THE
PET 141R IT F -
VoL . IX .
JULY, I888 .
No . 75 .
SLOPERIANA. LEASE, please don't think I am going to refer in any way to a certain individual,— Ile bestia,—that famous beast whose person will doubtless suggest itself to many readers when they see the title of this article . Me genoito . The most salient points about that mythical, though exceedingly popular character, seem to me to be a vinous nose, and a battered white hat bound with black, together with unlimited stores of bibulous hilarity, and a frequently vulgar and generally unsuccessful craftiness . His name is, I presume, Alexander ; but it is invariably shortened with a familiarity which, contrary to the precepts of a most excellent proverb, does not appear to breed contempt . His popularity is vast ; and it is a silent comment on the mind of the schoolboy of the present day, that when he buys a newspaper he hesitates between this person ' s organ, which chronicles the res gestce of his weekly half-holiday, and two other fearsome periodicals, T— B— and S— . It will be seen, however, that if he has become of such importance that a newspaper is necessary to report his movements, no wonder if to a large section of the populace the heading of this article suggest his personality . Yet I am not going to speak of him but of the genus Sloper. For there are many "slopers" with you, but they are not of the type described above . I can call to mind no vinous noses, and I don't remember anyone who wears a white hat . I trust no one is bibulous, and I am sure none of you are vulgar : so then in no way does the school sloper correspond to that fine creation of the brain of whom we have been speaking.
P
No ; the sloper in question is he who resists the entreaties of the cricket captain, and, when he thinks he can do so with a whole skin, his commands to play cricket. The sloper is he who, on the most perfect of summer days, prefers to remain sub tegnziue fagi prone on the ground ;extended long and large, murmuring to himself, "Blessed be