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+
+ <title>Punch, February 28, 1891.</title>
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13098 ***</div>
+
+ <h1>PUNCH,<br />
+ OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.</h1>
+
+ <h2>Vol. 100.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <h2>February 28, 1891.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page97"
+ id="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span>
+
+ <h2>SPECIMENS FROM MR. PUNCH'S SCAMP-ALBUM.</h2>
+
+ <h4>No. II.&mdash;THE LITERARY "GHOST."</h4>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:33%;">
+ <a href="images/97-1.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/97-1.png"
+ alt="Elderly lady." /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>We will assume, simply for the purposes of this argument,
+ that you, reader, are an innocent-minded elderly lady, and a
+ regular subscriber to the Local Circulating Library. You are
+ sitting by your comfortable fireside, knitting a "cross-over"
+ for a Bazaar, when your little maid announces a gentleman, who
+ says he has not a card-case with him, but requests that you
+ will see him.</p>
+
+ <p>"You are sure he <i>is</i> a gentleman, MARY ANN?" you will
+ inquire, with a slight uneasiness as to the umbrellas in the
+ hall.</p>
+
+ <p>"Oh, a puffict gentleman, Mam," says MARY ANN&mdash;"with a
+ respirator."</p>
+
+ <p>Upon this testimony to his social standing, you direct that
+ the perfect gentleman shall be shown in.</p>
+
+ <p>MARY ANN has not deceived you&mdash;he has a respirator,
+ also blue spectacles, and a red nose. He apologises with fluent
+ humility for intruding upon you without the honour of a
+ previous acquaintance, and takes a chair, after which he shifts
+ his respirator to his chin, sheds a pair of immense woollen
+ gloves into his hat, and produces a bundle of papers, over
+ which he intreats you to cast an eye. On perusing them, they
+ prove to be letters from various eminent authors, whose names
+ are, more or less, familiar to you. These documents are more
+ interesting as autographs than from any intrinsic literary
+ merit, for they all refer to remittances for various amounts,
+ and regret politely that the writer is not in a position to
+ obtain permanent employment for his correspondent. While you
+ are reading them, your visitor pays assiduous court to your
+ cat&mdash;which impresses you favourably.</p>
+
+ <p>"Possibly, Madam," he suggests, "you may be personally
+ acquainted with some of those gentlemen?" When you confess that
+ you have not that honour, he seems more at his ease.</p>
+
+ <p>"I asked," he says, "because I have long heard of you as a
+ Lady of great taste and judgment in literary
+ matters&mdash;which, after seeing you, I can the more readily
+ understand."</p>
+
+ <p>It is a fact that several of your nieces and female
+ neighbours are in the habit of declaring that they would rather
+ take your opinion on a novel than that of all the critics;
+ still, you had not expected your fame to have spread so
+ wide.</p>
+
+ <p>"I had another motive," he confesses, "because, if you were
+ intimate with any of these authors, I should naturally 'esitate
+ to say anything which might have the effect of altering your
+ opinion of them. As it is, I can speak with perfect
+ freedom&mdash;though in the strictest confidence. You see
+ before you, Madam, an unfortunate bean, whom circumstances have
+ 'itherto debarred from ever reaping the fruit of his own brine!
+ Well may you remark, 'Your Gracious Goodness'"&mdash;(<i>your
+ natural astonishment having escaped you in the shape of this
+ invocation</i>)&mdash;"for in your goodness and in your
+ graciousness rests my sole remaining 'ope. I was endowed from
+ an early age with a fertile and versatile imagination, and
+ creative powers which, without vanity, I may say, were of a
+ rather superior class. The one thing I lacked was inflooence,
+ and in the world of letters, Madam, as I am sure you do not
+ need to be informed, without inflooence Genius is denied a
+ suitable opening. At several literary Clubs in the West End I
+ made the acquaintance of the authors whose letters you have
+ just had the opportunity of reading&mdash;men who have since
+ attained to the topmost pinnacle of Fame. At that time they
+ were comparatively obscure; they 'eard my conversation, they
+ realised that I 'ad ideers, of which they knew the value
+ better, perhaps, than I did myself. I used to see them taking
+ down notes on their shirt-cuffs, and that, but I took no notice
+ of it at the time. Probably you have read the celebrated work
+ of fiction by Mr. GASHLEIGH WALKER, entitled, <i>King Cole's
+ Cellars</i>? I thought so. I gave him the plot, scenery and
+ characters complete, for that story. I did, indeed."</p>
+
+ <p>"And do you mean to say he has taken all the credit
+ himself!" you exclaim, very properly shocked.</p>
+
+ <p>"If he has," he replies, meekly, "I am far from
+ complaining&mdash;a shilling or two was an object to me at that
+ time. And it got me more work of the sort. There's <i>Booty
+ Bay</i>, now, the book that made ROBERTSON&mdash;<i>that</i>
+ was took down, word for word, from my dictation, in a back
+ parlour of one of LOCKHART's Cocoa-Rooms. I got fifteen
+ shillings for that. <i>He</i> got, I daresay, 'undreds of
+ pounds. Well, <i>I</i> don't grudge it to him. As he said, I
+ ought to remember he had all the <i>manual</i> labour of it.
+ Then there's that other book which has sold its thousands,
+ <i>Four Men in a Funny</i>&mdash;that was mine&mdash;all but
+ the last chapter; he <i>would</i> put in that, and, in
+ <i>my</i> opinion, spoilt it, from an artistic point. But what
+ could I do? It was out of <i>my</i> 'ands! I must say I never
+ anticipated myself that it would be so popular. 'I should be
+ robbing you,' I said, 'if I took more than ten shillings for
+ it.' All the same, it turned out a good bargain for him. Then
+ there's the Drama, you would hardly credit it that I could name
+ three leading theatres at this present moment where pieces are
+ running which came originally out of <i>my</i> 'ed! But it's no
+ use my saying so&mdash;no one would believe it. And now I've
+ 'elped all these men up the ladder, they can do without
+ me&mdash;they can go alone&mdash;or think they can. See the way
+ they write&mdash;not a word about owing anything to my 'umble
+ services, a postal order for three-and-six; but that's the
+ world all over!"</p>
+
+ <p>"But surely," you will sympathetically observe, "you will
+ expose them, you will insist on sharing in the reward of your
+ labours&mdash;it is a duty you owe to the public, as well as
+ yourself!"</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:36%;">
+ <a href="images/97-2.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/97-2.png"
+ alt="The perfect gentleman." /></a>"Slow rises worth
+ by poverty depressed."
+ </div>
+
+ <p>"So I've been told, Madam. But what can I do?&mdash;I'm a
+ poor man. 'Slow rises worth, by poverty depressed,' as POPE, or
+ GOLDSMITH&mdash;for a similar idea occurs in both&mdash;truly
+ observes. To put my case before the public as it <i>ought</i>
+ to be put, I should first have to gain the ear of the
+ Press&mdash;and you want a golden key to do that, nowadays. The
+ Press is very reluctant to run down successful writers. 'Hawks
+ won't pick out Awkses heyes,' as BURNS remarks. (<i>By this
+ time you are probably fumbling for your purse, which, as usual,
+ is at the bottom of your work-basket.</i>) No, they will find
+ me out some day&mdash;after I'm dead and gone, most likely! In
+ the meantime I envy nobody. I have the consciousness of Genius,
+ and&mdash;I'm sure your generosity is overwhelming,
+ Madam&mdash;I really never ventured to&mdash;Pardon these
+ tears; it is the first time my poor talents have ever obtained
+ such recognition as this! Could you crown your favours by
+ giving me the names and addresses of any charitable friends and
+ neighbours whom you think at all likely to follow your noble
+ example?... I thank you from my heart, Madam, and, when I
+ succeed in recovering my literary in'eritance, and am called
+ upon to issue a collected edition of my works, I shall take the
+ liberty of inscribing on the title-page a dedication to the
+ generous benefactress who first 'elped to restore my fallen
+ fortunes!"</p>
+
+ <p>With this he seals his lips again with the respirator,
+ pockets his documents and your donation, and bows himself
+ gratefully out, leaving you to meditate on the unscrupulousness
+ of popular Authors, and the ease with which a confiding public
+ is hoodwinked.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>M.P. Manfield, M.P.</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Northampton's new Member an honour can claim</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">On which he need set little store:</p>
+
+ <p>He now has M.P. written after his name,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">But he always had M.P. before.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>If every M.P. in the lobby counts one,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To the <i>Ayes</i>, or the <i>Noes</i>,
+ walking through,</p>
+
+ <p>Does logic demand, in each case, <i>pro</i> and
+ <i>con.</i>,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">M.P. MANFIELD, M.P., should count
+ two?</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>CHANCE FOR SPINSTERS OF AN UNCERTAIN AGE.&mdash;There is to
+ be a Mahommedan Mission in England.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page98"
+ id="page98"></a>[pg 98]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/98.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/98.png"
+ alt="'THE WATER BABIES AND THE ROYAL GODMOTHER.'" />
+ </a>
+
+ <h3>"THE WATER BABIES AND THE ROYAL GODMOTHER."</h3>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>BRAVO, BAGSHAWE!</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>A lady of Bedford, despotic and rash,</p>
+
+ <p>Tried to force her poor groom to shave off his
+ moustache.</p>
+
+ <p>Judge BAGSHAWE the wise, made her pay for her
+ prank.</p>
+
+ <p>This makes one inclined to sing, "<i>I know a
+ Bank</i>,"</p>
+
+ <p>Where BAGSHAWE might bring common-sense, for a
+ change;</p>
+
+ <p>They're worse than the Lady of Goldington
+ Grange,</p>
+
+ <p>These Banking Bashaws with three tails, who must
+ clip</p>
+
+ <p>Nature's health-giving gift from a clerk's chin or
+ lip.</p>
+
+ <p>Bah! What <i>are</i> they fit for, these stupid old
+ rules?</p>
+
+ <p>To be shaped by rich tyrants, obeyed by poor
+ fools!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>QUEER QUERIES.</h3>
+
+ <p>ENGLISH HISTORY.&mdash;I have been reading several books on
+ this subject, and am rather puzzled. Are the English people,
+ <i>as existing now</i>, Teutons, or Danes, or Celts, or what?
+ Can we be Teutons when the aborigines of these islands were not
+ Teutonic? I feel that my own genius&mdash;and I have a
+ lot&mdash;is Celtic; at the same time I have always prided
+ myself on my Norman blood; yet from my liking for the sea,
+ which never makes me sick, at least at Herne Bay, I fancy I
+ must be descended from a Scandinavian Viking. What is the
+ ethnological name given to a person who is an amalgamation of
+ such heterogeneous elements?&mdash;INQUIRER.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page99"
+ id="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:45%;">
+ <a href="images/99.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/99.png"
+ alt="TOUCHING CONFIDENCE IN THE FOG." /></a>
+
+ <h3>TOUCHING CONFIDENCE IN THE FOG.</h3><i>Gentleman of
+ Engaging Manners.</i> "BLESS YOUR 'EART, YOU'LL BE HALL
+ RIGHT ALONG O' ME, MUM! LET ME KERRY THE LITTLE BAG FOR
+ YOU, MUM!!"
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>THE BRUM AND THE OOLOGIST.</h2>
+
+ <blockquote class="note">
+ <p>[Mr. W. JAMES asked the LORD ADVOCATE whether his
+ attention had been called to a circular, issued from
+ Birmingham by the Naturalists' Publishing Company, inviting
+ applications for shares in "An Oological Expedition to the
+ land of the Great Auk," meaning the Shetland Isles, and
+ stating that, "if the season is a pretty fair one, a haul
+ of at least twenty thousand eggs" of rare sea-birds might
+ be expected.&mdash;<i>Daily Paper</i>.]</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The "Brum" and the Oologist</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Were walking hand in hand;</p>
+
+ <p>They grinned to see so many birds</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">On cliff, and rock, and sand.</p>
+
+ <p>"If we could only get their eggs,"</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Said they, "it would be grand."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"If we should start a Company</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To gather eggs all day,</p>
+
+ <p>Do you suppose," the former said,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">"That we could make it pay?"</p>
+
+ <p>"We might," said the Oologist,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">"On the promoting lay!"</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Then you've a tongue, and I a ship,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Likewise some roomy kegs;</p>
+
+ <p>And you might lead the birds a dance</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Upon their ugly legs;</p>
+
+ <p>And, when you've got them out of sight,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I'll steal their blooming eggs."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Oh, Sea-birds," said the Midland man,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">"Let's take a pleasant walk!</p>
+
+ <p>Perhaps among you we may find</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The Great&mdash;or lesser&mdash;Auk;</p>
+
+ <p>And you might possibly enjoy</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A scientific talk."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The skuas and the cormorants,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And all the puffin clan,</p>
+
+ <p>The stormy petrels, gulls, and terns,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">They hopped, and skipped, and ran</p>
+
+ <p>With very injudicious speed</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To join that oily man.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"The time has come," remarked the Brum,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">"For 'talking without tears'</p>
+
+ <p>Of birds unhappily extinct,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Yet known in former years;</p>
+
+ <p>And how much cash an egg will fetch</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">In Naturalistic spheres."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"But not <i>our</i> eggs!" replied the birds,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Feeling a little hot.</p>
+
+ <p>"You surely would not rob our nests</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">After this pleasant trot?"</p>
+
+ <p>The Midland man said nothing but,&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">"I guess he's cleared the lot!"</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Well!" said that bland Oologist,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">"We've had a lot of fun.</p>
+
+ <p>Next year, perhaps, these Shetland birds</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">We'll visit&mdash;with a gun;</p>
+
+ <p>When&mdash;as we've taken all their eggs&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">There'll probably be none!"</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>Queer Queries.</h3>
+
+ <p>DIVORCE FACILITIES.&mdash;I should like to be informed in
+ what part of the United States it is that a Divorce is granted
+ in half-an-hour, at a merely nominal fee, on the ground of
+ conscientious objections to monogamy? What is the cost of
+ getting there, and would it be necessary that my wife should go
+ there too? There might be a difficulty in persuading her to
+ take the journey.</p>
+
+ <p class="author">INCOMPATIBILITY.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>A CANADIAN CALENDAR.</h3>
+
+ <h4>(<i>To be hoped not Prophetic.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <p>1892. Reciprocity firmly established between the Dominion
+ and the U.S.A.</p>
+
+ <p>1893. Emigration ceases between the Dominion and the Mother
+ Country, and trade dies out.</p>
+
+ <p>1894. Return from Canada of families of the best blood to
+ England and France.</p>
+
+ <p>1895. Great increase of the Savage Indian Tribes in the
+ country, and the Improvident Irish Population in the towns of
+ the Dominion.</p>
+
+ <p>1896. Practical suspension of trade between the Dominion and
+ the U.S.A., the latter having now attained the desired object
+ of shutting out goods of British manufacture from the American
+ market.</p>
+
+ <p>1897. England refuses to assist Canada in resenting Yankee
+ encroachment in the seal fisheries.</p>
+
+ <p>1898. Canada asks to be annexed to the U.S.A.</p>
+
+ <p>1899. After some hesitation Uncle SAM consents to absorb the
+ Dominion.</p>
+
+ <p>1900. Canada becomes a tenth-rate Yankee State.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>THE DICTUM OF DIOGENES.</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"One Man, One Vote!" A very proper plan</p>
+
+ <p>If you with each One Vote can find&mdash;One
+ <i>Man</i>!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>MRS. GRUNDY TO MR. GOSCHEN.</h2>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The Three per Cents, the Three per Cents,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Serene but mortal Three,</p>
+
+ <p>In view of recent sad events,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Oh! give them back to me.</p>
+
+ <p>Oh! GOSCHEN, Sir, kind gentleman,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Hear my polite laments;</p>
+
+ <p>Restore this trio, if you can&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Those musical Per Cents.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>My income once was safe, if small;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">It's larger, but unpaid,</p>
+
+ <p>Despite "the quite phenomenal</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Development of Trade."</p>
+
+ <p>The "Bogus Man" is on the track,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And queer "Financial Gents"</p>
+
+ <p>Have promised me in white and black</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Their Six and Ten per Cents.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The Three per Cents were regular,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Respectable, and good.</p>
+
+ <p>Their health was such that "under par"</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">They very seldom stood;</p>
+
+ <p>They needed no "conversion" rash,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Like Darker Continents;</p>
+
+ <p>A sort of Sunday turned to cash</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">They were, my Three per Cents.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>A distant river somewhere rolls,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The wicked River Plate;</p>
+
+ <p>Upon its <i>banks</i> there flourish souls</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Perverse and reprobate.</p>
+
+ <p>Ah, send your missionaries <i>there</i>!</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">If haply it repents,</p>
+
+ <p>I'll not surrender Eaton Square</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">For Surrey's wild or Kent's.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Not I alone; the best that breathe,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Archbishop, Duke, and Lord,</p>
+
+ <p>Your bust with chaplets rare will wreathe,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">This boon if you'll accord.</p>
+
+ <p>How can we by example shame</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The mob who mock at rents,</p>
+
+ <p>If we are left to do the same</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Without our Three per Cents?</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Reft of a carriage, life is poor:</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A well-conducted set</p>
+
+ <p>Needs ready money to procure</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Their butler and <i>Debrett</i>.</p>
+
+ <p>The country totters to its fall,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Disgraced to all intents,</p>
+
+ <p>Unless you instantly recall</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Our solid Three per Cents.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>THE FLOWERLESS FUNERAL.</h3>
+
+ <h4>(<i>By a Flower Merchant.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Funeral Reform? Oh! just a fad,&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Its advocates, in fact, as bad</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">As those who want Cremation.</p>
+
+ <p>A set of foolish, fussy fools</p>
+
+ <p>Whose misplaced ardour nothing cools&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A nuisance to the nation!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Economy, they're all agreed,</p>
+
+ <p>Should be with them a cult and creed,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Simplicity a passion.</p>
+
+ <p>They'd quickly wreck this trade of ours,</p>
+
+ <p>Since they would scorn the use of flowers,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">If they could set the fashion!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Yes; parsons agitate, but these</p>
+
+ <p>Good gentlemen all take their fees&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">We thank them much for giving</p>
+
+ <p>Such good advice upon this head,</p>
+
+ <p>But recollect that from the dead</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">We've got to get our living!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>CHORUS OF THE OBJECTORS TO THE PROPOSED LORD'S TUNNEL
+ RAILWAY.&mdash;"WATKIN the matter be!"</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page100"
+ id="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span>
+
+ <h2>MR. PUNCH'S PRIZE NOVELS.</h2>
+
+ <h4>No. XIV.&mdash;LE PÉTROLIUM; OU, LES SALOPERIES
+ PARISIENNES.</h4>
+
+ <p>(<i>Par Zorgon-Gola, Auteur de "Toujours Poivre," "Charbon
+ et Crasse," "La Fange," "499 Pages d'Amour," "Le Pourvoyeur
+ Universel," "Une Rêveuse qui vise l'Académie</i>.")</p>
+
+ <h4>I.&mdash;LA FAMILLE.</h4>
+
+ <p>Si vous voulez voir les <i>Slums</i> Parisiens et comprendre
+ le Peuple&mdash;avec la majuscule&mdash;vous devez visiter les
+ Saloperies, faubourg au delà de Belleville et de Ménilmontant,
+ faubourg où les femmes sortent le matin en cheveux&mdash;ça ne
+ veut pas dire comme Lady GODIVA, mais simplement sans
+ chapeau&mdash;acheter de la charcuterie; et où vers minuit dans
+ des bouges infects les hommes se coupent le gavion, en bons
+ zigs, après une soirée de rigolade. C'est ici qu'on trouve des
+ admirables exemplaires de cette nombreuse famille EGOU-OGWASH,
+ qui, datant de PHARAMOND, peuple Paris et joue tous les rôles
+ dans la comédie humaine. Ce n'est pas une famille tout à fait
+ vieille roche, voyez-vous: au contraire, ça commence dans la
+ boue de Provence et finit dans les égouts de Paris; mais elle
+ est distinguée, tout de même. Elle a son épilepsie héréditaire,
+ belle et forte épilepsie qu'on trouvera partout dans cette
+ vingtaine de romans que je suis resolu d'écrire au sujet des
+ EGOU-OGWASH. C'est une épilepsie généalogique. Il y en a pour
+ toute la famille.</p>
+
+ <h4>II.&mdash;LES POPPOT.</h4>
+
+ <p>JANE POPPOT se promenait sur le Boulevard des Saloperies par
+ une belle matinée d'août. En cheveux, panier sur le bras, elle
+ allait acheter de la charcuterie pour le déjeuner de son mari,
+ oui, son mari pour de bon, chose unique dans la famille OGWASH,
+ un vrai mariage à la Mairie et à l'église. Cette petite blonde,
+ JANE, a ses idées à elle de se ranger, de vivre en honnête
+ femme avec son respectable JEAN POPPOT qui l'adore, au point de
+ lui pardonner tout le volume premier de son histoire.</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:50%;">
+ <a href="images/100.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/100.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>Il n'y a pas dans tout Paris ménage plus gentil que le petit
+ appartement au septième des POPPOT dans une cité ouvrière de ce
+ Betnal Grin Parisien. Tout va bien avec ces braves gens. Lui,
+ c'est le Steeple-Jack de Paris, où il fait les réparations de
+ tous les toits. Elle, blanchisseuse de fin, a développé un
+ secret dans la façon d'empeser les plastrons de chemises. Elle
+ fait des plastrons monumentaux, luisants, dur comme l'albâtre.
+ Elle a des clients dans le beau monde et à l'étranger, jusqu'au
+ Prince de BALEINES, qui lui confie ses chemises de grande
+ toilette, celles qu'il porte au diner du Lor Maire, par
+ exemple.</p>
+
+ <p>JANE achète sa charcuterie, et après elle s'arrête au coin
+ de la rue pour regarder Paris. C'était un tic qu'elle avait, de
+ regarder Paris. Cela tenait de la famille OGWASH. Instinct de
+ race.</p>
+
+ <p>Paris, vu du hauteur des Saloperies, semble une grande
+ marmite pleine de boue et de sang, où les gens grouillent, se
+ tordent, s'empiffrent, se dévorent, et <i>squirment</i> dans
+ leur propre graisse, comme de la blanchaille sautant dans
+ l'huile bouillante. Un nuage de <i>sewer-gaz</i> monte jusqu'à
+ JANE stationnée sur la hauteur de Belleville; et dans cette
+ brume puante elle sent l'odeur de femmes et de l'ognon, le
+ cognac, le meurtre, le fricot, le mont de piété, les omnibus,
+ les croquemorts, les gargotes, les bals à l'entrée libre pour
+ dames, tout ce qu'il y a de funeste et de choquant dans cette
+ ville infecte.</p>
+
+ <p>JANE s'amuse à flairer toutes ces horreurs pendant que le
+ pauvre POPPOT danse devant le buffet en attendant l'arlequin ou
+ le demi kilo de charcuterie assortie dans le panier de sa
+ femme.</p>
+
+ <h4>III.&mdash;DÉGRINGOLADE.</h4>
+
+ <p>Elle a dégringolé. Cela a commencé tout doucement en
+ trainant ses savates. Quand une femme dégringole elle traine
+ ses savates. C'est une loi universelle. L'on ne dégringole pas
+ sans trainer ses savates; l'on ne traine pas ses savates sans
+ dégringoler. Ainsi gare aux souliers éculés. O, mais elle est
+ changée, cette pauvre p'tite blonde! La maladie héréditaire des
+ EGOU-OGWASH vient d'être indiquée. POPPOT, ce brave POPPOT, lui
+ aussi il dégringole, il resemble à un réverbère sur le
+ boulevard dont on oublie d'éteindre le gaz. Il est allumé du
+ matin au soir.</p>
+
+ <p>Ça a commencé si gentiment après que ce bon Steeple-Jack
+ était tombé du faîte de Notre Dame, où il faisait des
+ réparations. Le pauvre homme a fait cette chute en regardant
+ JANE, qui dansait le cancan sur la Place du Parvis pour choquer
+ ces crétins de <i>Cook-tourists</i>, et pour distraire son
+ mari. C'était pendant la convalescence de POPPOT que la
+ dégringolade a commencé. JANE lui donna un dé à coudre de
+ vilain cognac, et de ce premier doigt de casse-poitrine à
+ l'ivrognerie brutale n'était qu'une glissade, presque aussi
+ rapide que la glissade de Notre Dame. POPPOT trainait ses
+ savates; il chômait; il rigolait; il gardait le Saint Lundi; il
+ passait des journées devant le buffet du Pétrolium, ce grand
+ cabaret du peuple où l'on voyait distiller le trois-six pour
+ tout le quartier.</p>
+
+ <p>JANE faisait pire que dégringoler; elle cascadait. Elle ne
+ se débarbouillait plus. Elle avait pris en horreur le savon.
+ Est-ce une aversion héréditaire, datant de la première femme
+ qui a senti la puanteur de cet abominable savon français, avant
+ la bienfaisante invention de M. POIRES? Sans doute c'était
+ l'atavisme en quelque forme. Elle avait son béguin. C'était le
+ linge sale. Plus il était sale, plus elle en raffolait. Elle ne
+ voulait plus les chemises en batiste fine du Prince de
+ BALEINES. Elle priait les aristos du Jockey Club de donner
+ leurs plastrons à d'autres. Les clients qu'elle préferait
+ étaient les porte-faix, les forts de la halle, les chauffeurs
+ du chemin de fer. C'était en allant chercher le linge de ces
+ derniers qu'elle entrait sans le savoir dans le Dédale de cette
+ voie ferrée qui enlace et écrase les êtres vivants comme les
+ grandes roues des locomotives écrasent la poussière de la
+ voie.</p>
+
+ <p>Le Président du P.L.M. lui aussi avait son béguin
+ héréditaire. Il courait les femmes malpropres. Plus elles ne se
+ débarbouillaient pas, plus il les courait. C'était innocent. Il
+ les admirait du côté esthétique. Cela tenait de la famille,
+ puis de ce que lui aussi était de la vieille souche des
+ EGOU-OGWASH. Il s'allumait en lorgnant la figure noircie de
+ cette pauvre JANE, et la rencontrant dans la gare un jour il se
+ permit un pen de <i>flirtàge</i> sans penser à mal. Mais par
+ une fatalité, POPPOT, affreusement paf, descendait d'une
+ quatrième classe au moment ou le vieux baisait la main
+ crasseuse de JANE, en lui disant son gentil bon soir: et des
+ cet instant POPPOT voyait rouge.</p>
+
+ <h4>IV.&mdash;SURINADE.</h4>
+
+ <p>IL voyait rouge. Paris lui semblait un abattoir. Il couvait
+ le meurtre, et pour l'aider il avait un complice qui était du
+ métier, JACQUES RISPÈRE, conducteur de machines sur le P.L.M.,
+ qui avait aussi sa manie héréditaire, et sa manie à lui était
+ de couper les gorges. Il les coupait sans rancune, à
+ l'improviste, en souriant à sa victime, les yeux dans les yeux.
+ Cric! c'était fait. Par exemple il est descendu un jour de la
+ locomotive et devant le buffet d'une station où il n'y avait
+ pas trop de monde il a suriné la <i>barmaid</i> qui lui
+ souriait en lui vendant une brioche. Il a égorgé son chauffeur
+ au risque d'arrêter le train de luxe entre Avignon et
+ Marseilles. On ne le punit pas. Cela tenait de la famille.</p>
+
+ <p>"Touche là, mon drôle! C'est convenu," dit JACQUES RISPÈRE,
+ après un entretien de quelques heures devant le buffet du
+ Pétrolium. "Moi, j'arrangerai tout cela avec les
+ fonctionnaires. Le train arrivant de Génève doit passer le
+ Rapide entre Macon et Dijon. Il ne passera pas. Je retarderai
+ le train omnibus arrivant de Marseilles. J'accélererai le
+ <i>train-luggage</i> arrivant de Paris. Il y aura une mêlée de
+ quatre trains, entrechoqués, tordus, enlacés, faisant le
+ <i>pique-à-baque</i>: et pendant cette mêlée j'égorgerai ce
+ vieux mufe de Président. C'est simple."</p>
+
+ <p>"Comme bon jour," repondit POPPOT, aveuglément soûl.</p>
+
+ <p>RISPÈRE tenait parole. À onze heures du soir il y avait une
+ de ces catastrophes qui font frémir l'Europe voyageuse.
+ L'assassin ne <span class="pagenum"><a name="page101"
+ id="page101"></a>[pg 101]</span> s'arrêtait pas à la gorge
+ du Président. Le vieil aristo n'avait pas assez de sang pour
+ assouvir la soif meurtrière de l'épileptique. RISPÈRE
+ égorgea tout le monde, à tort et à travers, une véritable
+ tuerie. On le prit les mains rouges, la bouche blanche
+ d'écume. C'était la vraie épilepsie d'ESQUIROL.</p>
+
+ <p>Quant à POPPOT personne n'a soupçonné sa complicité dans ce
+ crime gigantesque. Lui et JANE se soûlent paisiblement du matin
+ an soir devant le buffet du Pétrolium, en amis. Ils deviennent
+ tous les jours plus pauvres, plus paresseux, et plus poivres.
+ Ainsi c'est facile de prévoir leur fin:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>L'hôpital, trente pages de délire alcoölique, et la fosse
+ commune.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Note de l'Auteur</i>.&mdash;C'est mon intention
+ irrévocable de finir ma vingtaine de romans sur la famille
+ OGWASH, et je compte avec plasir offrir les dix-neuf à suivre à
+ mon ami estimé, <i>Ponche</i>.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>LISTENING TO THE GENTLE KOOEN.</h2>
+
+ <p><i>Maid Marian</i> is "a Comic Opera in Three Acts," at
+ least so I gather from the title-page of the book and from the
+ programme of the Prince of Wales's Theatre; though where the
+ comicality comes in, except occasionally with Mr. MONKHOUSE, it
+ would require <i>Sam Weller's</i> "pair o' patent double
+ million magnifyin' gas microscopes of hextra power" to detect.
+ Mr. LE HAY, too, has nothing like the opportunity which was
+ given him in <i>Prince Bulbo</i>. Now, when in a so-called
+ Comic Opera your two principal low comedians have very little
+ to do, say, or sing, and when that little is not of a
+ particularly side-splitting character, and when the plot is not
+ replete with comic situations, such a work must depend for its
+ success on the freshness of its melodies, on the popularity of
+ its <i>artistes</i>, and on the excellence of its
+ <i>mise-en-scène</i>.</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:30%;">
+ <a href="images/101-1.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/101-1.png"
+ alt="Libretto by Smith. As he appears in Act III., 'hammering at it.'" />
+ </a>Libretto by Smith. As he appears in Act III.,
+ "hammering at it."
+ </div>
+
+ <p>As to the last of these essentials, if, perhaps, it is not
+ so brilliantly placed on the stage as some other shows have
+ been, yet there is plenty of Harrisian movement, due always to
+ the devices in stage-management of CHARLES of that ilk, who
+ certainly knows how to keep the Chorus moving and the game
+ alive generally.</p>
+
+ <p>The yet existing admirers of the once enormously popular
+ composer, OFFENBACH, among whom I certainly include myself,
+ will be much gratified by the delicately introduced
+ reminiscences of the work of that master of <i>opéra bouffe</i>
+ which occasionally crop up during the performance of <i>Maid
+ Marian</i>. If it be permissible for great Masters to repeat
+ themselves, as notably more than one has done, may not little
+ Masters exhibit the results of their profound studies in the
+ schools of popular Composers? Surely they may; and was I not
+ pleased with Mr. DE KOOEN (whose name seems to suggest "the
+ voice of the turtle,"&mdash;the dove, not the soup) when his
+ prelude to the Third Act distinctly recalled to my attentive
+ mind the celebrated unison effect in <i>L'Africaine</i>, only
+ without the marvellous jump, which, when first heard, thrilled
+ the audience, and compelled an enthusiastic encore? Then Miss
+ VIOLET CAMERON sang a song about the bells, with a chorus not
+ in the least like that in <i>Les Cloches de Corneville</i> you
+ understand, because the latter, I think, is performed without
+ the bells sounding, but in this there is a musical peal which
+ intensifies the distinction between the two. This "number" was
+ encored heartily, nay, I think it was demanded three times, and
+ came just at the right moment to freshen up the entertainment.
+ In the previous Act Miss ATTALIE CLAIRE had had a good song
+ which had also obtained an encore, thoroughly well deserved as
+ far as her singing was concerned.</p>
+
+ <p>I forget what Mr. COFFIN had to sing, but, whatever it was,
+ he did it more than justice, as did also the <i>basso
+ profondo</i>, whose efforts in producing his voice from,
+ apparently, his boots, were crowned with remarkable
+ success.</p>
+
+ <p>The <i>Friar Tuck</i> here is a kind of good old-fashioned
+ burlesque Friar, more like that one some years ago at the
+ Gaiety, in <i>Little Robin Hood</i> than the Friar in
+ <i>Ivanhoe</i>. But I should say that this Friar would be
+ uncommonly thankful to have got anything like the song that Sir
+ ARTHUR has given <i>his</i> Friar over the way, or something
+ even as good as Mr. DALLAS had to sing, years ago, in REECE's
+ Gaiety Burlesque. However, perhaps it was not intended for a
+ singing part, and perhaps the actor who plays it is not a
+ professional singer. We're not all of us born with silver notes
+ in our chests.</p>
+
+ <p>I see that Mr. HORACE SEDGER announces the drama in action,
+ entitled <i>L'Enfant Prodigue</i>, which recently made such a
+ hit in Paris. Wonder how it will go here. Not knowing, can't
+ prophesy.</p>
+
+ <p class="author">PRIVATE BOX.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.</h2>
+
+ <p>The Baron thanks Sir HENRY THOMPSON for his <i>Food and
+ Feeding</i>, which (published by WARNE &amp; Co., a suggestive
+ name) has reached its sixth edition. It is, indeed, an
+ entertaining work, and a work that all honest entertainers
+ should carefully study. It will delight alike the host and the
+ guest. To the first, Sir HENRY, being a host in himself, can
+ give such valuable advice as, if acted upon, will secure the
+ ready pupil a position as a Lucullus of the first class; and,
+ even when so placed, he will still have much to learn from this
+ Past Grand Master in the art of living well and wisely. "<i>Fas
+ est ab 'hoste' doceri</i>"&mdash;and a better host it would be
+ difficult to find as teacher than Sir HENRY THOMPSON, P.G.M.,
+ to whose health and happiness the Baron quaffs a bumper of
+ burgundy of the right sort and at the right time. Most
+ opportunely does this book appear in the season of Lent, which
+ may be well and profitably spent in acquiring a thorough
+ knowledge of how to turn to the best account the fleshpots of
+ Egypt, when the penitential time is past, and the yolk of
+ mortification is thrown off with the welcome return of the
+ Easter Egg. Read attentively what our guide and friend has to
+ say about salads, especially note his remarks on the salad of
+ "cold boiled table vegetables." His arrangement of the
+ <i>menu</i>, to the Baron's simple taste, humble mode of life,
+ and not inconsiderable experience, is perfect. <i>Hors
+ d'oeuvres</i> are works of supererogation, and have never been,
+ so to speak, acclimatised in our English table-land. The Baron
+ may have overlooked any directions about <i>écrivisses</i>, not
+ as <i>bisque</i>, but pure and simple as cray-fish, which,
+ fresh from the river and served hot and hot come in late but
+ welcome as an admirable refresher to the palate, and as a
+ relish for the champagne, though the Baron is free to admit
+ that the dainty manipulation of them is somewhat of a trial to
+ the inexperienced guest, especially in the presence of "Woman,
+ lovely Woman." "Hease afore helegance," was <i>Mr. Weller's</i>
+ motto, but "Ease combined with elegance" may be attained in a
+ few lessons, which any skilled M.D.E. (<i>i.e.</i>, <i>Mangeur
+ d'écrivisses</i>) will be delighted to give at the
+ well-furnished table of an apt and ardent pupil. Once more
+ "<i>Your</i> health, Sir HENRY!" that's the Baron's toast
+ (bread not permitted) in honour of the eminent practician who
+ does so much for the health of everybody.</p>
+
+ <p>That a considerable number of novel-readers like <i>Saint
+ Monica</i>, by Mrs. BENNETT-EDWARDS, is evident, because it has
+ reached its sixth edition, but that the Baron is not one of
+ this happy number he is fain to admit. <i>Saint Monica</i>
+ seems to him to be a story with which the author of <i>As in a
+ Looking-Glass</i> might have done something in his peculiar
+ way. It begins with promise, which promise is not justified by
+ performance.</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:35%;">
+ <a href="images/101-2.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/101-2.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>Who does not welcome the works of HAWLEY SMART, the
+ brightest of our novelists? This is not a conundrum, and,
+ consequently, has no answer. Everybody likes the books of our
+ literary Major, and everybody will be pleased with <i>The
+ Plunger</i>. The new Story is in two volumes, and is full of
+ incident. There is a murder, which carries one through, from
+ the first page to the last, in a state of breathless
+ excitement. Not that the tale commences with the tragedy. But
+ its anticipation is as delightful as its subsequent
+ realisation; and, when the mystery is solved, joy becomes
+ universal. The story is told with so light a hand, that it may
+ be truly said that the only "heavy" thing about the book is its
+ title.</p>
+
+ <p><i>The Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson</i> is a good stout
+ volume, full of portraits and interest from beginning to end,
+ forming an important addition to the theatrical history of the
+ day. The Baron drinks to his old friend, the greatest
+ <i>Rip</i> that ever lived. "Here's your health, and your
+ family's, and may you live long, and prosper!" says, heartily,
+ THE BARON DE BOOK-WORMS.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page102"
+ id="page102"></a>[pg 102]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/102.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/102.png"
+ alt="SATIETY." /></a>
+
+ <h3>SATIETY.</h3>"OH, MAMMY DARLING, WHY CAN'T THE
+ TOYSHOP-MAN CALL FOR ORDERS EVERY MORNING, LIKE THE BAKER?"
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>CORIOLANUS.</h2>
+
+ <p>"<i>First Citizen</i>. Consider you what services he has
+ done for his country?</p>
+
+ <p>"<i>Second Citizen</i>. Very well; and could be content to
+ give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being
+ proud."&mdash;<i>Coriolanus</i>, Act I., Scene 1.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Teuton Coriolanus loquitur</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"<i>Was ever man so proud as is this</i>
+ MARCIUS?"</p>
+
+ <p>There spake the babbling Tribune! Proud? Great
+ gods!</p>
+
+ <p>All power seems pride to men of petty souls,</p>
+
+ <p>As the oak's knotted strength seems arrogance</p>
+
+ <p>To the slime-rooted and wind-shaken reed</p>
+
+ <p>That shivers in the shallows.</p>
+
+ <p class="i10">I who perched,</p>
+
+ <p>An eagle on the topmost pinnacle</p>
+
+ <p>Of the State's eminence, and harried thence</p>
+
+ <p>All lesser fowl like sparrows!&mdash;I to hide</p>
+
+ <p>Like a chased moor-hen in a marsh, and bate</p>
+
+ <p>The breath that awed the world into a whisper,</p>
+
+ <p>That would not shake a taper-flame or stir</p>
+
+ <p>A flickering torch to flaring!</p>
+
+ <p class="i10">"<i>I do wonder</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>His insolence can brook to be commanded</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Under</i> COMINIUS." So the Roman said:</p>
+
+ <p>SICINIUS VELUTUS, thou hadst reason.</p>
+
+ <p>Under COMINIUS! Who's COMINIUS now?</p>
+
+ <p>The adolescent Emperor, or his cool</p>
+
+ <p>Complacent Chancellor? COMINIUS!</p>
+
+ <p>Unseasoned youth, or untried middle-age,</p>
+
+ <p>A shouting boy, or a sleek-spoken elder,</p>
+
+ <p>Hot stripling, cool supplanter!</p>
+
+ <p class="i10">I serve not</p>
+
+ <p>"Under COMINIUS," nay!&mdash;yet since he stands</p>
+
+ <p>There, where I made firm footing amidst chaos,</p>
+
+ <p>Stands in smug comfort where we Titans
+ struggled&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>MOLTKE, and I, and the great Emperor,&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Struggled for vantage, which he owes to
+ us;&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Since he stands there, and I in shadow sit,</p>
+
+ <p>Silenced and chidden, I half <i>feel</i> I
+ serve,</p>
+
+ <p>Whom he would bid to second. Second <i>him</i>,</p>
+
+ <p>In that Imperial Policy whose vast</p>
+
+ <p>And soaring shape, like air-launched eagle,
+ seemed</p>
+
+ <p>To fill the sky, and shadow half the world?</p>
+
+ <p>As well the Eagle's self might be expected</p>
+
+ <p>To second the small jay!</p>
+
+ <p class="i10">My shadow, mine?</p>
+
+ <p>Yes, but distorted by the skew-cast ray</p>
+
+ <p>Of a far lesser sun than lit the noon</p>
+
+ <p>Of my meridian glory. So I spurn</p>
+
+ <p>The shrunken simulacrum!</p>
+
+ <p class="i10">And they shriek,</p>
+
+ <p>Shout censure at me, the cur-crowd who crouched,</p>
+
+ <p>Ere that a woman's hate and a boy's pride</p>
+
+ <p>Smote me, the new Abimelech, so sore;</p>
+
+ <p>They'd hush me, like a garrulous greybeard,
+ chaired</p>
+
+ <p>At the hearth-corner out of harm; they'd hush</p>
+
+ <p>My voice&mdash;the valorous vermin! What say
+ they?</p>
+
+ <p>"<i>That's a brave fellow; but he's vengeance
+ proud</i>;</p>
+
+ <p><i>Loves not the common people!</i>" Humph! I
+ stand</p>
+
+ <p>As MARCIUS would not, in the market-place,</p>
+
+ <p>And show my wounds to the people. Is <i>that</i>
+ pride?</p>
+
+ <p>I stooped to&mdash;<i>her!</i>&mdash;let me not
+ think of that;</p>
+
+ <p>'T would poison paradise!&mdash;but is <i>that</i>
+ pride?</p>
+
+ <p>The Roman pride was stiff and taciturn,</p>
+
+ <p>And I,&mdash;they tell me, I "will still be
+ talking,"</p>
+
+ <p>And no MENENIUS is by to say</p>
+
+ <p>In charity of the modern MARCIUS,</p>
+
+ <p>"<i>Consider this:&mdash;he has been bred i'the
+ wars</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Since he could draw a sword, and is
+ ill-school'd</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>In bolted language: meal and bran
+ together</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>He throws without distinction</i>."</p>
+
+ <p class="i10">Well, well, well</p>
+
+ <p>"<i>I would he had continued to his country</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>As he began; and not unknit, himself,</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>The noble knot he made</i>." So they'll whine
+ out</p>
+
+ <p>The smug SICINIUSES. But what I wonder</p>
+
+ <p>If once again the Volscians make new head!</p>
+
+ <p>Who, "like an eagle in a dovecote," then</p>
+
+ <p>Will flutter them and discipline AUFIDIUS?</p>
+
+ <p>An eagle! Shall I spurn my shadow, then</p>
+
+ <p>Trample my own projection? So they babble</p>
+
+ <p>Who'd silence me, make this my
+ mouthpiece<a id="footnotetag1"
+ name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a>
+ mute;</p>
+
+ <p>Who prate of prosecution&mdash;banishment,</p>
+
+ <p>Perchance, anon, for me, as for the Roman,</p>
+
+ <p>Because "I cannot brook to be commanded</p>
+
+ <p>Under COMINIUS." What said VOLUMNIA</p>
+
+ <p>To her imperious son? "<i>The man was noble,</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>But with his last attempt he wiped it
+ out;</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Destroy'd his country; and his name
+ remains</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>To the ensuing age abhorr'd.</i>" I would not
+ have</p>
+
+ <p>My own VIRGILIA say so&mdash;she who frets,</p>
+
+ <p>At my colossal chafing. ARNIM's shade</p>
+
+ <p>Would mock my fall; but silent Friedrichsruh</p>
+
+ <p>Irks me, whilst lesser spirits so misshape</p>
+
+ <p>My vast designs, whose shadow, dwarfed,
+ distorted,</p>
+
+ <p>I trample in my anger,
+ thus&mdash;thus&mdash;thus!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote1"
+ name="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+ <a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
+
+ <p>The <i>Hamburger Nachrichten</i>, in whose columns (says
+ the <i>Times</i>) Prince BISMARCK, according to the friends
+ of the Government, "inspires incessant attacks upon the
+ Imperial Policy, domestic, foreign, and colonial, and
+ especially upon the proceedings of his successor, General
+ CAPRIVI."</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page103"
+ id="page103"></a>[pg 103]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/103.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/103.png"
+ alt="CORIOLANUS." /></a>
+
+ <h3>CORIOLANUS.</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i10">"SUCH A NATURE,</p>
+
+ <p>TICKLED WITH GOOD SUCCESS, DISDAINS THE
+ SHADOW</p>
+
+ <p>WHICH HE TREADS ON AT
+ NOON."&mdash;<i>Coriolanus</i>, Act I., Sc. 1.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page105"
+ id="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span>
+
+ <h2>DUMAS UP TO ARMY ESTIMATES' DATE.</h2>
+
+ <h4>PART I.&mdash;<i>The Three Volunteers.</i></h4>
+
+ <p>LIEUTENANT PORTHOS, Captain ATHOS, and Major ARAMIS were
+ delighted with the progress discernible in every detail of the
+ battalion to which it was their honour to belong. Not a man
+ that did not appear on parade conscious of the fact that he had
+ made himself proficient&mdash;the privates were contented, the
+ non-commissioned officers happy. It was, indeed, a model
+ Regiment. On the occasion of their inspection by Colonel
+ D'ARTAGNAN, a man marched from the ranks, and demanded a
+ hearing.</p>
+
+ <p>"And what do <i>you</i> want?" asked the inspecting
+ officer.</p>
+
+ <p>"We wish the unjust to be made just," returned the
+ discontented one. "We ask for a reform."</p>
+
+ <p>PORTHOS, ATHOS, and ARAMIS would have protested, but Colonel
+ D'ARTAGNAN motioned them to be silent. "I am here," he
+ murmured, "to listen to complaints. I must listen to his."</p>
+
+ <p>"Sir," said the complainant, "we have admirable
+ officers&mdash;the Lieutenant, the Captain, and the Major. They
+ are always at work."</p>
+
+ <p>"Yes," returned Colonel D'ARTAGNAN; "and so are you."</p>
+
+ <p>"But we have merely to obey orders, and not to command. We
+ feel that although we pay for everything connected with the
+ battalion, we should do something more. We ought to subscribe a
+ sum to pay our excellent officers for commanding us!"</p>
+
+ <p>And PORTHOS, ATHOS, and ARAMIS refused the suggestion, to
+ the great disappointment of their subordinates.</p>
+
+ <h4>PART II.&mdash;<i>Twenty Years Afterwards.</i></h4>
+
+ <p>LIEUTENANT PORTHOS, Captain ATHOS, and Major ARAMIS were
+ once again being inspected by D'ARTAGNAN, now wearing the gold
+ and crimson scarf of a general officer.</p>
+
+ <p>"Yes, I have a complaint to make," replied one of the rank
+ and file, in reply to the customary interrogation. "We have
+ three officers; but they have merely to give orders, while we
+ have to obey them. This is unfair&mdash;unjust. We are always
+ at work."</p>
+
+ <p>"Yes," returned General D'ARTAGNAN, "and so are they."</p>
+
+ <p>"True enough. We feel that, although they pay everything for
+ the battalion, they should do more. They ought to compensate
+ their excellent privates for the time we devote to obeying
+ them."</p>
+
+ <p>And PORTHOS, ATHOS, and ARAMIS accepted the suggestion, to
+ the great delight of their subordinates.</p>
+
+ <h4>PART III.&mdash;<i>Ten Years Later.</i></h4>
+
+ <p>Lieutenant PORTHOS, Captain ATHOS, and Major ARAMIS were yet
+ again on parade.</p>
+
+ <p>"I salute you, my friends," said Field Marshal D'ARTAGNAN,
+ the inspecting officer. "But where is your Regiment?"</p>
+
+ <p>PORTHOS looked at ATHOS, and ATHOS glanced at ARAMIS. Then
+ they replied in a breath, "It has been disbanded."</p>
+
+ <p>"Disbanded!" echoed D'ARTAGNAN. "But where are the accounts
+ of the Corps?"</p>
+
+ <p>Then the three friends replied in a mournful tone, "Filed in
+ the Court of Bankruptcy!"</p>
+
+ <p>"And what do you call this filing of officers' accounts in
+ the Court of Bankruptcy?"</p>
+
+ <p>"We call it the last act of the Volunteer Movement, which,
+ by the way, however, was not entirely voluntary!"</p>
+
+ <p>And the four friends having no further occupation requiring
+ their joint attention, shook hands warmly, and parted&mdash;for
+ ever!</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>MEN WHO HAVE TAKEN ME IN&mdash;TO DINNER.</h2>
+
+ <h4>(<i>By a Dinner-Belle.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <h4>No. I.&mdash;THE OVER-CULTURED UNDERGRADUATE.</h4>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:31%;">
+ <a href="images/105.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/105.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>He stood, as if posed by a column,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Awaiting our hostess' advance;</p>
+
+ <p>Complacently pallid and solemn,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">He deigned an Olympian glance.</p>
+
+ <p>Icy cool, in a room like a crater,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">He silently marched me down-stairs,</p>
+
+ <p>And Mont Blanc could not freeze with a greater</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Assurance of grandeur and airs.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I questioned if Balliol was jolly&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">"Your epithet," sighed he, "means
+ noise.</p>
+
+ <p>Vile noise! At his age it were folly</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To revel with Philistine boys."</p>
+
+ <p>Competition, the century's vulture,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Devoured academical fools;</p>
+
+ <p>For himself, utter pilgrim of Culture,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">He countenanced none of the Schools.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Exams: were a Brummagem fashion</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Of mobs and inferior taste;</p>
+
+ <p>They withered "Translucence" and "Passion,"</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">They vulgarised leisure by haste.</p>
+
+ <p>Self to realise&mdash;that was the question,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Inscrutable still while the cooks</p>
+
+ <p>Of our Colleges preached indigestion,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Their Dons indigestible books.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Two volumes alone were not bathos,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The one by an early Chinese,</p>
+
+ <p>The other, that infinite pathos,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Our Nursery Rhymes, if you please.</p>
+
+ <p>He was lost, he avowed, in this era;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">His spirit was seared by the West,</p>
+
+ <p>But he deemed to be Monk in Madeira</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Would probably suit him the best.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Impressions of Babehood" in plenty</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Succeeded, "Hot youth" and its tears,</p>
+
+ <p>Till I wondered if ninety or twenty</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Summed up his unbearable years.</p>
+
+ <p>Great Heavens! I turned to my neighbour,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A SQUARSON by culture unblest;</p>
+
+ <p>And welcomed at length in field-labour</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And foxes refreshment and rest.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>QUESTION OF THE KNIGHT.&mdash;If it be true, as was
+ mentioned in the <i>World</i> last week, that Mr. Justice
+ WRIGHT has "climbed down," only to be placed upon a higher
+ perch, will any change of name follow on the Knighthood? Will
+ he be known as Sir ROBERT RONG, late Mr. JUSTICE WRIGHT?</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>OUR ADVERTISERS.</h2>
+
+ <p>THE JERRYBAND PIANO is a thundering instrument.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>THE JERRYBAND PIANO should be in every Lunatic Asylum.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>THE JERRYBAND PIANO.&mdash;This wonderful and unique
+ instrument, horizontal and perpendicular Grand, five octaves,
+ hammerless action, including keyboard, pedals, gong, peal of
+ bells, ophicleide stop, and all the newest improvements, can be
+ seen at Messrs. SPLITTE AND SON's Establishment, High Holborn,
+ and purchased ON THE FIFTY YEARS' HIRE SYSTEM, by which, at a
+ payment of 1<i>s.</i> 1-1/2<i>d.</i> a week, the piano, or what
+ is left of it, becomes the property of the purchaser, or his
+ heirs and executors, at the expiration of that period.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>PECADILLA is a new after-dinner, home-grown Sherry, of quite
+ extraordinary value and startling excellence.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>PECADILLA is a full, fruity, gout-giving, generous, heady
+ wine, smooth on the palate, round in the mouth, full of body,
+ wing, character, and crust.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>PECADILLA may be safely offered at funerals.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>PECADILLA is a beverage for Dukes in distressed
+ circumstances.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>PECADILLA <i>is the wine, par excellence</i>, for the
+ retrenching.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>PECADILLA, mixed with citrate of soda, treacle, and
+ soda-water, and drunk in the dark immediately after a glass of
+ hot ginger brandy, will be found to possess all the quality of
+ a low-priced Champagne.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>PECADILLA is the making of an economical wedding
+ breakfast.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>PECADILLA. A few parcels of this unique and delicious Wine
+ are still to be had of the grower, a Sicilian Count, for the
+ moment resident in Houndsditch, at the nominal price, inclusive
+ of the bottles, of five shillings and ninepence the dozen.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>TO MR. RUDYARD KIPLING.</h3>
+
+ <h4>(<i>An Explanation.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <blockquote class="note">
+ <p>["Every minute of my time during 1891 is already
+ mortgaged. In 1892 you may count upon me."&mdash;Mr. JEROME
+ K. JEROME, <i>not</i> Mr. RUDYARD KIPLING. <i>See "Punch,"
+ Feb. 14</i>.]</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Oh, Mr. KIPLING!&mdash;you whose pungent pen</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Of pirate publishers has been the
+ terror,</p>
+
+ <p>Try hard, I beg you, to forgive me, when</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I openly confess I wrote in error.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>It was not you by whom the deed was done.</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">But Mr. JEROME 'twas who wrote and said
+ he</p>
+
+ <p>Could not contribute, since his Ninety-One</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Was mortgaged to the Editors already.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>'Twas rough on you, indeed, in such a way,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">By thinking you were he, to dim your
+ glory.</p>
+
+ <p>Yet pray believe I really grieve to say</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I mixed you up with quite "another
+ story"!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>DRAMATIC ILLUSTRATION OF AN ADVERTISEMENT.&mdash;In one of
+ the advertising columns of the <i>Times</i> the paragraph
+ appeared one day last week. The newspaper containing it lay on
+ the table of a drawing-room. Elderly beau was making up (he was
+ accustomed to making-up in another sense, as his wig and
+ whiskers could testify) to charming young lady. Such was the
+ scene. He asked her to accept him. Her reply was to show him
+ the heading of this advertisement in the
+ <i>Times</i>:&mdash;"YOUTH WANTED." <i>Tableau! Exit</i> Beau.
+ Curtain.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page106"
+ id="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/106.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/106.png"
+ alt="MISS PARLIAMENT'S DREAM OF A FANCY BALL." /></a>
+
+ <h3>MISS PARLIAMENT'S DREAM OF A FANCY BALL.</h3><i>A
+ Suggestion for Druriolanus at Covent Garden.</i>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page107"
+ id="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span>
+
+ <h2>MR. PUNCH TO MISS CANADA.</h2>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Oh, Canada, dear Canada, we shall not
+ discombobulate</p>
+
+ <p>Ourselves concerning JONATHAN. 'Tis true he tried to
+ rob you late</p>
+
+ <p>(That is if Tariff-diddling may be qualified as
+ robbery),</p>
+
+ <p>But BULL has learned the wisdom of not kicking up a
+ bobbery.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>No, Canada, we love you dear, and shall be greatly
+ gratified</p>
+
+ <p>If by your March Elections our relations
+ are&mdash;say ratified.</p>
+
+ <p>We don't expect self-sacrifice, we do not beg for
+ gratitude,</p>
+
+ <p>But keep an interested eye, my dear, upon your
+ attitude.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Railings and ravings rantipole we hold are
+ reprehensible,</p>
+
+ <p>But of our kindly kinship we're affectionately
+ sensible.</p>
+
+ <p>A mother's proud to see her child learning to "run
+ alone," you know;</p>
+
+ <p>But does not wish to see her "run away" from home,
+ she'll own you know.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>MACDONALD is magniloquent, perhaps a bit
+ thrasonical;</p>
+
+ <p>His dark denunciations&mdash;at a
+ distance&mdash;sound ironical.</p>
+
+ <p>And when we read the rows between him and Sir
+ RICHARD CARTWRIGHT; dear,</p>
+
+ <p>We have our doubts if either chief quite plays the
+ patriot part right, dear!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>But there, we know that party speeches are not
+ <i>merum nectar</i>, all,</p>
+
+ <p>And we can take the measure of magniloquence
+ electoral;</p>
+
+ <p>The tipple Party Spirit men will stir and
+ whiskey-toddy-fy,</p>
+
+ <p>But when they have to drink it&mdash;cold&mdash;its
+ strength they greatly modify.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Beware the Ides of March? Oh, no! All auguries we
+ defy, my dear!</p>
+
+ <p>The spectre of disloyalty don't scare us; all my
+ eye, my dear.</p>
+
+ <p>So vote away, dear Canada! our faith's in friendly
+ freedom, dear;</p>
+
+ <p>And croakers, Yank, or Canuck, or home-born, we
+ shall not heed 'em, dear!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:50%;">
+ <a href="images/107-2.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/107-2.png"
+ alt="A SENSITIVE EAR." /></a>
+
+ <h3>A SENSITIVE EAR.</h3>
+
+ <p><i>Intelligent Briton</i>. "BUT WE HAVE NO THEATRE, NO
+ ACTORS WORTHY OF THE NAME, MADEMOISELLE! WHY, THE ENGLISH
+ DELIVERY OF BLANK VERSE IS SIMPLY TORTURE TO AN EAR
+ ACCUSTOMED TO HEAR IT GIVEN ITS FULL BEAUTY AND
+ SIGNIFICANCE BY A BERNHARDT OR A COQUELIN!"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Mademoiselle</i>. "INDEED? I HAVE NEVER HEARD
+ BERNHARDT OR COQUELIN RECITE ENGLISH BLANK VERSE!"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Intelligent Briton</i>. "OF COURSE NOT. I MEAN
+ <i>FRENCH</i> BLANK VERSE&mdash;THE BLANK VERSE OF
+ CORNEILLE, RACINE, MOLIÈRE!"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Mademoiselle</i>. "OH, MONSIEUR, THERE IS NO SUCH
+ THING!"</p>
+
+ <p class="author">[<i>Briton still tries to look
+ intelligent.</i></p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.</h2>
+
+ <h4>EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF TOBY, M.P.</h4>
+
+ <p><i>House of Commons, Monday Night, February
+ 16</i>.&mdash;After long tarrying, House once more justified
+ its old character. Been dolefully dull these weeks and months
+ past. Thought it was dead; only been sleeping. To-night woke
+ up, and audience that filled every Bench, blocked the Gangways,
+ and thronged the Bar, had rare treat. Occasion was the
+ indictment of Prince ARTHUR; long pending; was to have come off
+ at beginning of Session; put off on account of counter
+ attractions in Committee-Room No. 15; postponement no longer
+ possible; and here we are, House throbbing with excitement, OLD
+ MORALITY nervously clacking about Treasury Bench, bringing his
+ chicks together under his wing. RANDOLPH brought his young
+ beard down to witness performance.</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:28%;">
+ <a href="images/107-1.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/107-1.png"
+ alt="A Buffer Q.C." /></a>A Buffer Q.C.
+ </div>
+
+ <p>Initial difficulty in Irish Camp; Brer FOX sitting in old
+ place, two steps down third bench below Gangway. Brer RABBIT,
+ sunk in profound meditation, oblivious to the rival Leader's
+ presence, occupies corner seat; room for one between them. Who
+ shall take it? Anxious time for TIM HEALY. Nothing he dreads so
+ much as possibility of outbreak. In Committee-Room No. 15, Brer
+ FOX snatched out of Brer RABBIT's hand a sheet of paper.
+ Suppose now, in sudden paroxysm, he were to reach forth and
+ taking Brer RABBIT by the beard bang his head against the back
+ of the Bench? TIM's gentle nature shivered with apprehension;
+ thing to do was to get a good plump gentleman set between the
+ two, so that in case hostilities broke out his body might be
+ used as buffer. Thought of ELTON first. Besides a professional
+ desire to find occupation for Members of the Bar, ELTON's
+ figure seemed made on purpose for the peaceful errand TIM had
+ in mind. Broached subject. ELTON said, always happy to oblige;
+ but was, in fact, just now retiring from Parliamentary life;
+ didn't care to be brought into undue prominence. Besides, he
+ belonged to other side of House; Why not try T.B. POTTER?</p>
+
+ <p>"The very man!" cried TIM, "I believe you and he scale the
+ same to a pound, and though your waist is more shapely, he has
+ the advantage in shoulders."</p>
+
+ <p>POTTER most obliging of men; offered no objection. So TIM
+ conducted him to the seat; he dropped gently, but firmly in it;
+ Brer RABBIT putting on his spectacles, and looking across the
+ expanse of T.B.'s shoulders, thought he recognised Brer FOX at
+ the other side. Anyhow, he was beyond speaking distance, and so
+ embarrassment was obviated.</p>
+
+ <p>TIM, his mind thus at rest, able to devote his attention to
+ debate, to progress of which, he contributed a few
+ interjections. Finally, when Division taken on JOHN MORLEY's
+ Motion, and everybody ready to go home, he moved and carried
+ Adjournment of Debate.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Business done</i>.&mdash;Prince ARTHUR indicted for
+ breach of Constitutional Law in Ireland. Jury retired to
+ consider their verdict. Agreed upon acquittal by 320 Votes
+ against 245.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Tuesday</i>.&mdash;A once familiar presence pervades
+ House to-night. Everyone more, or less vaguely, conscious of
+ it. Even without chancing to look up to Peers' Gallery, Members
+ are inspired with sudden mysterious access of Moral Influence.
+ OLD MORALITY himself, that overflowing reservoir of moral
+ axioms, takes on an aggravated air of responsibility and
+ respectability. Has had a great triumph which would inflate a
+ man of less modest character. Last night, or rather early this
+ morning, Irish Members appeared to force Government hand; just
+ when it seemed that RUSSELL's Amendment was about to be
+ substituted for MORLEY's Resolution, TIM HEALY interposed,
+ moved Adjournment of Debate; OLD MORALITY protested; SEXTON
+ slily threatened all-night sitting; after an hour's
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page108"
+ id="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span> struggle, Government
+ capitulated; Adjournment agreed to; Irish Members went off
+ jubilant.</p>
+
+ <p>To-night SEXTON asks OLD MORALITY when they shall resume
+ debate?</p>
+
+ <p>"Ah," says OLD MORALITY, with look of friendly interest, as
+ if the idea had struck him for the first time, "yes; just so.
+ The Hon. Member wants to know when we shall resume the debate,
+ the adjournment of which he and his friends were instrumental
+ in carrying at an early hour this morning. Well, I must say, on
+ the part of Her Majesty's Government, that we are perfectly
+ satisfied with matters as they were left. We had a lively
+ debate, a majority much larger than we had dared to hope for,
+ and, as far as we are concerned, I think we'll leave matters
+ alone. As one of our great prose-writers observed, it is, on
+ the whole, more conducive to comfort to endure any
+ inconveniences that may press upon one at the current moment,
+ than to hasten to encounter others with the precise nature of
+ which we do not happen to be acquainted."</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:20%;">
+ <a href="images/108-1.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/108-1.png"
+ alt="Under-Secretary." /></a>Under-Secretary.
+ </div>
+
+ <p>GRAND CROSS missed this delightful little episode, not
+ coming in till questions were over. Now he sat in Peers'
+ Gallery and gazed through spectacles on scene of earlier
+ triumphs. Looks hardly a day older than when he left us; the
+ same perky manner, the same wooden visage, with its pervading
+ air of supreme self-satisfaction and inscrutable wisdom. It is
+ a night given up to Indian topics. PLOWDEN, in his quiet,
+ effective way, has just carried Motion which will have
+ substantial effect in the direction of securing fuller debate
+ of Indian questions. GORST, standing at table replying to
+ BUCHANAN on another Indian topic, alludes with deferential tone
+ to "the SECRETARY OF STATE." GRAND CROSS almost audibly purrs
+ from his perch in the Gallery.</p>
+
+ <p>"An odd world, my masters," says the Member for SARK,
+ striding out impatiently, "when you have a man like GORST
+ Under-Secretary, with a man like GRAND CROSS at the Head of the
+ Department."</p>
+
+ <p><i>Business done</i>.&mdash;An hour or two given to
+ India.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Thursday</i>.&mdash;Army Estimates on to-night. HANBURY
+ comes to the front, as usual. STANHOPE tossing about on
+ Treasury Bench, in considerable irritation.</p>
+
+ <p>"What's the use, my ST. JOHN," he asked BRODRICK, the only
+ man standing by him, "of a family arrangement like ours, if one
+ is subjected to annoyance like this? With one brother in the
+ Peers, a pillar of staid Conservatism; with myself on the
+ Treasury Bench, a Cabinet Minister, a right-hand man of the
+ Government: and then, final touch, old PHILIP EGALITÉ below the
+ Gangway opposite, with his Radicalism, and his tendency to
+ out-JACOBY LABOUCHERE. This is a broad-based family
+ combination, that ought to make us, each in his way,
+ irresistible. And yet there seems nothing to prevent a fellow
+ like HANBURY looking down from his six feet two scornfully on a
+ British soldier not more than five feet four in his
+ stocking-feet, whilst he inflates his chest, and asks, in
+ profound bass notes, how are the ancient glories of the British
+ Army to be maintained with men who cannot stretch the tape at
+ thirty-six inches?"</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:30%;">
+ <a href="images/108-2.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/108-2.png"
+ alt="'Amazed at his own Moderation.'" /></a>"Amazed at
+ his own Moderation."
+ </div>
+
+ <p>When HANBURY sat down, after pounding away in ponderous
+ style for nearly an hour, STANHOPE got up and prodded him
+ reproachfully. Wonderful how much vinegar and vitriol he
+ managed to distil into his oft-repeated phrase, "My honourable
+ friend!" As for HANBURY, he sat with hands in pocket, staring
+ at empty benches opposite, amazed at his own moderation.</p>
+
+ <p>Hours of the usual kind of talk on Army Estimates; the
+ Colonels, Volunteer and otherwise, showing that the Army is as
+ GILL (who has recently spent some time in Boulogne) says, <i>en
+ route pour les chiens</i>; the SECRETARY of State for WAR
+ demonstrating that everything is in apple-pie order, and his
+ right honourable predecessor on the Front Opposition Bench
+ bearing testimony to the general state of efficiency.</p>
+
+ <p>WOLMER flashed through the haze a word that has long wanted
+ saying in the House. Why, he asked, place sentries surrounding
+ St. James's Palace, the War Office, and the Horse Guards? Why,
+ if presence of armed men at these particular gateways is
+ essential to proper conduct of affairs of Department&mdash;why
+ should Charity Commissioners and Education Office be left
+ unguarded? WOLMER should keep pegging away at this question
+ till he gets common-sense answer.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Business done</i>.&mdash;Army Estimates moved.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Friday</i>.&mdash;Gallant little Wales took the floor
+ to-night. Wants the Church Disestablished; PRITCHARD MORGAN, in
+ speech of prodigious length, asked House to sanction the
+ proposal. The Government, determined to oppose Motion, cast
+ about for Member of their body who could best lead opposition.
+ Hadn't a Welshman on the Treasury Bench.</p>
+
+ <p>"There's RAIKES, you know," AKERS-DOUGLAS said, discussing
+ the matter with OLD MORALITY. "He's not exactly a Welshman,
+ but, when he's at home, he lives in Denbighshire, which is as
+ near being Wales as you can get. Besides, his postal address is
+ Llwynegrin."</p>
+
+ <p>"Ah!" said OLD MORALITY, "that looks well. He's not the
+ rose, but he lives in convenient contiguity to the flower."</p>
+
+ <p>So RAIKES was put up, and a nice, peaceful, soothing,
+ insinuating, conciliatory speech he made. In fact, as the
+ Member for SARK says, "He got gallant little Wales down on its
+ back, tied its horns and heels together, partially flayed it,
+ and then rubbed in cunningly contrived combination of Cayenne
+ pepper and vinegar."</p>
+
+ <p><i>Business done</i>.&mdash;Welsh Disestablishment Motion
+ negatived by 235 Votes to 203.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>Celt Again.</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>GRANT-ALLEN,&mdash;his manner moves cynics to
+ mirth!&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Makes out that the Celt is the Salt of the
+ Earth.</p>
+
+ <p>That accounts, it may be, for his dominant
+ fault;</p>
+
+ <p>A "salt of the earth" <i>has</i> a taste for
+ assault!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>OUT OF SCHOOL!</h2>
+
+ <p>DEAR MR. PUNCH,&mdash;You are so awfully good to chaps at
+ school that I am sure you will insert this letter. SMITH MINOR,
+ who takes in the <i>Times</i>, says, that a "PARENT" has been
+ writing to say, that there should be a meeting of Fathers to
+ swagger over the meeting of Head Masters. Well, this wouldn't
+ be half a bad idea if it were properly conducted; but the
+ "PARENT" seems to be a beast of a governor, who wants to cut
+ down the holidays, and such like rot. And this brings me to
+ what I want to propose myself. If there are to be meetings of
+ Head Masters and Parents, why not a meeting of Boys? We have a
+ heap of grievances. For instance, lots of chaps would like to
+ know why "the water" was stopped at Westminster, and something
+ about the domestic economy of Harrow. Then the great and
+ burning question of grub is always ready to hand. The "PARENT"
+ wants to have a hand in the payment for school-books, seeing
+ his way to getting the discount (stingy chap!) then why
+ shouldn't we fellows have a voice choosing them? Then about
+ taking up Greek, why shouldn't we have our say in <i>that</i>
+ matter? After all, it interests us more than anyone else, as we
+ are the fellows that will have to learn it, if it is to be
+ retained. Then about corporal punishment. Not that we mind it
+ much, still <i>we</i> are the fellows who get swished at Eton,
+ and feel the tolly at Beaumont. Surely the Boys know more about
+ a licking than Head Masters and Parents? You, as a practical
+ man, will say, "Who should attend the Congress?" I reply, every
+ public school might send a delegate; and by public school, I do
+ not limit the term to the old legitimate "E. and the two W.'s,"
+ Eton, Winchester and Westminster. No; I would throw it open to
+ such respectable educational establishments as Harrow, Rugby,
+ Charterhouse, St. Paul's, Marlborough, Felsted, Cheltenham,
+ Stonyhurst, and the rest of them. The more the merrier, say I;
+ and if there was a decided division of opinion on any subject,
+ we could settle the matter off-hand at once, by taking off our
+ jackets and turning up our shirt-sleeves. The more I think of
+ it, the more I like it! It <i>would</i> be a game!</p>
+
+ <p class="author">Always your affectionate friend,
+ (<i>Signed</i>) JONES MINIMUS.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>The Same Old Game.</h3>
+
+ <blockquote class="note">
+ <p>[Russia is said to be threatening the old Finnish laws
+ and liberties.]</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Russia snubs him who, as a candid friend,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Horrors Siberian, Hebrew would
+ diminish.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Must</i> Muscovites prove tyrants to the end?</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">At least they aim to prove so to the
+ <i>Finnish</i>!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>NOTICE.&mdash;Rejected Communications or Contributions,
+ whether MS., Printed Matter, Drawings, or Pictures of any
+ description, will in no case be returned, not even when
+ accompanied by a Stamped and Addressed Envelope, Cover, or
+ Wrapper. To this rule there will be no exception.</p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13098 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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