THE 'WITS' 145 



understood him to be a lawyer, but, of course, I may 

 be mistaken. Possibly in the confusion of this case 

 we shall presently find Professor Leoffler ridiculing 

 Mr. George Lewis on a point of law.' 



The small humourists and witlings of the 

 periodical Press found in the poisoning of Orme 

 congenial employment for their free and easy pens. 

 One comic gentleman spread himself out on a 

 burlesque play, entitled ' The Duchess of Pimlico's 

 Cat; or, the Poison Proved.' This was described 

 as ' A Society Dramalette,' and was divided as 

 follows : 'Scene I., The Kitchen at Pimlico House. 

 Scene II., The Duchess' Boudoir. Scene III., The 

 Kitchen. Scene IV., The same. Scene V., The 

 Duchess' Boudoir.' The merriment of another 

 funny person took the shape of ' Diversified Private 

 Opinions by Our Special Experts.' In 'a letter 

 from the Duke of Westminster ' the complaint is, 

 for the fun of the thing, made political, to wit : ' I 

 have trustworthy information that that utterly 

 unscrupulous person, Mr. Sch — dh — st, disguised 

 as a racing tout, was seen hanging about the stable 

 on several occasions lately.' ■ The editor of the 

 " Globule " declares that the spirit of Anarchism is 

 abroad, and it is therefore highly probable that 

 some Ravachol of the racecourse has been at his 

 fiendish work in the stables of his Grace the Duke 

 of Westminster.' Then ' Professor Ruffler, horse 

 dentist,' writes : ' It is a mere matter of teeth. 

 Everything's a mere matter of teeth. The colt 

 wasn't hocussed, and those who assert that he was 



