* * * * *

Mr. BOYCE, in his interesting and picturesque work, Snowdon and Rained Upon, insists on the desirability of taking only a light luncheon when engaged upon a pedestrian tour.  He adds, “I walked up Snowdon on two hard-boiled eggs.”  The remark seems scarcely relevant, but it records a notable achievement.  Considering the height of Snowdon, and the occasional stoniness of the path, to walk up it on two eggs, howsoever hard-boiled, is a feat that puts in the shade the Music-hall trick of riding up an inclined plane of rope on a bicycle.  Mr. BOYCE does not say what he came down upon.  Probably his back.

* * * * *

We hear from Munich that underneath the motto, Suprema lex regis voluntas, written in the Visitors’ Book by the Emperor of GERMANY, there now appears the following line—­Rex est major singulis, minor universis.  Herr HITHERCLIFT, the well-known German authority, having made a careful examination of the page, states his opinion that the handwriting is that of Prince BISMARCK, or is an excellent imitation.

* * * * *

A WARLIKE TALE FROM THE PACIFIC.

(FRAGMENT FROM THE POSSIBLE DIARY OF A REALISTIC NOVELIST.)

Well, now I think I have got matters pretty straight.  The question is, whether the Baron will accept my last message as chaff, or resent it.  Let me see, how does it read—­“It is suggested, for the President’s consideration, that rumours uncorrected or unexplained acquire almost the force of admitted truth.”  Quite so—­so they do.  Let me see—­“That any want of confidence between the governed and the Government must be hurtful”—­well, to us both.  Yes!  That’s all right.  So it will!  Lastly, “That the rumours, in their present form, tend to damage the white races in the native mind, and to influence for the worse the manners of the Samoans.”  Now, that ought to fetch him!  A wink is as good as a nod to a blind pig!  However, he is quite ass enough to do nothing!  Everybody saying that he is going to blow us all up, himself included!  Why it’s enough to make the natives rise and kill every white man in the place.  Still, good idea for a story.

Later.  The idiot!  Instead of promptly denying the facts, he says he won’t have anything to do with us, because “we care so little for the correctness of the facts we deal with.”  We only asked for information.  Are we going to be blown into smithereens, or are we not?  That’s the point, and he won’t tell us!  Wants to know what business it is of ours?  The situation is decidedly dramatic—­but unpleasant!

Later Still.—­Have replied that “the matter very much concerns us.”  Tell him, we wrote, not for protection, but for information.  “Are we going to be blown up, or are we not?” An answer will oblige.