"How? Why on the broad backs of the stout peasants, who all stood politely offering their humble services." The guide went first, Buttons, without more ado, got on the back of the nearest Italian and followed. Dick came next; then the Doctor. Mr. Figgs and the Senator followed in the same dignified manner. They descended for some distance, and finally came to water about three feet deep. As the roof was low, and only rose three feet above the water, the party had some difficulty, not only in keeping their feet out of the water, but also in breathing. At length they came to a chamber about twelve feet square. From this they passed on to another of the same size. Thence to another. And so on. Arriving at the last, Bearer No. 1 quietly deposited Buttons on a stone platform, which fortunately rose about half an inch above the water. Three other bearers did the same. Mr. Figgs looked forlornly about him, and, being a fat man, seemed to grow somewhat apoplectic. Dick beguiled the time by lighting his pipe.

"So this is the Grotto of the Cumæan Sibyl, is it?" said Buttons. "Then all I can say is that

What he was going to say was lost by a loud cry which interrupted him and startled all. It came from the other chamber.

"The Senator!" said Dick.

It was indeed his well-known voice. There was a

splash and a groan. Immediately afterward a man staggered into the room. He was deathly pale, and tottered feebly under the tremendous weight of the Senator. The latter looked as anxious as his trembling bearer. “Darn it! I say," he cried. "Darn it! Don't! Don't!"

“Diavo—lo !" muttered the Italian.

And the next instant, plump went the Senator into the water. A scene then followed that baffles description. The Senator, rising from his unexpected bath, foaming and sputtering; the Italian praying for forgiveness; the loud voices of all the others shouting, calling, and laughing. The end of it was that they all left as soon as possible, and the Senator indignantly waded back through the water himself.-The Dodge Club.

DEMOSTHENES, an Athenian statesman and orator, born about 384; died in 322 B.C. His father, who bore the same name, was a thriving citizen, who carried on manufactories of cutlery and furniture, in which some sixty slaves were employed. He also loaned money; and as the current rate of interest upon good security was from twelve to twenty per cent., his income must have been considerable. He died-apparently in middle life, when his son was six years old, leaving an estate valued at fourteen talents: equivalent to $90,000 in our time.* Besides Demosthenes he left a widow and a young daughter. By his will, the widow was to marry one of his nephews, and another nephew was to marry the daughter when she grew up. These nephews, and another person, were made administrators of the estate and guardians of the son during his minority. When Demosthenes, at the age of sixteen, attained his legal majority, he found that the greater part of his fortune had been wasted or stolen by his guardians, and there was left only the sum of two talents. He brought suit against them and ob

* The bullion value of the Attic talent was about $1,250; but the actual purchasing power of coin was much greater than it now is :from various indicia we estimate it at five or six times greater. Moreover there were in Athens only a few citizens of very large fortunes. Callias, the wealthiest Athenian, was rated at 200 talents; and there were perhaps half a dozen held to be worth 100 talents.

tained a verdict of ten talents; but it is not known whether the money was ever paid to him. He had, however, been carefully educated for the profession of a "rhetorician," or, as we should say, an advocate. He labored under some great disadvantages for the exercise of this profession. His constitution was delicate; his chest was weak; and he had a marked impediment in his speech. But gradually he overcame this disability; and though his early efforts met with slight success, before he had reached the age of thirty he had become one of the leading members of what we may call the Athenian "bar," with a large and lucrative practice.

Among the most important duties of an Athenian advocate was that of preparing pleas for his clients. If the client had sufficient confidence in himself-which seems to have been usually the case he would commit this speech to memory, and deliver it to the "jury." An Athenian jury was composed of a large body of citizens. The usual number was five hundred; but there were sometimes two or three times as many. A skilful advocate would therefore so frame his plea that it might be supposed to come directly from the client himself. There are extant about thirty pleas of this sort written by Demosthenes. From them one may learn many of the lights and shades of everyday life in Athens. We have the merchant and the manufacturer, the shipowner and the farmer, the rogue and the swindler, the rough and his victim, each speaking of himself or his opponent as he wished nis "fellow citizens" to look

upon them. Among the most characteristic of these pleas by Demosthenes, is one in a case of ordinary "assault and battery." The plaintiff, a respectable young Athenian, had been set upon and violently maltreated by a disreputable gang, to whom he had somehow become obnoxious. He brought suit against one Conon, a ringleader of the gang, and employed Demosthenes as his counsel. A portion of the speech delivered by the plaintiff, but composed by Demosthenes, runs thus:

SPEECH AGAINST CONON et al.

I was taking a walk one evening in the market-place, with a friend of my own age, when Ctesias, Conon's son, passed us, very much under the influence of wine. Seeing us, he made an exclamation like a drunken fellow muttering something indistinctly to himself, and went on his way. There was a drinking party near by, at the house of Pamphilus, the fuller; Conon and a lot of others were there. Ctesias got them to go with him to the market-place. We were near the temple Leocorium when we encountered them. As we came up, one of them rushed on my friend and held him. Conon and another tripped up my heels, and threw me into the mud, and jumped on me, and knocked me so violently that my lip was cut through, and my eye bunged up. In this plight they left me, unable to rise or speak. As I lay I heard them use shocking language, some of which I should be sorry to repeat to you. One thing you shall hear. It proves Conon's malice, and that he was the ringleader in the affair: He crowed, mimicking fighting-cocks when they have won a battle; and his companions bade him clap his elbows against his sides, like wings. I was afterward found by some persons who came that way and carried home without my cloak, which these fellows had carried off.

When they got to the door, my mother and the maidservants began crying and bewailing. I was carried

with some difficulty to a bath; they washed me all over, and then showed me to the doctor. Will you

laugh and let Conon off because he says, "We are a band of merry fellows who, in our adventures and amours, strike and break the neck of any one we please?" I trust not. None of you would have laughed if you had been present when I was dragged and stripped and kicked, and carried to the home which I had left strong and well; and my mother rushed out, and the women cried and wailed as if a man had died in the house, so that some of the neighbors sent to ask what was the

matter.

Many of you know that gang. There's the grayheaded fellow, who all day long has a solemn frown on his brows, and wears a coarse mantle and single-soled shoes. But when they get together, they stick at no wickedness or disgraceful conduct. These are their nice and spirited sayings: "Sha'n't we bear witness for one another? doesn't it become friends and comrades?" "What will he bring against you that you're afraid of?" "Some men say they saw him beaten. We'll say, you never touched him." "Stripped off his coat.' We'll say, 'They began.'" "His lip was sewed up.' We'll say, Your head was broken.' -Remember, I produce medical evidence; they do not; for they can get no evidence against me but what is furnished by themselves.

Up to his thirtieth year Demosthenes was busied simply as a lawyer. He now began to speak in the agora upon public matters, and more especially upon the foreign affairs of the commonwealth, which had begun to assume a critical aspect. The most ominous feature was the growing power of Philip of Macedon, who threatened to acquire a supremacy over all the states of Greece, which were rent and torn by intestine quarrels. Demosthenes, who grew more and more into political consequence, took every occa