The recording angel suddenly put his fingers in his ears.
"What was that for?" asked St. Peter, when they had been removed.
"Oh, I saw Brown's new derby hat blow off, just as he was getting on a car," was the explanation of this kind-hearted action.—Smart Set.
DUNBAR'S RESIGNATION.
Paul Laurence Dunbar, the negro poet, is dead. Incomparable in his presentation of his race's language and thoughts, he occupied a unique position in the literary world. W.D. Howells called him the only man of pure African blood and of American civilization to feel the negro life esthetically and express it lyrically. Last year, while he was dying of consumption, he contributed to Lippincott's this verse-sermon of resignation:
Because I had loved so long,
God in his great compassion
Gave me the gift of song.
Because I had loved so vainly
And sung with such faltering breath,
The Master in infinite mercy
Offers the boon of death.
A RETORT TURKISH.
The following we take to be of Turkish origin:
"As a woman was walking, a man looked at and followed her.
"'Why,' said she, 'do you follow me?'