MATHEWS OH HIS DEATHBED.
A friend attending on Charles Mathews the Elder, the celebrated comedian, in his last illness, intending to give him his medicine, gave in mistake some ink from a phial on a shelf. On discovering the error, his friend exclaimed, "Good heavens! Mathews, I have given you ink." "Never—never mind, my boy—never mind," said Mathews, faintly, "I'll swallow a bit of blotting-paper."