16 THE ACORN. He so interested the Emperor of Germany that he gave the Doctor an interview. This great man also visited Constantinople and had two interviews with the Sultan: He made such an impression that when he left the Sultan said, "That man Herzl is a good man; as he looks, so, I imagine Christ might have looked." And so he kept on doing all he could for the movement for seven years, all at his own expense. He might have had a salary from the Zionist fund, but would not take it, but wrote to earn his living. The result was that he over did himself and died a, few weeks ago. He left nothing, and subscriptions are now being taken for a fund to support his family. M. A. B. THOUGHTS. Oliver Wendell Holmes says, "People that make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism" He evidently wishes to impress us with the fact, that, "to trifle with the vocabulary which is the vehicle of social intercourse is to tamper with the currency of human intelligence." "The Puritans hated puns. The Bishops were notoriously addicted to them. Majesty itself must have its Royal quibble. 'Ye be burly, my Lord of Burleigh,' said Queen Elizabeth, 'but ye shall make less stir in our realm than my Lord Leicester.' Lord Bacon playfully declared himself a descendant of 'Og the King of Bashan. Sir Philip Sidney, with his last breath, reproached the soldier who brought him water, for wasting a casque full upon a dying man. A courtier, who saw Othello perform at the Globe Theatre, remarked, that the blackamoor was a brute, and not a man. 'Thou hast THE ACORN. 17 reason,' replied a great Lord, 'according to Plato his saying; for this be a two-legged animal with feathers.' 'Who was that boarder that just whispered about the Macaulay-flowers of literature?' There was a dead silence. I said calmly, 'I shall henceforth consider any interruption by a pun as a hint to change my boarding house. Do not plead my example, if I have used any such, it has been only as a Spartan father would show up a drunken helot.' Some time after it was asked, 'Why tertian and quartan fevers were like certain shortlived insects.' The inquirer blushes to find that the answer is in the paltry equivocation, that they skip a day or two. 'Why must an Englishman go to the continent to weaken his grog or punch?' Because island (or, as it is absurdly written, 'ile and water won't mix.' 'Why an onion is like a piano?' 'Because it smell odious,' quasi, its melodious, is not credible, but too true. I can show you the paper." Lost Time Accounted for