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aninteresting to your readers, I beg to submit them to your notice. I must first premise that the occasion of my visit was an invitation to lecture on the Impenetrability of Ultimate Atomic Particles, and I was prepared to meet with a cordial reception, in which I was not disappointed.

I left this place on the evening of the 3d of May, and, after a rather tedious journey, arrived at Thompkinsville on the morning of the 5th. I was met at the depot by a deputation appointed to receive me, which came provided with a wheelbarrow, whereon they conveyed me triumphantly to the college, passing through the thriving city of Thompkinsville amid the enthusiastic cheers of the populace. We were accompanied on our march by the Thompkinsville Brass Band, which performed several pieces of music exceedingly well; the names of the performers on the principal instruments were as follows:

Drum, (three inches in diameter) Herr Donnerundblitzen; tin trumpet, Herr Windischgratz; penny whistle, Signor Flauto Magico; contralto, Signor Jack Robinson; jewsharp, Monsieur Clavecin.

We went first to the rooms of the Professor of Ethnology; and it was fortunate for him that we did so, for we were but just in time to save his life. It appears that he had been reading the seventy-third volume of my work on the origin of the Seljukian Turks, (which I wrote in Arabic at the request of the Sultan Abdul-Medjid) and, in attempting to pronounce a word of sixteen syllables, he had been choked by a combination of consonants, and was just turning black in the face as we entered. We applied the usual restoratives, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing him begin to recover. He was, however, too much exhausted to engage in conversation, and so, leaving him in the care of that eminent physician, Dr. Hippocrates Squat, we proceeded to the rooms of the Professor of Astronomy.

Finding this gentleman too much engrossed by the absorbing cares of his station to attend to anything else, we bade him good-morning, and went next to visit the Professor of Mathematics, Signor Figurante, an Italian by birth, and a very clever man indeed.

We found him engaged in extracting the fifty-fifth root of

a polynomial of several thousand terms. He did not seem, however, at all annoyed at our interruption of his labors, but received us with the utmost courtesy. After some time spent in interesting and instructive conversation, I asked him what he considered to be the best definition of an obtuse angle. He replied that it signified a man remarkable for the dullness of his reasoning faculties,—whereupon I immediately took my departure.

I had intended next to pay a visit to the Professor of Botany, for whom I had brought a specimen of Solanum tuberosum, a rare plant found in the vicinity of this city, but, to my regret, he was not at home. I therefore proceeded, still in company with the president of the institution, to the room of the celebrated Dr. Polyglot Lexiconivorus Briggs, Professor of Syro-Chaldaic, Coptic, Sanscrit, Armenian, etc., etc., whom we found talking Hebrew to one of his friends, and endeavoring to prove to him that the site of the tower of Babel was in the middle of the Red Sea. He offered me a cigar, which I imprudently accepted-imprudently, I say, because after lighting it I happened to drop the match upon the train of arguments which the professor had just adduced. As might have been expected, an explosion immediately took place, and I thought myself happy to escape with slight injuries to my boots; my companion, the president, was not so fortunate, as the calf of his leg was blown completely off. What became of Professor Polyglot Lexiconivorus Briggs I have not been able to ascertain; but I should judge that his fate was horrible in the extreme, from the quantity of adjectives, prepositions, demonstrative pronouns, and other parts of speech belonging to various Oriental languages, which were afterward picked up in the courtyard under his windows.

You may suppose that I had no desire to remain any longer in a place whose atmosphere was so very combustible. I fled precipitately to the depot, and finding a train about to start, I jumped in, and bade farewell to Thompkinsville forever.

THE GLADIATOR.-J. A. JONES.

They led a lion from his den,

The lord of Afric's sun-scorched plain;
And there he stood, stern foe of men,
And shook his flowing mane.

There's not of all Rome's heroes, ten
That dare abide this game.

His bright eye nought of lightning lacked;
His voice was like the cataract.

They brought a dark-haired man along,
Whose limbs with gyves of brass were bound
Youthful he seemed, and bold, and strong,
And yet unscathed of wound.

Blithely he stepped among the throng,
And careless threw around

A dark eye, such as courts the path
Of him who braves a Dacian's wrath.

Then shouted the plebeian crowd,-
Rung the glad galleries with the sound;
And from the throne there spake aloud
A voice,—“Be the bold man unbound!
And, by Rome's sceptre, yet unbowed,

By Rome, earth's monarch crowned,
Who dares the bold, the unequal strife,
Though doomed to death, shall save his life.”

Joy was upon that dark man's face;

And thus, with laughing eye, spake he: "Loose ye the lord of Zaara's waste,

And let my arms be free:

'He has a martial heart,' thou sayest;~ But oh! who will not be

A hero, when he fights for life,

For home and country, babes and wife?

"And thus I for the strife prepare:
The Thracian falchion to me bring,
But ask th' imperial leave to spare
The shield, a useless thing.
Were I a Samnite's rage to dare,
Then o'er me would I fling

The broad orb; but to lion's wrath
The shield were but a sword of lath."

And he has bared his shining blade,
And springs he on the shaggy foe;
Dreadful the strife, but briefly played;-
The desert-king lies low:

His long and loud death-howl is made;
And there must end the show.
And when the multitude were calm,
The favorite freed man took the palm.

"Kneel down, Rome's emperor beside?" He knelt, that dark man;-o'er his brow Was thrown a wreath in crimson dyed; And fair words gild it now:

"Thou art the bravest youth that ever tried To lay a lion low;

And from our presence forth thou go'st
To lead the Dacians of our host."

Then flushed his cheek, but not with pride
And grieved and gloomily spake he:
"My cabin stands where blithely glide
Proud Danube's waters to the sea:
I have a young and blooming bride,
And I have children three:-

No Roman wealth or rank can give
Such joy as in their arms to live.

"My wife sits at the cabin door,

With throbbing heart and swollen eyes;While tears her cheek are coursing o'er, She speaks of sundered ties; She bids my tender babes deplore The death their father dies; She tells these jewels of my home, I bleed to please the rout of Rome.

"I cannot let those cherubs stray
Without their sire's protecting care;
And I would chase the griefs away
Which cloud my wedded fair.”
The monarch spoke; the guards obey;
And gates unclosed are:

He's gone! No golden bribes divide
The Dacian from his babes and bride.

LITTLE MARY'S WISH.-MRS. L. M. BLINN.

"I have seen the first robin of spring, mother dear, And have heard the brown darling sing;

You said, 'Hear it and wish, and 'twill surely come true;' So I've wished such a beautiful thing!

"I thought I would like to ask something for you, But I couldn't think what there could be

That you'd want while you had all these beautiful things; Besides, you have papa and me.

"So I wished for a ladder, so long that 'twould stand
One end by our own cottage door,

And the other go up past the moon and the stars
And lean against heaven's white floor.

"Then I'd get you to put on my pretty white dress,
With my sash and my darling new shoes;
Then I'd find some white roses to take up to God-
The most beautiful ones I could choose.

"And you and dear papa would sit on the ground
And kiss me, and tell me 'Good-bye!'

Then I'd go up the ladder far out of your sight,
Till I came to the door in the sky.

"I wonder if God keeps the door fastened tight?
If but one little crack I could see,

I would whisper, 'Please, God, let this little girl in,
She's as tired as she can be!

She came all alone from the earth to the sky,
For she's always been wanting to see

The gardens of heaven, with their robins and flowers;
Please, God, is there room there for me?'

"And then, when the angels had opened the door,
God would say, 'Bring the little child here,'

But he'd speak it so softly I'd not be afraid;
And he'd smile just like you, mother dear.

"He would put His kind arms round your dear little girl, And I'd ask Him to send down for you,

And papa, and cousin, and all that I love

Oh dear! don't you wish 'twould come true?"

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