THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 
tises a free hoot-polish to 
every visitor who pays 
for a shave, and his panic- 
stricken assistant, conveys 
the ghastly news of the 
approach of a centipede- 
customer ! Thus prepared 
the reader is ready to con- 
template with modified 
horror the ruinous tragedy 
confronting the centipede- 
parent who finds himself 
in presence of a perfect 
hosier’s shop of expect- 
antly-gaping stockings on 
Christmas Eve. 
Rut from the depths of 
tragedy we are brought 
uj) with a jerk in presence 
of the fashionable ostrich 
succeeds, notwithstanding the obvious parallel- 
ism of this to his former effort; and we reflect 
on the melancholy fact that not only here, 
but all over the world, food is rising and is 
sometimes out of the reach of even ducklings. 
Centipede jokes are numerous as centipede 
legs* and here are more, and new ones. 
Mr. Harrison Eady promotes the leggy insect 
to a distinguished place in his own profession, 
and credits it with a dexterity in each limb 
not given to the ablest human brother brushes. 
The pleasantry has something of a double 
application also in its obvious reference to the 
family likeness of all rabbits, so that the 
observation of one pair of eyes is enough to 
direct the work of many pairs of hands in 
this sort of portraiture. 
In the next sketch Mr. W. R. Graupner 
suggests certain disadvantages in American 
trading enterprise too recklessly imitated 
among animals. The monkey-barber adver- 
o J 
A CJ Ik 1ST MAS MONOPOLIST. 
“SAY, BOSS, YOU’D BETTER TAKE THAT SIGN 
DOWN J HERE COMES MR. CENTIPEDE.” 
who must re- 
verse the order 
of Nature or be 
out of the mode. 
These little sac- 
rifices must be 
made by any 
bird of social 
pretensions; 
society expects 
it. 
Mr. Roose- 
velt’s hunting- 
adventures in 
Africa a few 
years back pro- 
v i d e d m u c h 
sport in the 
United States 
Press, and ani- 
mal jokes made 
part of the 
sport. 
Mr. Roosevelt's 
not wholly in- 
11 * NOW 1 ASUION,’ THE RIO 
OSTRICH SAID, ‘IS A THING 
THAT I VERY MUCH DREAD. 
TO RE IN THE MODE YOU’LL 
ORSI'KVK, MR. TOAD, J MUST 
CARRY MY TAIL ON MY 
HEAD .’* 7 
