A peculiarly English form of courage has been illustrated this
week in a rather striking way. A countryman about twenty years old was watching the bears at the Zoological Gardens when he dropped his hat. He knew nothing, as he subsequently explained, of " the nature " of bears, but it was quite intolerable that they should have his hat, and accordingly he let himself down into the pit. He was immediately " hugged" and thrown down, and would have been ripped open, but that the keeper, attracted by the cries of the spectators, threw him a stick, with which he defended himself till he was let out. His coat was torn and his hat ruined, but he himself was perfectly unmoved and without a. scratch. If that man enters the Army he must give up his liberty for ten years, must associate with some of the greatest roughs in existence, is liable to be flogged, and has about as much chance of becoming an officer as of becoming a bishop.
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