His opponent replied, "You need not rely on _that_ act,
for its teeth have been drawn by so many decisions against it, that it
is worth nothing." Still the counsel argued on, and insisted on its
authority; after listening to which for a good hour, his lordship drily
remarked, "I do believe all the teeth of this act have been drawn, for
there is nothing left but the jaw."--_Literary Gazette_.
_Criticism_.--A print of a wounded leopard is described by a
contemporary as "a powerful exhibition of animal agony." Did our critic
ever hear of vegetable agony?
_Humbug_.--A correspondent of the _Times_ says "Every body is not
acquainted with the etymology of the word Humbug. It is a corruption
of Hamburgh, and originated in the following manner: During a period
when war prevailed on the Continent, so many false reports and lying
bulletins were fabricated at Hamburgh, that, at length, when any one
would signify his disbelief of a statement, he would say, 'You had
that from Hamburgh;' and thus, 'That is Hamburgh,' or 'Humbug,' became
a common expression of incredulity."
_A Clincher_.--An American paper says, this is the method of catching
tigers in India:--"A man carries a board, on which a human figure is
painted; as soon as he arrives at the den, he knocks behind the board
with a hammer; the noise rouses the tiger, when he flies in a direct
line at the board, and grasps it, and the man behind clinches his claws
in the wood, and so secures him.
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