'my Uncle' And 'my Aunt.'

An ingenious French writer has been explaining to a curious world why the pawn-broking establishments are called "my aunt" (ma ante), says the London News. The Prince de Joinville, son of Louis Philippe, was kept very short of money in hls youth. One day the father noticed that the prince was not wearing a splendid gold watch, that had been given to him by hls mother, "Where is your watch?" asked the bourgeois king. "At my aunt's," was the reply. Princess Adelaide was interrogated on the subject, but she knew nothing about it. Then the young scapegrace admitted that he had pawned it. "My aunt," therefore, became proverbial for the Mont-de-Plete. But then, it may be asked, how it comes about that the pawnbroker in England is facetiously spoken of as "uncle," because the French say "aunt." Here in England everything goes by contraríes. The French coachman drives on the right, the English on the left; the French soldier has red trousers, the English soldier a red coat; the Frenen - man eats an oyster out of the hollow half of the shell, the Englishman out of the flat half; the French epicure drinks champagne after dinner, the English epicure during dinner, and so forth. It Is all a case of pure "cussedness."