eating-houses in the world. Soup three times a day, and fleas bulldozed by machinery. Come with me, sir.

No. 3 comes up from behind and asks,

Going East, sir?

No. 4-Yes.

'No. 3-I'm just the man you want to see. Come along with me. Best and shortest route by a long shot to all points. Put you through in a jiffy. Splendid sleepingcars on all night trains, and codfish-balls for breakfast. Conductors all of pious and respectable parentage, and fires kept up constantly. Come along, sir.

No. 1 takes No. 4 by the left shoulder, No. 2 takes him by the right shoulder, and No. 3 takes him by the coattail. In concert they all pull, and say,

Come with me, sir.

They all ease up, and each says to the others,

Let go of this gentleman.

Then they all ask,

To what point are you going?

No. 4-Going to Maria.

Each one of the agents jerks out a railroad map and studies it intently. After looking on the map several minutes, each looks at the others and then at No. 4, and asks,

Where is Maria?

No. 4-Where's Maria? Why I s'pose she's to hum. Maria is my wife, and lives six miles east of town.

ARRANGED FROM THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

SARACEN BROTHERS.

ATTENDANT A stranger craves admittance to your

Highness.

Saladin-Whence

comes he?

Attendant-That I know not.

Enveloped with a vestment of strange form,
His countenance is hidden; but his step,
His lofty port, his voice in vain disguised,
Proclaim, if that I dare pronounce it,-

Saladin-Whom?

Attendant-Thy royal brother!

Saladin-Bring him instantly.

[Exit attendant.]

Now, with his specious, smooth, persuasive tongue,

Fraught with some wily subterfuge, he thinks

To dissipate my anger. He shall die!

[Enter attendant and Malek Adhel.]

Leave us together. [Exit attendant.] [Aside.] I should

know that form.

Now summon all thy fortitude, my soul,

Nor, though thy blood cry for him, spare the guilty!
[Aloud.] Well, stranger, speak; but first unveil thyself,
For Saladin must view the form that fronts him.

Malek Adhel-Behold it, then!
Saladin-I see a traitor's visage.
Malek Adhel-A brother's!
Saladin-No!

Saladin owns no kindred with a villain.

Malek Adhel-O, patience, Heaven! Had any tongue

but thine

Uttered that word, it ne'er should speak another. Saladin-And why not now? Can this heart be more pierced

By Malek Adhel's sword than by his deeds?

O thou hast made a desert of this bosom !
For open candor, planted sly disguise;
For confidence, suspicion; and the glow
Of generous friendship, tenderness and love,
Forever banished! Whither can
I turn,
When he, by blood, by gratitude, by faith,
By every tie, bound to support, forsakes me?
Who, who can stand, when Malek Adhel falls?
Henceforth I turn me from the sweets of love,
The smiles of friendship; and this glorious world,
In which all find some heart to rest upon,
Shall be to Saladin a cheerless void,—
His brother has betrayed him!

Malek Adhel-Thou art softened

;

I am thy brother, then; but late thou saidst,-
My tongue can never utter the base title!

Saladin-Was it traitor? True!

Thou hast betrayed me in my fondest hopes!
Villain? 'Tis just; the title is appropriate!
Dissembler? 'Tis not written in thy face;
No, nor imprinted on that specious brow;
But on this breaking heart the name is stamped,
Forever stamped with that of Malek Adhel!

Thinkest thou I'm softened? By Mohammed! these harda
Should crush these aching eye-balls, ere a tear

Fall from them at thy fate! O monster, monster!
The brute that tears the infant from its nurse

Is excellent to thee; for in his form

The impulse of his nature may be read;
But thou, so beautiful, so proud, so noble,

O what a wretch art thou! O! can a term
In all the various tongues of man be found
To match thy infamy?

Malek Adhel-Go on! go on!

"Tis but a little time to hear thee, Saladin; And, bursting at thy feet, this heart will prove Its penitence, at least.

Saladin-That were an end

Too noble for a traitor! The bowstring is

A more appropriate finish! Thou shalt die!

Malek Adhel-And death were welcome at another's

mandate!

What, what have I to live for? Be it so,

If that, in all thy armies, can be found
An executing hand.

Saladin-O, doubt it not!

They're eager for the office. Perfidy,
So black as thine, effaces from their minds
All memory of thy former excellence.

Malek Adhel-Defer not, then, their wishes. Saladin,
If e'er this form was joyful to thy sight,
This voice seemed grateful to thine ear, accede
To my last prayer:-O, lengthen not this scene,
To which the agonies of death were pleasing!
Let me die speedily!

Saladin-This very hour!

[Aside]-For, O, the more I look upon that face,
The more I hear the accents of that voice,
The monarch softens, and the judge is lost
In all the brother's weakness; yet such guilt,-
Such vile ingratitude,-it calls for vengeance;

And vengeance it shall have! What, ho! who waits there?

Attendant-Did your highness call?

Saladin-Assemble quickly

[Enter attendant.]

My forces in the court. Tell them they come
To view the death of yonder bosom traitor.

And, bid ¿hem mark, that he who will not spare
His brother when he errs, expects obedience,
Silent obedience, from his followers.

Malek Adhel-Now, Saladin,

[Exit attendant.]

The word is given; I have nothing more
To fear from thee, my brother. I am not
About to crave a miserable life.

Without thy love, thy honor, thy esteem,
Life were a burden to me. Think not, either,
The justness of thy sentence I would question.
But one request now trembles on my tongue,
One wish still clinging round the heart; which soon
Not even that shall torture. Will it, then,
Thinkest thou, thy slumbers render quieter,
Thy waking thoughts more pleasing, to reflect,
That when thy voice had doomed a brother's death,
The last request which e'er was his to utter

Thy harshness made him carry to the grave?
Saladin-Speak, then; but ask thyself if thou hast

reason

To look for much indulgence here.

Malek Adhel-I have not!

Yet will I ask for it. We part forever;

This is our last farewell; the king is satisfied;
The judge has spoke the irrevocable sentence.
None sees, none hears, save that Omniscient Power,
Which, trust me, will not frown to look upon
Two brothers part like such. When, in the face
Of forces once my own, I'm led to death,
Then be thine eye unmoistened; let thy voice
Then speak my doom untrembling; then,
Unmoved, behold this stiff and blackened corse.
But now I ask,-nay, turn not, Saladin !—
I ask one single pressure of thy hand;