TO THE BIG BACILLICIDE.

O DOCTOR KOCH, if you can slay

Those horrid germs that kill us,

You'll be the hero of the day,

Great foe of the Bacillus!

What champion may we match with you

In all the world of fable?

St. George, who the Great Dragon slew,

The Knights of ARTHUR's Table,

E'en gallant giant-slaying JACK,

The British nursery's darling;

Or JENNER, against whom the pack

Of faddists now are snarling,

Must second fiddle play to him

Who stayed the plague of phthisis,

And plumbed a mystery more dim

And deep than that of Isis.

For what are Dragons, Laidly Worms,

And such-like mythic scourges,

Compared with microscopic germs

'Gainst which the war he urges?

Hygeia, goddess, saint, or nymph,

We trust there's no big blunder,

And hope your votary's magic lymph

May prove no nine days' wonder.

We dare not trust each pseudo-seer

Who'd powder, purge, or pill us;

But pyramids to him we'll rear

Who baffles the Bacillus.


STRANGE TRANSFORMATION.—From the Times Correspondent, U.S., we learned, last week, that somebody who had been "a Bull," was now "a Bear." What next will he be?—A donkey? Or did he begin with this, and will he end by being a goose?


PROSPECT FOR CHRISTMAS.—"TUCK," i.e., RAPHAEL of that ilk. The "Correct (Christmas) Card."