Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.
A FOURTH OF JULY TRAGEDY.
The Professor was crossing a small lake in Ireland. After admiring for some time the way his boatman, John, handled the oars, he thought he would like to try and row. John, nothing loath, surrendered the blades, and the Professor essayed the task of rowing. Things developed rapidly into a shower-bath as the oars splashed this way and that, and finally catching a crab, the learned gentleman landed with a crash in the bottom of the boat, very nearly upsetting it.
"Well, well," said the Professor, "rowing is quite a difficult thing, after all. Dear me, how my back aches!"
"Faith, yer know," said John, "it's all in the sculls."