THE "GOOD" HIPPOPOTAMUS.

OUR correspondent, the Raven in the Happy
Family, suggested in these pages, not long ago,
the propriety of a meeting being held, to
settle the preliminary arrangements for
erecting an equestrian statue to the
Hippopotamus. We are happy to have received
some exclusive information on this interesting
subject, and to be authorised to lay it before
our readers.

It appears that MR. HAMET SAFI CANNANA,
the Arabian gentleman who acts as Secretary
to H. R. H. (His Rolling Hulk) the Hippopotamus,
has been, for some time, reflecting
that he is under great obligations to that
distinguished creature. MR. HAMET SAFI
CANNANA (who is remarkable for candour) has
not hesitated to say that, but for his accidental
public connexion with H. E. H., he MR.
CANNANA would no doubt have remained to the
end of his days an obscure individual, perfectly
unknown to fame, and possessing no sort of
claim on the public attention. H. E. H. having
been the means of getting MR. CANNANA'S
name into print on several occasions, and
having afforded Mr. CANNANA various
opportunities of plunging into the newspapers,
MR. CANNANA has felt himself under a debt
of gratitude to H. R. H., requiring some public
acknowledgment and return. MR. CANNANA,
after much consideration, has been able to
think of no return, at once so notorious and
so cheap, as a monument to H. R. H., to be
erected at the public expense. "We cannot
positively state that MR. CANNANA founded
this idea on our Correspondent's suggestion
for, indeed, we have reason to believe that he
promulgated it before our Correspondent's
essay appeared but, we trust it is not claiming
too much for the authority of our
Correspondent to hope that it may have confirmed
MR. CANNANA in a very noble, a very sensible,
a very spirited, undertaking.

We proceed to record its history, as far as
it has yet gone.

MR. HAMET SAFI CANNANA, having
conceived the vast original idea of erecting a
Public Monument to H. R. H., set himself to
consider next, by what adjective H. R. H.
could be most attractively distinguished in the
advertisements of that Monument. After
much painful and profound cogitation, MR.
CANNANA was suddenly inspired with the
wonderful thought of calling him the " Good"
Hippopotamus!

This is so obviously an inspiration, a fancy
reserved, through all the previous ages of the
world, for this extraordinary genius, that we
have been at some pains to trace it, if possible,
to its source. But, as usually happens in
such cases, MR. CANNANA can give no account
of the process by which he arrived at the
result. MR. CANNANA'S description of
himself, rendered into English, would be, that he
was "bothered;" that he had thought of a
number of adjectives, as, the oily Hippopotamus,
the bland Hippopotamus, the bathing
Hippopotamus, the expensive Hippopotamus,
the valiant Hippopotamus, the sleepy
Hippopotamus, when, in a moment, as it were in the
space of a flash of lightning, he found he had
written down, without knowing why or wherefore,
and without being at all able to account
for it, those enduring words, the " Good"
Hippopotamus.

Having got the phrase down, in black and
white, for speedy publication, the next step
was to explain it to an unimaginative public.
This process, MR. CANNANA can describe.
He relates, that when he came to consider the
vast quantities of milk of which the Hippopotamus
partook, his amazing consumption on
meal, his unctuous appetite for dates, his
jog-trot manner of going, his majestic power
of sleep, he felt that all these qualities pointed
him out emphatically, as the "Good"
Hippopotamus. He never howled, like the Hyena;
he never roared, like the Lion; he never
screeched, like the Parrot; he never damaged
the tops of high trees, like the Giraffe; he
never put a trunk in people's way, like the
Elephant; he never hugged anybody, like the
Bear; he never projected a forked tongue,
like the Serpent. He was an easy, basking,
jolly, slow, inoffensive, eating and drinking
Hippopotamus. Therefore he was, supremely,
the "Good" Hippopotamus.

When MR. CANNANA observed the subject
from a closer point of view, he began to find
that H. E. H. was not only the " Good," but
a Benefactor to the whole human race. He
toiled not, neither did he spin, truly—but he
bathed in cool water when the weather was
hot, he slept when he came out of the bath;
and he bathed and slept, serenely, for the