No one ever says a good word for the tail hat. I. is reviled and abused on all sides, and yet it holds its own against all comers with an immobility worthy of a better cause. Nearly all the syn onyms—and they are many—adopted to designate the tall hat are of a disrespect ful character. Men liken it to a stove pipe or chimney pot; tho name "topper" itself is decidedly lacking iv dignity.
But though wo are told that nothing kills like ridicule, ridicule has wholly failed to overthrow the dominion of the tall hat. If the last man be an English man, we can well imagine that his im pavid front will face the ruin of the universe beneath the shelter of a silken, tile.—London Globe. -.
"It is my brother."

VENUS VICTRIX.
A STUDY OF A WOMAN.
_r HELEN MATHERS,

Author of 'Comin' Thro' the Rye,' 'Sam's Sweetheart.' &c.
PART I,

CHAPTER VII

'And wae be to the Queen herself, She micht hae pardoned me; Hut sair she's stuvin' tor me to hang Upon the gallows tree.'. In the gray of the winter's morning I threw open the door and almost foil over Hardre3s, who was sitting in achair drawn righb across bhe bhreshold.
' Let me by,' I said, groping as one sud denly grown blind, aud would have thrust past him bub he fairly lifted me in his arms and pub me back in the room while I struggled madly to free myself, to escape anywhere—anywhere from that handiwork of mine that lay in the next room.
