its 

 bottom in every part. This is aa 



