174 



KIDD'S LONDON JOUKNAL. 



often witnessed ; and when Miss arrives at 

 some tender love section, be sure and take 

 a sly peep at her countenance : if you ob- 

 serve her features deepen into a doubtful 

 expression, and her bosom swell with anxiety, 

 conclude that she is in love herself—or at 

 least very near it. 



During the time that a cold confines us to 

 our apartment, is the appropriate season for 

 indulging in a little good-tempered gossip 

 with some gossiping acquaintance, whose 

 voluble tongue will glow with delight as it 

 unrolls the parlor-history of our neighbors. 

 It is of no consequence however highminded 

 the patient may be ; philosophical, poetical, 

 political, scientific, or what not : there is a 

 time, as Solomon has remarked, for all 

 things ; and while a cold is residing in our 

 throats is the time for a little gossip. 



There are some readers who will require 

 eau-de-Cologne at the bare mention of gos- 

 sip. Out on such stately creatures ! They 

 would be walking universities, and living 

 encyclopaedias ; they cannot sit in a chair 

 for five minutes, without unrolling their 

 literary bales, and displaying their literary 

 pomposity; they would be the game-cocks 

 of society, — for ever prating and gambling 

 about poetry, philosophy, and science. We 

 ought heartily to detest this loveless 

 pedantry. I could scarcely read with de- 

 light a work, if I knew the author to be one 

 of those of the anti-social genus ; he might 

 write well, but he would not feel well. 

 Learning and books are very well at ap- 

 propriate times and places ; but there are 

 seasons, when to introduce them denotes a 

 lamentable defection from sense, taste, and 

 good manners. 



The personage wanted on the present oc- 

 casion, is a light-minded, unaffected, talka- 

 tive fellow, — full of an "infinite deal of 

 nothing," — who will plant himself opposite 

 you, and for two or three hours serve like a 

 glass hole in a peep show, to give you a 

 glimpse of the world, from which your cold 

 has barred you for some days. He is a 

 living epitome of the political events which 

 have taken place for the last week, and has 

 the art of remembering and repeating all the 

 sharp paragraphs of the leading journals. 

 But his services do not conclude here : as it 

 is his custom to buzz round an extensive 

 circle of acquaintance, he has much family- 

 matter to relate. There is not a mother or 

 daughter within the neighborhood, whose 

 plans, parties, &c. &c, he cannot describe, 

 and with much naivete. Thus the trifler may 

 serve to wile away a weary hour ; and al- 

 though his gossip does not store the mind, 

 it allays the feverishness of a cold, which is 

 of equal consequence. 



But of all the pleasures attending a cold, 

 the warm bed, and the steaming " treacle- 



posset " are the most exquisite. "What a de- 

 lightful sensation runs over the body when 

 we are just nestled between the warm sheets ! 

 We are in a linen hot bath — if this can be 

 understood. And now for the posset — sweet, 

 delicious, schoolboy-beloved posset ! — prince 

 of beverages ! how often have we feigned a 

 cold at school, in order to have a basin full 

 of thy rich, brown, bubbling mixture ! 

 Whenever you see a person — lady or gentle- 

 man, gentle or simple — whining and whim- 

 pering under the affliction of a cold, let your 

 invariable receipt be posset — nothing but 

 posset. It is to a cold what action is to 

 eloquence. Let the patient stretch himself 

 between some warm sheets, and then swallow 

 a basin-full of hot, curdly, shining and steam- 

 ing treacle posset, then roll himself together, 

 and woo the approach of slumber, and he 

 will be lapped in the very bosom of comfort ; 

 and by the morning, his cold will have eva- 

 porated in the gentle dews of undisturbed 

 repose. 



The above are a few of the pleasures con- 

 nected with a cold. There is one more thing 

 to be said on the question : a cold is a gen- 

 tle hint to the gay, the healthy, and the 

 flourishing, that illness may arrest their 

 career ; it is a tap on the shoulder from Mor- 

 tality, to make us think and remember our 

 destiny; — what is the state of the Day- 

 Book op Life? — aye, there's the rub. 



PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS. 



M. Sobin's Soirees Parisiennes. 



We have again visited this most amusing 

 exhibition, and our wonder has increased as 

 to how certain things are managed. 



The " last moments of a Bloomer," and 

 that Bloomer a very pretty, trim little craft 

 (no other than Madame Robin herself), puz- 

 zle us excessively. The " Bloomer" bounds 

 merrily forward — dances, smiles, and seems 

 as if she would live for ever. But alas ! no. 

 She skips merrily on to the table, and in an 

 instant her doom is fixed. A large extin- 

 guisher is popped over her head — it trembles, 

 falls down, and lo ! the bird has flown ! It 

 must be remembered that the table stands in 

 the centre of the stage, is on four legs, and 

 hollow beneath, so that nothing can pass 

 that way ! Then the top of the table is too 

 narrow to admit of the pretty Bloomer being 

 squeezed between its ribs. "Where then zs 

 she? Echo answers — "Where ?" andpoints to 

 " Deeper and deeper still !" 



It may be so ; but we never go below the 

 surface of our paper when writing about ex- 

 hibitions, and especially about ladies. 



Then again there are those multitudinous 

 bushels of white flock feathers produced from 

 a small hat ; those fantastic dancing figure s 



