ODDS BOBBILI!
(The Rajah of Bobbili arrived by P.& O. at Marseilles, where he was received by Col. Humphrey on behalf of the Queen.)
There was a gay Rajah of Bobbili
Who felt when a steamer on wobblely,
"Delighted," says he,
"Colonel Humphrey to see,"
So they dined and they drank hobby-nobbeley.
Is the Times also among the Punsters?—In its masterly, or rather school-masterly, article last Saturday, on "The Divisions on the Home-Rule Bill," written with the special intention of whipping up the Unionist absentees, the Times said, "There is an opinion that, with a measure so far-reaching in its character as the Home-Rule Bill, pairing should be resorted to as sparingly as possible." The eye gifted with a three-thousand-joke-search-light power sees the pun at once, and reproduces it italicised, to be read aloud, thus—"Pairing should be resorted to as pairingly as possible." What shall he have who makes a pun in the Times? Our congratulations. Henceforth, to the jest-detectors this new development may prove most interesting.