THE ORIGIN OF PUNCHINELLO.

MR. PUNCHINELLO: Though aware that you "belong to Company G," and must
not be bothered, I wish to ask whether you are descended from the famous
chicken-dealer of Sorrento, who sold fowls in Naples, and was well-known
in that fun-loving city for the humor of his speech and the oddity of
his form. He was called "PULCINELLA," I believe, the name being the same
as that of his wares.

If not to this celebrated wag, perhaps you trace your origin to Mr.
PUCCIO D'ANELLO, who so delighted a company of actors at Aceria, with
his jokes and gibes, that they invited him to join them, and soon
discovered that they had found a Star.

If neither of these classical wags was your ancestor, may I ask, who the
deuce _did_ you come from? Yours, truly,

CURIOSO.

* * * * *

RECIPE TO BE TESTED.

We see that they have been "firing cannon in the fields near Paris, to
bring on a rain." If there is any virtue in this recipe, they are likely
to get some moist weather to the north-eastward of Paris, to say the
least. The firing in that quarter may even lead to a Reign in Paris such
as France has not lately seen. We would not go so far as to _predict_
anything of this sort. Oh, no; for we are aware that the moment we
should do so, NAPOLEON would lick the Prussians on purpose to show the