With my ancient calumet I can raise a wigwam's smoke And the copper tribe invoke, — Scalps and wampum, bows and knives, Slender maidens, greasy wives, Papoose hanging on a tree, Chieftains squatting silently, Feathers, beads, and hideous paint, Medicine-man and wooden saint, — Forest-framed the vision set. My cigar breeds many forms,— Planter of the rich Havana Mopping brow with sheer bandanna, Russian prince in fur arrayed, Paris fop on dress parade, London swell just alter dinner, Wall street broker — gambling sinner! Delver in Nevada mine, Scotch laird bawling " Auld Lang Syne," Thus Raleigh's weed my fancy warms. Life's review in smoke goes past,— Fickle fortune, stubborn fate, Right discovered all too late, Beings loved and gone before. Beings loved but friends no more, Self-reproach and futile sighs, Vanity in birth that dies, Longing, heart-break, adoration,— Nothing sure in expectation Save ash-receiver at the last. So far as we can recall, the law has had very little to say about tobacqp, except in the form of statutes prohibiting cigarettes to young boys. The law has however decided that tobacco in any form is not a necessary for the price of which an infant can make his father responsible, and Judge Taft, of Vermont, has held that cigars are " victuals or drink " which must not be furnished to an incubating jury. But the law could find nothing objectionable in this novel collection, nor could Anthony Comstock, unless per chance it may be one of the aforesaid Ella's effusions, which suggests that she had indulged not only in a surreptitious cigarette, but also in a cocktail. But where there is much smoke there must be some fire. Business Depression. — The last year has been one of marked commercial depression in this coun try, in which the lawyers have suffered with the rest, for contrary to the popular impression, they are only successful in prosperous times. This professional depression, it 'seems, has prevailed in England, and we derive a vivid notion of it from "Notes from London" in the " Scottish Law Review," from which we learn that the Benchers have difficulty in renting the chambers in the Inns. This writer also says : — "No one who has not been behind the scenes knows what depression has existed amongst the members of the bar. In the same space of time probably there were never
199
a greater number dropped out of the ranks to seek a sub sistence which had become hopeless to expect in wig and gown. Several curious cases came under my own notice, and I have heard of others. One man took to writing de tective stories as a specialty, drawing on his experience of the police courts and the Old Bailey and his imagination for his stock-in-trade. He has not made a particularly brilliant success of it, but he has the satisfaction of having made a living, which he could not do before. Another, who was fortunate enough to have the knack of sketching, got, to his great satisfaction, an engagement on an illus trated paper. A third man betook himself to a piano fac tory in the east-end, either as partner or tuner or some thing, I don't exactly know what, but at any rate he made a living. A fourth utilized some interest he had in the manufacture of playing cards; and a fifth, most curious and best of all, took to growing tomatoes and flowers in one of the Channel Islands, either on his own account or, I believe, in conjunction with another member of his own unsatisfactory profession; and I should not be surprised to hear that others had gone into the jam trade, having remembered Mr. Gladstone's advice to practitioners of another decaying industry." Brougham's Nose Again. — Lawrence Hutton, in his recent book, "Portraits in Plaster" (Death Masks), remarks: — "Probably no single facial organ in the world has been the subject of so much attention from the caricaturists as the nose of Lord Brougham. It is doubtful if any two consecutive numbers of any so-called comic or satirical journal appeared in England in Brougham's time without some representation of Brougham's nose. The author of ' Notes on Noses' thus spoke of it : ' It is a most eccentric nose; it comes within no possible category; it is like no other man's; it has good points and bad points and no points at all. When you think it is going right on for a Roman it suddenly becomes a Greek; when you have written it down cogitative it becomes as sharp as a knife. . . It is a regular Proteus; when you have caught it in one shape it instantly becomes another. Turn it and tw ist it and view it how, when, and where you will, it is never to be seen twice in the same shape; and all you can say of it is that it's a queer one. And such exactly,' he added, ' is my Lord Brougham. . . Verily my Lord Brougham and my Lord Brougham's nose have not their likeness in heaven or earth. . . And the button at the end is the cause of it all.'" The ablest nose, if not the most wondrous in con formation, that ever aciorned an American face, was that of Edwin P. Whipple, the Boston essayist and lecturer. Its proprietor was an unrivaled connois seur of wines, and could infallibly tell the brand and frequently the year of the vintage of any wine by its bouquet. Of Brougham, Hall Caine in his powerful novel, "The Manxman," gives the following descrip tion from the mouth of a fresh young Manx lawyer in London : — "Heard old Broom in the House last night, and to-day I lunched with him at Tabley's. They call him an orator
