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Show POGROM. There Is nothing Inherently absurd In the word pogrom, of which we are hearing a good deal just now; certainly there Is nothing noth-ing In the thing Itself which lends Itself to laughter. I was wondering (writes a correspondent) cor-respondent) why pogrom bad ludicrous associations as-sociations in my mind when I suddenly remembered re-membered the Honorable Elijah Pogrom cf "Marttn Chuzxlewit," . in whose person Dickens drew a ferocious caricature of a member of the United States Congress fifty years ago. "His complexion, naturally muddy, was rendered muddler by too strict an economy of soap and water; and the same observation will apply to the wah-. able part of his attire, which he might have changed with comfort to himself and gratification grati-fication to his friends. He was about live and-tblrty; was crushed and Jammed up In a heap, under the shade of a large green cotton umbrella, and ruminated over his tobacco plug like a cow." Nobody anything like the Honorable Elijah ever could have existed, but such is the power wielded by a great writer that a word which suggests his surname most always be linked with absurdity. London Chronicle. |