that at the bookstall, •which, is m, the grand marble corridor of the Great -Eastern Hotel m that city, be picked up a copy of Punch for January 30th,; but on trying to open it he found that ' its outer edges were secured by a little metallio ringbolt or eyelet hole, with: a kind of orab : attachment. "Why this Cestus of Aglas, this girdle of Aphrodite, this fountain sealed ? " heaeked- the intelli gent native who ministered «s.ths stall. TJw

latter made answer, "Ho catchy catch just there, prevent Sahib ppen Punch, look him cartoon. Bead him. Laugh him. No buy him. Walk away. Smoke cheroot. Tell Punch joke friend-" Of the world-famouswhite and pink ter racei of the Hofcliakes/ a contributor to the Melbourne Argut writes :— There, from pool •bore pool, trickles the warm opal water at its inceiiant work. There are the harmonies of finely shaded cones, there is the magnifi cence of great draperies of gauze-like sub stances glistening beneath the cascades, there is the ingenions filagree that time has carred on the plateau and steps, and there are the many-coloured. waters lying m the most, beautiful baths that man can bathe m. This is indeed the bath of the abode of bliss. Here shall we rest and never wander more, and so compressing a life's content into -a brief, evanescent hour, we hive ourselves m the inviting Bilkly waters of the bright, warm pool. And at this moment— What is left of it? What shall remain? Nothing! Aye, less than nothing. Where there was sun shine is now "darkness ; where there was laughter is now lamentation j where there was loveliness is now hatefulness.; where there was the peace of life 'is now the still solitary watte of death, of destruction, of. horror, and' of woe. To have seen what there was, and to know what there is not, creates the sense, almost. the belief, of having once lived m ano ther world.. "■,-.•'.'•" The Grey Siver Argus says that work of various kinds preparatory to raising coal is being carried on with considerable activity at the Wallsend Mine. On tho surface concrete foundations for the poppet' heads are being laid down, while below a gang of men are employed lining the shaft and doing other, necessary work before coal mining can be commenced pn any large scale. 