Morning journal and courier., 1880-08-04


 sible: it would be like trying to give instruc- | tion to a flock of wild birds. One of the most difficult parts of their education is to teach them how to smile all together and to look gracefully at the public. They will per sist in making faces at each other till one of the observant mothers who are looking on shows symptoms of putting down her knit ting to employ her hands in the bestowal of 8 few vivacious boxes on the ear.
 Happily there are prizes even in this queer little lottery. M. Halevy was one evening seated in the private room of the late Nestor Rooueplan, who was then director of the opera in Paris. Roqueplan was carelessly turning over some old papers when he came upon a list of the ballet-girls of 1888. On reading it carefully through they found that several of them had gone into the choruses of the Opera Comique, one let furnished lodgings at Montmartre, another had married stockbroker, a third was the wife of a com ic actor But the last two names which had been written on the faded yellow paper in 1888 belonged, the one to an English peeress and the other to a rich mercer in Dion.
 ATame Sea Gull.
 From Chambers Journall
 During the whole of the time that he lived in Falmouth, Peter was fed on fresh fish. He would eat nothing else; so on his removal 1n- to Stafordshire 1t became serious question how to provide food for thim. Fish it was impossible to get for his consumption every day, and he showed the greatest aversion to meat or anything else with which we tried to tempt him. Nor did he seem to care about even the fish that was got for him, unless It was perfectly fresh. We were at last pegln- ming to despair of keeping him alive, when a most fortunate discovery was made. There was at the time an unusual number of snalls and slugs devouring the green stuH in the garden. By way of experiment, a slug was given to Peter, when, to the great satisfaction of all his friends, he swallowed it with evident relish. This was his first change in diet, and as long as a slug or a snail could be found, Peter lived on the suc- culent food, when no fish could be got for him. But after having once learned to do for Q time without fish, he soon became much less fastidious. Then, feeding him was very simple matter. He took meat freely, did not object to little chicken for his dinner, and soon displayed decided par tiality for mice. Every mouse that was caught in the house was at once given to Fe- ter If it was thrown to him alive, he killed it instantly by sharp blow from his power full bill Then the dead mouse was carried off to the water to be prepared for deglut1- ton. It had often been noticed that Peter very seldom took his fish without first wash ing it in his pan of water. The snails he ln- variably treated in this way, as they always had some grit and dirt adhering to them. It was the same with the mice, but as they were hairy and difficult to swallow, they were thor oughly soaked before they disappeared head first down Peter's capacious throat. Some times he used to be seen standing for a few minutes with the tail of the partially wal lowed mouse hanging out of his bill ; he evi- dently had some little difficulty in accom- plishing the process of swallowing. With a constant eye to the main chance, our pet gull showed the strongest attachment to the cook who always fed him. Whenever she called him he invariably answered with his peculiar cry. Of other peoples calls he took but lit tie notice. One of the great objects of his life was to get into the kitchen and sit beside the fire. If any one attempted to drive him out, he screamed and pecked vigorously, a blow from his beak being no joke. Shortly after he had been given the entree to the kitchen, two black kittens were brought to the house. Regarding them as 1nterlopers. Peter at once displayed great hostility to- ward them He would not allow them to sit on the hearth-rug under any circumstances. | They might lie as close to it as they pleased, but not on it. The moment they ventured I to place paw on the appropriated rug they | were attacked and compelled to retire, so | that very often Peter was seen comfortably | resting in the middle of the rug, while the | two little black victims reposed behind him, | with their noses close up to its edge Some I times he objected to the kittens amusing ! themselves in their own mild way. If one of 1 them began to play, according to the manner | of kittens, with a bit of stick or a piece of
 string, Peter solemnly marched up and took possession of the plaything, placing it where | he could see that it was not again touched. l On one occasion he bullied one of the kittens
 in very curious way. Out in the yard there
 was surface-drain terminating over a sink
 in tolerably large red pipe. While Peter and the kittens were out there, one of the
 latter ran up into the pipe. Peter, always ! keenly observant, noticed this, and before tho kitten had time to come ont he had talk | en up his position close to the mouth of the drain. The moment the kitten showed its nose it received peck, admonishing it to re- treat within the pipe again. There the kit | ten was kept prisoner. At last some one saw l Peter, and little puss was liberated; but nc
 one ever knew how long it had been kept 6
 prisoner in the drain-pipe.
 Night sweats, cough, cancellation and de
 cline prevented by Malt Bitters.