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HORRIBLE MUTILATION

The philosopher Bias, being asked what animal he thought the most hurtful, replied, "That of wild creatures, a tyrant; and of tame ones, a flatterer."

Man conceives fortune, but woman conducts it. It is the spirit of man that says, "I will be great;" but it is the sympathy of a woman that usually makes him so.

The mind that lies fallow but a single day, sprouts up in follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous culture.

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VERBS.— A teacher, one day endeavouring to make a pupil understand the nature and application of a passive verb, said — "A passive verb is expressive of the nature of receiving an action, as, Peter is beaten. Now, what did Peter do ?" The boy, pausing a moment, with the gravest countenance imaginable, replied—" Well, I don't know, without he hollered."

HORRIBLE MUTILATION.— A policeman has just called at our office with the intelligence that he was standing out side an area, and saw a cook deliberately cut the eye out of a number of Murphies; after which she deliberately skinned them; and, to conclude the deed, plunged the victims into boiling water! What will the Irish say to? — Great Gun.

(DERBY MERCURY, WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1845)

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