242 Written Sketches

My cousin says that Furber hardly knows any one by their
real name. He identifies them by some nickname in connec-
tion with the fiddles they buy from him or get him to repair,
or by some personal peculiarity.

" There is one man/' said my cousin, <c whom he calls
c diaphragm ' because he wanted a fiddle made with what he
called a diaphragm in it. He knows Dando and Carrodus and
Jenny Lind, but hardly any one else."

" Who is Dando ? " said I.

" Why, Dando ? Not know Dando ? He was George the
Fourth's music master, and is now one of the oldest members
of the profession."

Window Cleaning in the British Museum
Reading-Room

Once a year or so the figures on the Assyrian bas-reliefs
break adrift and may be seen, with their scaling ladders and
all, cleaning the outside of the windows in the dome of the
reading-room. It is very pretty to watch them and they
would photograph beautifully. If I live to see them do it
again I must certainly snapshot them. You can see them
smoking and sparring, and this year they have left a little
hole in the window above the clock.

The Electric Light in its Infancy

I heard a woman in a 'bus boring her lover about the
electric light. She wanted to know this and that, and the
poor lover was helpless. Then she said she wanted to know
how it was regulated. At last she settled down by saying
that she knew it was in its infanc}'. The word " infancy "
seemed to have a soothing effect upon her, for she said no
more but, leaning her head against her lover's shoulder, com-
posed herself to slumber.

Fire ,

1 was at one the other night and heard a man say : " That
corner stack is alight now quite nicely." People's sympathies
seem generally to be with the fire so long as no one is in danger
of being burned.