My first, a god once worshiped, now fills a lowly place, Though sometimes raised to favor by the wayward human race.

II.

My second, a bold captain, leads a goodly company, Whose numbers march in columns, like knights of chivalry.  They serve us at our bidding, yet we are in their power, And the weapons that they carry may wound us in an hour.  It grandly leads the ages, as their cycles onward roll, But stoops to lend its presence to my shadowy, fearful whole.  It lives in ancient romance, it floats upon the air, And flower-deck’d May without it would not be half so fair.

III.

My third holds humble office, a servant at your will, But an instrument of torture if ’tis not used with skill.  Beauty before her mirror studies its use with care, And deigns, perchance, to choose it an ornament to wear.

IV.

Consider, all ye people, what my strange whole may be; ’Tis gloomy, dark and awful, and full of mystery.  Ponder the tales of ages, of human sin and woe, Turn to historic pages, if you its name would know.  E’en kings their heads have rested, a-weary of the crown, Upon its curious couches, though not of silk or down.  The stately seven-hilled city may boast her ancient birth, But this was old and hoary ere she had place on earth.  Some tremble when they see it; some its secrets would explore, And, peering through its shadows, they seek its mystic lore.

A.M.W.

=NUMERICAL PUZZLE.=

A boy named 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 thought it singular he should become such a monster as a 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 by dropping the first letter of his surname.

C.D.

=FOUR-LETTER SQUARE-WORD.=

The base is a title.  Fill the blanks in the following sentence with words which can be arranged in order, as they come, to form a word-square: 

The (1)——­ made an (2)——­ of his minstrel, and yet he himself could not tell one (3)——­ from another, or distinguish a dirge from a (4)——.

B.

=EASY CROSS-WORD ENIGMA.=

1.  In road, but not in street; 2.  In hunger, not in eat; 3.  In inn, but not in tavern; 4.  In grot, but not in cavern.

The whole is the name of one of the United States.

R.L.  M’D.

=METAGRAM.=

Whole, (1) I am to beat; change my head, and I become, in succession, (2) stouter, (3) final, (4) substance, (5) to sprinkle, (6) to rend, and (7) a terrier of a much prized kind.

A.C.  CRETT.

=EASY ACROSTIC.=