Life — March 24, 1887 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

> LIFE - BALLADE OF LENT. HE mortals of fashion grow faint Ere Spring sets the.bud on the tree, Their muscles are weary and spraint, And weak is the joint of the knee; They've danced in the german till three In attitudes painfully bent, Bemoaning there ever should be The sackcloth and ashes of Lent. Behold in their faces the taint Of Winter's perpetual spree, From powder, enamel and paint At last temporarily free ; Gay colors and rich filigree Have vanished, and now it is meant Our oculars only should see The sackcloth and ashes of Lent. Oh, this is Society’s plaint : Poor invalid idiots we ! The sinner is suddenly saint, And sings in a low, minor key ; No more at the ‘‘ Five o'clock Tea” Are wit and dyspepsia blent, And well with the Vespers agree The sackcloth and ashes of Lent. ENVOY. Aristocrat, this is your plea :— No sin will your conscience repent ! “Oh, fain, Forty Days, would we flee The sackcloth and ashes of Lent!’ Idle Idyller. T is said that the whole Jewish synagogue will soon be | sent over to Pasteur to be treated for Rabbis. BOOKKEEPER: One who borrows but never returns them. | | Howells and our other literary genii. DIAMONDS BOUT her neck they gleam in lustre bright, Like stars that shimmer on the zone of night : Yet more than Afric’s flawless gems I prize Soft Pity’s jewels in her loving eyes. oe Clinton Scollard. TWO CHIROSOPHICAL EFFORTS. N R. ED. HERON ALLEN'S work on chirosophy is a very entertaining book, and is well worth the inspec- tion of those who are interested in the science of palmistry. It brings the art of prophecy within the reach of all, and may be regarded as an infallible guide to the future by those t content with a knowledge of the past. * * * NOTHER handsome volume on a different branch of chirosophy—the science of the poker-hand—comes to us from Mr. John W. Keller, whose chief title to fame rests on a play calte! “ Tangled Lives.” We are of the opinion that Mr. Kelle:’s forte is poker-playing rather than play-writing, and we doubt not that the former would prove to be the more lucrative of the two professions for him. His treatise on the idiosyncrasies of the ~ bobtail flush” and the “ jacker” form very pleasant reading, though more likely to prove popular with the sterner sex than with the sex which, by some strange course of unreasoning, is generally set down as the milder. Mr. Keller should ‘not stop with writing about poker- playing. There is a large field left open for him by Mr. We have produced successors to Dickens and Thackeray—at least the successors think we have. We have produced any number of Shake- speares within the last three years, but up to the hour of going to press, the place of the lamented Hoyle is still vacant. We think Mr. Keller likely to fill this aching void, but we should like to get his views on Progressive Muggins before finally according him the honor. * * * GREAT deal of very good paper and ink has been wasted by the publisher of “The Experiences of an English- man in Philadelphia Society,” who, from obvious motives, fails | to put his name to his production.. “ Raconteur,” who claims | the questionable honor of having written the book, should learn that abuse is not satire, and that a dollar expended in WHY NOT? SINCE LOVELY WOMAN IS SHOWING HOW MUCH OF A NUISANCE | SHE CAN MAKE OF HERSELF, WHY SHOULD NOT THE MEN KEEP THEIR HATS ON TOO? “WHEN IN ROME,” ETC. copyrighting such trash as he has disseminated is part of that willful waste that breeds woeful want. Indeed, a woeful want of breeding, it seems to us, is the chief characteristic of “ Raconteur’s ” work. ¢ NEW BOOKS + CENTURY OF ELECTRICITY, By T. C. Mendenhall, Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Roger Camerden: a Strange Story. Victims. By Theo, Gift. Leisure Henry Holt & Co. Madrigals and Catches. White, Stokes & Allen, a The Game of Draw-Poker. By John W. Keller. New York: White, Stokes len. A Satchel Guide to Europe. With maps. Edition for 1887. Houghton, Mifflin & Co, . Boston : New York: George J. Coombes. Hour Series, No. 198. New York: By Frank Dempster Sherman. New York: Boston : comicbooks.com