summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/14165-h
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to '14165-h')
-rw-r--r--14165-h/14165-h.htm1926
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/277.pngbin0 -> 31432 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/278.pngbin0 -> 247220 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/279.pngbin0 -> 71795 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/280.pngbin0 -> 69557 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/281-1.pngbin0 -> 43359 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/281-2.pngbin0 -> 27529 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/282.pngbin0 -> 165010 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/283.pngbin0 -> 224951 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/285-1.pngbin0 -> 29443 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/285-2.pngbin0 -> 7263 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/285-3.pngbin0 -> 9107 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/286.pngbin0 -> 312889 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/287-1.pngbin0 -> 94105 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/287-2.pngbin0 -> 28632 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/288-1.pngbin0 -> 47863 bytes
-rw-r--r--14165-h/images/288-2.pngbin0 -> 6592 bytes
17 files changed, 1926 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/14165-h/14165-h.htm b/14165-h/14165-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c5e9128
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/14165-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,1926 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
+ "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
+ content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
+
+ <title>Punch, December 12, 1891.</title>
+ <style type="text/css">
+ /*<![CDATA[*/
+
+ <!--
+ body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+ p {text-align: justify;}
+ blockquote {text-align: justify;}
+ h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;}
+ pre {font-size: 0.7em;}
+
+ hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;}
+ html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;}
+ hr.full {width: 100%;}
+ html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;}
+ hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;}
+ html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;}
+
+ .note, .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+ span.pagenum
+ {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;}
+
+ .poem
+ {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;}
+ .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+ .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+ .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;}
+ .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;}
+ .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;}
+ .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;}
+ .poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em;}
+
+ .figure, .figcenter, .figright, .figleft
+ {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em;}
+ .figure img, .figcenter img, .figright img, .figleft img
+ {border: none;}
+ .figure p, .figcenter p, .figright p, .figleft p
+ {margin: 0; text-indent: 1em;}
+ .figcenter {margin: auto;}
+ .figright {float: right;}
+ .figleft {float: left;}
+
+ p.author {text-align: right;}
+ -->
+ /*]]>*/
+ </style>
+</head>
+
+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14165 ***</div>
+
+ <h1>PUNCH,<br />
+ OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.</h1>
+
+ <h2>Vol. 101.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <h2>December 12, 1891.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page277"
+ id="page277"></a>[pg 277]</span>
+
+ <h2>LETTERS TO ABSTRACTIONS.</h2>
+
+ <h3>NO. VIII.&mdash;TO LAZINESS.</h3>
+
+ <p>BEST (AND BEST-ABUSED) OF ABSTRACTIONS,</p>
+
+ <p>My heart positively warms to you as I write. At this precise
+ moment I can think of a hundred different things that I ought
+ to be doing. For instance, I have not written to TOM, who is in
+ the wilds of Canada, for months. His last letter ended with a
+ pathetic appeal for an answer.</p>
+
+ <p>"Never mind, old chap," he said, "about not having any news.
+ Little details that you may think too insignificant to relate
+ are bound to interest me in this deserted spot. I am sure you
+ occasionally meet I some of our friends of the old days. Tell
+ them I often think of them and all the fun we used to have
+ together. It all seems like a dream to me now. Let me know what
+ any of them are doing. I heard six months ago from a fellow who
+ was touring out here that JACK BUMPUS was married. If it is
+ really our old JACK, congratulate him, and give him my love. I
+ don't know his present address. But, whatever you do, write. A
+ letter from you is like water in the desert."</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:45%;">
+ <a href="images/277.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/277.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>When I read that letter I became full of the noblest
+ resolutions. Not another day should pass, I vowed, before I
+ answered it. So I prepared a great many sheets of thin
+ note-paper, carefully selected a clean nib and sat down at my
+ writing-table to begin. As I did so my eyes fell upon <i>Martin
+ Chuzzlewit</i>, which was lying within easy reach. The book
+ seemed positively to command me to read it for the tenth time.
+ I took it up, and in another moment <i>Mrs. Gamp</i> had taken
+ possession of me. My writing-chair was uncomfortable. I
+ transferred myself into an arm-chair. Is it necessary to add
+ that I did not write to TOM? His letter is getting frayed and
+ soiled from being constantly in my pocket. Day after day it
+ accompanies me on my daily round, unanswered and seemingly
+ unanswerable. For I feel it to be a duty to write, and my mind
+ abhors a duty. The letter weighs upon my conscience like lead.
+ A few strokes of the pen would remove the burden, but I simply
+ cannot screw myself up to the task. That is one of the things I
+ ought to do.</p>
+
+ <p>Again, ought I not to call on the WHITTLESEAS? Mr. and Mrs.
+ WHITTLESEA have simply overflowed with kindness towards me. I
+ never enjoyed anything more than the week I spent at their
+ house in Kent a short time ago. They are now in town, and, what
+ is more, they know that I am in town too. Of course I ought to
+ call. It's my plain duty, and that is, as far as I can tell,
+ the only reason which absolutely prevents me from calling upon
+ that hospitable family. Why need I go through the long list of
+ my pressing duties? I ought to write my article on "Modern
+ Theosophy: A Psychological Parallel," for the next number of
+ <i>The Brain</i>. I ought to visit my dentist; I ought to have
+ my hair cut. But I shall do none of these things. On the other
+ hand, it is absolutely unnecessary that I should write to you.
+ No evil would befall me if I waited another year, or even
+ omitted altogether to write to you. And that is the precise
+ reason why I am now addressing you. As a matter of fact, I like
+ you. As I have already said, the performance of strict duties
+ is irksome to me. It is you, my dear LAZINESS, who forbid me to
+ perform them, and thus save me from many an uncongenial task.
+ That is why I like you.</p>
+
+ <p>And, after all, the common abuse of you is absurd. I have
+ heard grave and industrious persons declare emphatically that
+ any one who allows himself to fall under your sway debars
+ himself utterly from every chance of success. Fiddlesticks! I
+ snap my fingers at such folly. What do these gentlemen say to
+ the case of FIGTREE, the great Q.C.? Everybody knows that
+ FIGTREE is, without exception, the most indolent man in the
+ world. Let any doubter walk down Middle Temple Lane and ask the
+ first young barrister he meets what he thinks of FIGTREE. I am
+ ready to wager my annual income that the reply will be, "What,
+ Old FIGTREE! Why, he's the laziest man at the Bar. I thought
+ everybody knew that." I may be told, of course, that FIGTREE
+ appears in all the big cases&mdash;that his management of them
+ is extraordinarily successful; that the Judges defer to him;
+ that his speech in the Camberwell poisoning case lasted a day
+ and a half, and is acknowledged to be a masterpiece of forensic
+ eloquence, fit to rank with the best efforts of ERSKINE; that
+ his fees always exceed ten thousand pounds a year and that his
+ book on <i>Fines and Recoveries</i> is a monument of industry.
+ All this I shall hear from some member of the outside public,
+ who does not know his FIGTREE. But the fact remains. FIGTREE is
+ the most indolent being alive. I doubt if he can be induced to
+ read a brief before he goes into Court. Many are the tales told
+ by those who have been his juniors of the marvellous skill and
+ address with which FIGTREE has time after time extricated
+ himself from awkward situations into which he had been led by
+ his ignorance of the details of the case in which he happened
+ to be engaged. In the sensational libel case of <i>Bagwell</i>
+ v. <i>Muter</i>, FIGTREE, as you must remember, appeared for
+ the defendant. When the plaintiff's Junior Counsel had opened
+ the pleadings, FIGTREE actually got up, and, had not his own
+ Junior pulled him down, he would then and there have opened the
+ case for the plaintiff. Yet FIGTREE's cross-examination of that
+ same plaintiff, travelling as it did over a long period of
+ time, and dealing with a most complicated story, in which dates
+ were of the first importance, is still cited by those who heard
+ it as the most remarkable display of its kind which the English
+ Courts have afforded for years past. Whether the unfortunate
+ BAGWELL, whom it showed conclusively to be a swindler and an
+ impostor, has an equal admiration for it, I know not, nor is
+ he, I fancy, likely to tell us, even when he returns from the
+ prison which is now the scene of his labours. How FIGTREE, who
+ at the outset did not even know on which side he appeared,
+ managed in the time at his command to master this intricate
+ case, must ever remain a mystery. HARRY ADDLESTONE, his Junior,
+ is accustomed to talk darkly of a marvellous chronological
+ analysis of the case which he had prepared for his leader, and
+ evidently wishes me to believe that he, rather than FIGTREE, is
+ to be credited with the success achieved. But the Solicitors
+ have not yet withdrawn their confidence from FIGTREE to
+ transfer it to ADDLESTONE.</p>
+
+ <p>Here, then, is an instance of a perfectly indolent man
+ rising higher and higher every year on the ladder of
+ professional advancement. I can only attribute it, my dear
+ LAZINESS, to your beneficent influence, which preserves the
+ great barrister from the weary labours to which his rivals
+ daily submit. They say of him that he knows nothing of law. If
+ I grant that, it merely proves that a knowledge of law is not
+ required for success in the profession of the law. The
+ deduction is dangerous, but obvious, and I recommend it warmly
+ to all who are about to be called to the Bar.</p>
+
+ <p>I don't think I have anything more to say to you to-day;
+ indeed, I know that you would be the last to desire that the
+ writing of this letter should he in any way irksome to me.
+ Besides, it is five o'clock P.M. My arm-chair invites me. I
+ feel tired, and, that being so, I am convinced it would he an
+ act of pedantic folly to deny myself the sweet refreshment of
+ half-an-hour's sleep. Farewell, kindly one. I shall always
+ rejoice to honour you, and celebrate your praise.</p>
+
+ <p class="author">Yours, with all goodwill,<br />
+ DIOGENES ROBINSON.</p>
+
+ <p>P.S.&mdash;I reopen this letter to say that I have just read
+ in an evening paper a terrible account of the total destruction
+ by a tornado of the town in Canada which was poor TOM's place
+ of exile. "The loss of life," it is added, "has been great, and
+ several Englishmen are amongst the victims." No names are
+ given. Good gracious! If TOM has indeed perished, how am I ever
+ to forgive myself for neglecting him? What must he have thought
+ of me? I curse myself in vain for my&mdash;bah! What is the use
+ of telling you this? The same paper informs me, in the elegant
+ language appropriate to these occasions, that "Mr. FIGTREE,
+ Q.C., has been offered, and has accepted, the vacant
+ Lord-Justiceship of Appeal."</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>AN OPPORTUNITY.&mdash;A Lyme Regis Correspondent sends us
+ the following advertisement, found, he says, in the <i>Bridport
+ News</i>; we omit dates and names:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>&mdash;&mdash; will SELL by AUCTION, Three Fine DAIRY
+ COWS to calve <i>respectfully</i> in Dec., April, and May
+ next. An excellent double-feeding chaff-cutter, &amp;c.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>A respectful cow will no doubt fulfil her engagements
+ honorably. "A double-feeding chaff-cutter" ought to be an
+ acquisition to a fast set on a coach at the Derby, though of
+ course his "double-feeding" powers would have to be amply
+ provided for at luncheon time.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>"The nearest thing to 'setting the Thames on fire,'" said a
+ quiet traveller by the Underground, "is the announcement which
+ you will now see at the St. James's Park Station:&mdash;'A
+ LIGHT HERE FOR NIAGARA.'" "Why," exclaimed an irate passenger
+ to the timid suggestion of the above, "of course it doesn't
+ mean <i>that</i>." Then he added, contemptuously, "Get out!"
+ Which he did.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page278"
+ id="page278"></a>[pg 278]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/278.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/278.png"
+ alt="RUSTICUS EXPECTANS. (NEW POLITICAL VERSION OF AN OLD FABLE.)" />
+ </a>
+
+ <h3>RUSTICUS EXPECTANS. (NEW POLITICAL VERSION OF AN OLD
+ FABLE.)</h3>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page279"
+ id="page279"></a>[pg 279]</span>
+
+ <h2>RUSTICUS EXPECTANS;</h2>
+
+ <h4><i>Or, the New Dumbledumdeary.</i></h4>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Rusticus expectat, dum defluat amnis; at ille</p>
+
+ <p>Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis ævum."</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p class="author">HORACE.</p>
+
+ <h4>AIR&mdash;"<i>Dumbledumdeary</i>."</h4>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>In the fall of the year, when M.P.'s were about,</p>
+
+ <p>And speeches burst forth like a waterspout,</p>
+
+ <p>HODGE took up his bundle, and caught up his
+ staff,</p>
+
+ <p>And went for a walk&mdash;if you please, don't
+ laugh!&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary,
+ dumbledumdeary,</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Dumble, dumble, dumbledumdee!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Oh, HODGE had put on his bettermost smock,</p>
+
+ <p>And wore his billycock gaily a-cock;</p>
+
+ <p>For HODGE nowadays is a person of note,</p>
+
+ <p>And great Governments bow to the "hind,"&mdash;with
+ a vote.</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary, &amp;c.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>So he strolled on wi'out dread or fear</p>
+
+ <p>Of Squoire or Parson, or County Peer,</p>
+
+ <p>For the spouting M.P. and the Liberal Van</p>
+
+ <p>Had made of the shock-headed joskin a Man!</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary, &amp;c.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>With promises stuffed, and with hope inspired,</p>
+
+ <p>HODGE walked, and walked till he felt quite
+ tired;</p>
+
+ <p>So he sat himself down on the bank of a stream,</p>
+
+ <p>And, falling asleep, dreamed a wonderful dream.</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary, &amp;c.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The old, old stream was no longer the brook</p>
+
+ <p>Where he'd angled for minnows with worm and
+ hook;</p>
+
+ <p>It swelled and swirled, and its rippling voice</p>
+
+ <p>Was changed to loud echoes of platform noise.</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary, &amp;c.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>And it seemed to address him, "How long, friend
+ HODGE,</p>
+
+ <p>In a smock you will slave, in a pig-stye lodge?</p>
+
+ <p>The Town revolts, but the landlord crew</p>
+
+ <p>Still rule the rustics. What can you do?"</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary, &amp;c.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Oh, I can reap, and I can sow;</p>
+
+ <p>And I can plough, and I can mow;</p>
+
+ <p>And, as Lord RIPON doth treuly say,</p>
+
+ <p><i>I can yarn my eighteen-pence a day</i>!"</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary, &amp;c.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Oh, that," cried the Voices, "will never do!</p>
+
+ <p>HODGE now must have freedom, and comfort too,</p>
+
+ <p>And Village Councils, Allotments, and Larks!</p>
+
+ <p>Though the Landlords take fright for their Manors
+ and Parks,"</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary, &amp;c.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"No more must he live like a pig in a stye,</p>
+
+ <p>Or <i>we</i> (Tory <i>Codlir</i>, Rad <i>Short</i>)
+ will know why.</p>
+
+ <p>And if you'll consent just to vote for <i>us</i>
+ now,</p>
+
+ <p>We'll put a new tune to your old 'Speed the
+ Plough!'"</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary, &amp;c.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Then HODGE, slightly puzzled, beheld (in his
+ dream)</p>
+
+ <p>A legion of faces that flowed with the stream.</p>
+
+ <p>"There's two WILLIAMS, and JOEY, and JESSE!" he
+ cried,</p>
+
+ <p>"SOLLY, BALFY, and JOKIM talk, too, from the
+ tide,&mdash;"</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary, &amp;c.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"They're making a vast sight o' noise, and I
+ fear,</p>
+
+ <p>Whilst they all shout together, their
+ <i>meaning's</i> scarce clear.</p>
+
+ <p>They all drift one way, though, out yonder I'll
+ sit!</p>
+
+ <p>And wait till the shindying slackens a bit."</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary, &amp;c.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>So HODGE, like old HORACE's Rustic, still waits</p>
+
+ <p>Till the waters flow by, or their turmoil
+ abates;</p>
+
+ <p>And then hopes to reach "Happy Home" o'er that
+ stream.</p>
+
+ <p>Let <i>us</i> hope that he mayn't find it
+ <i>only</i> a dream!</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Singing dumbledumdeary,
+ dumbledumdeary,</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Dumble, dumble, dumbledumdee!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:70%;">
+ <a href="images/279.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/279.png"
+ alt="THE TRIALS OF AN ANXIOUS 'JUNIOR.'" /></a>
+
+ <h3>THE TRIALS OF AN ANXIOUS "JUNIOR."</h3>PROMPTING A DEAF
+ AND TESTY "CHIEF" IN OPEN COURT IS NOT HIS IDEA OF PERFECT
+ BLISS.
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>"DICK" POWER.</h2>
+
+ <p>When the House of Commons meets in February, it will find
+ many vacant places. Save, perhaps, on that sacred to the memory
+ of OLD MORALITY, none will draw towards it such sorrowful
+ glances as the bench below the Gangway, where, last Session,
+ DICK POWER's smiling face was found. Everyone in the House knew
+ "DICK," and all liked him&mdash;a modest-mannered,
+ merry-hearted man, whom a strange destiny had not only dragged
+ into political life, but, as Whip of the Parnellite Party, had
+ made him the official representative of a body for the most
+ part socially unknown, and disliked with a fervour happily not
+ often imported into Parliamentary warfare. DICK POWER, whilst
+ never swerving by a hair's breadth from loyalty to his
+ colleagues and his leader, so bore himself that he was welcome
+ in any Parliamentary circle, from "GOSSET's Room" to the floor
+ of the House, which he sometimes "took" to deliver a witty
+ speech in support of a Motion for adjourning over the Derby. He
+ was only in his fortieth year, married scarce a fortnight, when
+ comes the blind Fury with the abhorrëd shears and slits the
+ thin-spun thread. "LYCIDAS is dead!"; but he will long be
+ remembered as shedding through seventeen years a genial light
+ on Irish politics, too often obscured by aggressive vulgarity,
+ and the sacrifice of patriotic interests to the ends of
+ personal vanity.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>ONLY FANCY!</h2>
+
+ <p>We are in a position to state that overtures were recently
+ made to a well-known and popular member of the aristocracy in
+ connection with a certain high office lately vacated. It is
+ felt that a gentleman with the varied experience and capacity
+ indicated by the circumstance (to which we may allude as not
+ involving breach of confidence), that his name was successively
+ mentioned in connection with the offices, recently vacant, of
+ Postmaster-General, Undersecretary of State for Foreign
+ Affairs, and Leader of the House of Commons, is peculiarly well
+ qualified for the post.</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>The PRIME MINISTER has, we learn, been much gratified by the
+ receipt of a letter volunteered by one of his colleagues,
+ expressing generous satisfaction at his selection of Mr. ARTHUR
+ BALFOUR to the Leadership of the House of Commons. It was the
+ more pleasing as the name of Lord SALISBURY's correspondent
+ had, in Conservative circles, been prominently mentioned in
+ connection with the office. "It is true," the Abounding Baron
+ wrote, "that the public with unerring instinct has looked in
+ another direction. I should therefore like to be the first to
+ say that your Lordship has done well in recognising the
+ services to the Unionist cause performed by Mr. BALFOUR. Of
+ course there may be other openings, and in case your Lordship
+ has occasion to communicate with me, it may be convenient to
+ mention that, having come to town this morning and transacted
+ business at my office in Bouverie Street, I am about to return
+ to my country residence at Stow-in-the-Wold."</p>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <p>It is announced that Lord SALISBURY's new house at Beaulieu
+ is to be let furnished for the winter months, the PREMIER not
+ intending to return till the Spring. We understand that one of
+ Mr. GLADSTONE's friends and admirers is in treaty for the
+ residence, intending to place it for a few weeks at the
+ disposal of the Leader of the Opposition. We have not yet heard
+ how far this happily-conceived scheme has progressed.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page280"
+ id="page280"></a>[pg 280]</span>
+
+ <h2>THE TRAVELLING COMPANIONS.</h2>
+
+ <h3>No. XVIII.</h3>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>SCENE&mdash;<i>The roof of Milan Cathedral; the
+ innumerable statues and fretted pinnacles show in dazzling
+ relief against the intense blue sky. Through the open-work
+ of the parapet is seen the vast Piazza, with its yellow toy
+ tram-cars, and the small crawling figures which cast
+ inordinately long shadows. All around is a maze of pale
+ brown roofs, and beyond, the green plain blending on the
+ horizon with dove-coloured clouds in a quivering violet
+ haze.</i> CULCHARD <i>is sitting by a small doorway at the
+ foot of a flight of steps leading to the Spire.</i></p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:45%;">
+ <a href="images/280.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/280.png"
+ alt="'She passes on with her chin in the air!'" />
+ </a>"She passes on with her chin in the air!"
+ </div>
+
+ <p><i>Culchard</i> (<i>meditating</i>). I think MAUD must have
+ seen from the tone in which I said I preferred to remain below,
+ that I object to that cousin of hers perpetually coming about
+ with us as he does. She's far too indulgent to him&mdash;a
+ posing, affected prig, always talking about the wonderful
+ things he's <i>going</i> to write! He had the impudence to tell
+ me I didn't know the most elementary laws of the sonnet this
+ morning! Withering repartee seems to have no effect whatever on
+ him, I wish I had some of PODBURY's faculty for flippant chaff!
+ I wonder if he and the PRENDERGASTS really are at Milan. I
+ certainly thought I recognised &mdash;&mdash;. If they are,
+ it's very bad taste of them, after the pointed way in which
+ they left Bellagio. I only hope we shan't&mdash;</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>[<i>Here the figure of</i> Miss PRENDERGAST <i>suddenly
+ emerges from the door</i>; CULCHARD <i>rises and stands
+ aside to let her pass; she returns his salutation
+ distantly, and passes on with her chin in the air; her
+ brother follows, with a side-jerk of recognition.</i>
+ PODBURY <i>comes last, and halts undecidedly.</i></p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p><i>Podb.</i> (<i>with a rather awkward laugh</i>). Here we
+ are again, eh? (<i>Looks after</i> Miss P., <i>hesitates, and
+ finally sits down by</i> CULCHARD.) Where's the fascinating
+ Miss TROTTER? How do you come to be off duty like this?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Culch.</i> (<i>stiffly</i>). The fascinating Miss TROTTER
+ is up above with VAN BOODELER, so my services are not
+ required.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Podb.</i> Up above? And HYPATIA just gone up with BOB!
+ Whew, there'll be ructions presently! Well out of it, you and
+ I! So it's BOODELER's turn now? That's rough on
+ <i>you</i>&mdash;after HYPATIA had whistled poor old BOB off.
+ As much out in the cold as ever, eh?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Culch.</i> I am nothing of the kind. I find him
+ distasteful to me, and avoid him as much as I can, that's all.
+ I wish, PODBURY, er&mdash;I <i>almost</i> wish you could have
+ stayed with me, instead of allowing the PRENDERGASTS to carry
+ you off as you did. You would have kept VAN BOODELER in
+ order.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Podb.</i> Much obliged, old chap; but I'm otherwise
+ engaged. Being kept in order myself. Oh, I <i>like</i> it, you
+ know. She's developing my mind like winking. Spent the whole
+ morning at the Brera, mugging up these old Italian Johnnies.
+ They really are clinkers, you know. RAPHAEL, eh?&mdash;and
+ GIOTTO, and MANTEGNA, and all that lot. As HYPATIA says, for
+ intensity of&mdash;er religious feeling, and&mdash;and subtlety
+ of symbolism, and&mdash;and so on, they simply take the
+ cake&mdash;romp in, and the rest nowhere! I'm getting quite the
+ connoisseur, I can tell you!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Culch.</i> Evidently. I suppose there's no chance of
+ a&mdash;a <i>reconciliation</i> up there? [<i>With some
+ alarm.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Podb.</i> Don't you be afraid. When HYPATIA once gets her
+ quills up, they don't subside so easily! Hallo! isn't this old
+ TROTTER?</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>[<i>That gentleman appears in the doorway.</i></p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p><i>Mr. T.</i> Why, Mr. PODBURY, so you've come along here?
+ That's <i>right</i>! And how do you like Milan? I like the
+ place first-rate&mdash;it's a live city, Sir. And I like this
+ old cathedral, too; it's well constructed&mdash;they've laid
+ out money on it. I call it real ornamental, all these little
+ figgers they've stuck around&mdash;and not two of 'em a pair
+ either. Now, they might have had 'em all alike, and no one any
+ the wiser up so high as this; but it certainly gives it more
+ variety, too, having them different. Well, I'm going up as high
+ as ever I <i>can</i> go. You two better come along up with
+ me.</p>
+
+ <h4><i>On the Top.</i></h4>
+
+ <p><i>Miss P.</i> (<i>as she perceives</i> Miss T. <i>and her
+ companion</i>). Now, BOB, pray remember all I've told you! [BOB
+ <i>turns away, petulantly.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss T.</i> (<i>aside, to</i> VAN B.). I guess the air's
+ got cooler up here, CHARLEY. But if that girl imagines she's
+ going to freeze <i>me</i>! (<i>Advancing to</i> Miss P.) Why,
+ my dear, it's almost too sweet for anything, meeting you
+ again!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss P.</i> You're extremely kind, MAUD; I wish I could
+ return the compliment; but really, after what took place at
+ Bellagio, I&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss T.</i> (<i>taking her arm</i>). Well, I'll own up to
+ being pretty horrid&mdash;and so were you; but there don't seem
+ any sense in our meeting up here like a couple of strange cats
+ on tiles. I won't fly out anymore, there! I'm just dying for a
+ reconciliation; and so is Mr. VAN BOODELER. The trouble I've
+ had to console that man! He never met anybody before haff so
+ interested in the great Amurrcan Novel. And he's wearying for
+ another talk. So you'd better give that hatchet a handsome
+ funeral, and come along and take pity on him.</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>[HYP., <i>after a struggle, yields, half-reluctantly,
+ and allows herself to be taken across to</i> Mr. VAN B.,
+ <i>who greets her effusively</i>. Miss T. <i>leaves them
+ together.</i></p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p><i>Bob P.</i> (<i>who has been prudently keeping in the
+ background till now, decides that his chance has come</i>). How
+ do you do. Miss TROTTER? It's awfully jolly to meet you again
+ like this!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss. T.</i> Well, I guess that remark would have been
+ more convincing if you'd made it a few minutes earlier.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Bob</i>. I&mdash;I&mdash;you see, I didn't know.... I was
+ afraid&mdash;I rather thought&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss T.</i> You don't get much further with <i>rather</i>
+ thinking, as a general rule, than if you didn't think at all.
+ But if you're at all anxious to run away the way you did at
+ Bellagio, you needn't be afraid <i>I'll</i> hinder you.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Bob</i>. (<i>earnestly</i>). Run away! <i>Do</i> you
+ think I'd have gone if&mdash;I've felt dull enough ever since,
+ without <i>that</i>.'</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss T.</i> Oh, I expect you've had a beautiful time.
+ <i>We</i> have.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss P.</i> (<i>coming up</i>). ROBERT, I thought you
+ wanted to see the Alps? You should come over to the other side,
+ and&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss T.</i> I'll undertake that he sees the Alps,
+ darling, presently&mdash;when we're through our talk.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss P.</i> As you please, dear. But (<i>pointedly</i>)
+ did I not see Mr. CULCHARD below?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss T.</i> You don't mean to say you're wearied of Mr.
+ VAN BOODELER <i>already</i>! Well, Mr. CULCHARD will be along
+ soon, and I'll loan him to you. I'll tell him you're vurry
+ anxious to converse with him some more. He's just coming along
+ now, with Mr. PODBURY and Poppa.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss P.</i> (<i>under her breath</i>). MAUD! if you
+ <i>dare</i>&mdash;!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss T.</i> Don't you <i>dare</i> me, then&mdash;or
+ you'll see. But I don't want to be mean unless I'm obliged
+ to.</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>[Mr. TROTTER, <i>followed by</i> CULCHARD <i>and</i>
+ PODBURY, <i>arrives at the upper platform</i>. CULCHARD
+ <i>and</i> PODBURY <i>efface themselves as much as
+ possible.</i> Mr. TROTTER <i>greets</i> Miss PRENDERGAST
+ <i>heartily.</i></p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p><i>Mr. T.</i> Well now, I call this sociable, meeting all
+ together again like this. I don't see why in the land we didn't
+ <i>keep</i> together. I've been saying so to my darter here,
+ ever since Bellagio&mdash;ain't that so, MAUD? And <i>she</i>
+ didn't know just how it came about either.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss P.</i> (<i>hurriedly</i>). We&mdash;we had to be
+ getting on. And I am afraid we must say good-bye now, Mr.
+ TROTTER. I want BOB and Mr. PODBURY to see the Da Vinci fresco,
+ you know, before the light goes. (Bob <i>mutters a highly
+ disrespectful wish concerning that work of Art.</i>) We
+ <i>may</i> see you again, before we leave for Verona.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Mr. T.</i> Verona? Well, I don't care if I see Verona
+ myself. Seems a pity to separate now we <i>have</i> met,
+ <i>don't</i> it? See here, now, we'll <i>all</i> go along to
+ Verona together&mdash;how's that, MAUD? Start whenever
+ <i>you</i> feel like it, Miss PRENDERGAST. How does that
+ proposal strike you? I'll be real hurt if you cann't take to my
+ idea.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss T.</i> The fact is, Poppa, HYPATIA isn't just sure
+ that Mr. PRENDERGAST wouldn't
+ object.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page281"
+ id="page281"></a>[pg 281]</span>
+
+ <p><i>Bob P.</i> I&mdash;object? Not <i>much</i>! Just what I
+ should <i>like</i>, seeing Verona with&mdash;all
+ <i>together</i>, you know!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Miss T.</i> Then I guess <i>that's</i> fixed. (<i>Aside,
+ to</i> Miss P., <i>who is speechless</i>). Come, you haven't
+ the heart to go and disappoint my poor Cousin CHARLEY by saying
+ you won't go! He'll be perfectly enchanted to be under
+ vow&mdash;unless you've filled up <i>all</i> the vacancies
+ already! (<i>Aloud, to</i> VAN B., <i>as he approaches</i>.)
+ We've persuaded Miss PRENDERGAST to join our party. I hope you
+ feel equal to entertaining her?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Van B.</i> I shall be proud to be permitted to try.
+ (<i>To</i> Miss P.) Then I may take it that you agree with me
+ that the function of the future American fictionist will
+ be&mdash; [<i>They move away, conversing.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Podb.</i> (<i>To</i> CULCH.) I say, old fellow, we're to
+ be travelling companions again, after all. And a jolly good
+ thing, too, <i>I</i> think!... eh?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Culch.</i> Oh, h'm&mdash;quite so. That is&mdash;but no
+ doubt it will be an advantage&mdash;(<i>with a glance at</i>
+ Van B., <i>who is absorbed in</i> Miss P.'s
+ <i>conversation</i>)&mdash;in&mdash;er&mdash;<i>some</i>
+ respects. (<i>To himself.</i>) Hardly from poor dear PODBURY's
+ point of view, I'm afraid, though! However, if <i>he</i> sees
+ nothing&mdash;! [<i>He shrugs his shoulders, pityingly.</i></p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.</h2>
+
+ <p>Pocket-books for next year are coming in. Which for choice?
+ "<i>Solvitur ambulando</i>" should be the resolution of the
+ difficulty, given by one firm at least, that firm being
+ "WALKER." They are handy, and conveniently pocketable, but to
+ "The chiels amang ye taking notes," plain leaves, and no fruit,
+ and no dates, we should say, would be preferable. They're
+ reasonable prices, and you can't expect to get 'em for nothing;
+ if you do&mdash;"WALKER!"</p>
+
+ <div class="figleft"
+ style="width:35%;">
+ <a href="images/281-1.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/281-1.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>The Baron highly approves of Messrs. DE LA RUE's
+ pocket-books. It is pleasant to have something in one's pocket,
+ even if only a book. As to account-books and diaries&mdash;well
+ enter nothing therein but what has been pleasant and
+ profitable, and most diarians who adopt this rule will not find
+ their memoranda overcrowded at the end of the year. "Letts be
+ happy, while we can, and good luck to you, Ladies all, in 1892.
+ Leap year!" quoth the Baron. "Over you go like the villagers in
+ the German story, after the sheep, into the sea of matrimony,
+ where may you all get on swimmingly." <i>À propos</i>, Mesdames
+ BLYTHE and GAY say that the Christmas Number of <i>Woman</i>,
+ produced by a number of women, is as full of attractive power
+ as the Magnetic Lady herself.</p>
+
+ <p>"ARROWSMITH's Shilling Sensational, by 'a New Author,'"
+ quoth the Baron, "would, methought, serve <i>pour me
+ distraire</i>." The "New Author" uses the remarkably new device
+ of a mole on the lost child's breast. Isn't that original?
+ <i>Miss Box</i> and <i>Miss Cox</i> are lost, and found. "Have
+ you a mole on your left breast?" "Yes!" "Then it is both of
+ you!" Charming! So useful is the explanation that "Hanwell is a
+ little village, a few miles from London." Perhaps it is the
+ locality, there or thereabouts, where this thrillingly
+ interesting tale&mdash;which could have been told in fifty
+ pages, and needn't have been told at all&mdash;was written.
+ Well, well, "All's Hanwell that ends Hanwell," and "I've
+ galloped through a worse story before now," quoth the Baron,
+ yawning, and so to bed.</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:30%;">
+ <a href="images/281-2.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/281-2.png"
+ alt="Turning over the pages." /></a>Turning over the
+ pages.
+ </div>
+
+ <p>In <i>John Leech, His Life and Work</i> (BENTLEY) Mr. FRITH
+ quotes from an anonymous but obviously not an original
+ authority, the dictum, "It is the happiness of such a life (as
+ LEECH's) that there is so little to be told of it." Mr. BENTLEY
+ has produced two handsome volumes worthy the reputation of his
+ ancient and honourable house. They enshrine admirable
+ reproductions of some of LEECH's best work, selected by the
+ trained hand and sympathetic eye of Mr. FRITH. These are and
+ will remain the chief attractions of a work to which the Baron,
+ in common with the civilised world, has been looking forward to
+ with interest, and of whose realisation he regrets to hear so
+ disappointing an account from his trusty "Co." It is difficult
+ to find dates in this higgledy-piggledy chance-medley of facts
+ and opinions. But we all know that LEECH died in October, 1864.
+ It was in <i>Mr. Punch's</i> pages that he found the true field
+ for his heaven-born genius For twenty years at least he was one
+ of the most prominent, best known, and best liked men in
+ England. Surely within that period there must lie to the hand
+ of the dilligent seeker material for a memoir worthy to be
+ linked with the name of JOHN LEECH. Mr. FRITH has not given us
+ such a book, and criticism is only partly disarmed by the
+ comical reiteration of confession that he has failed in his
+ appointed task. For what he has to say in the way of making
+ known to the world the man JOHN LEECH, a very thin volume would
+ have sufficed, even had he included the more useful of his
+ remarks on LEECH's work and his method. But there being two
+ volumes to fill, Mr. FRITH genially summarises <i>The
+ Physiology of Evening Parties</i>, by Mr. ALBERT SMITH; <i>Mr.
+ Sponge's Sporting Tour</i>, and other not very high-class
+ literature, whose only claim to being remembered is that LEECH
+ illustrated them. Of <i>The Marchioness of Brinvilliers</i>,
+ ALBERT SMITH's attempt to rival the attractions of the
+ <i>Newgate Calendar</i>, Mr. FRITH positively gives two whole
+ chapters! He allots one to the <i>Bon Gaultier Ballads</i>, and
+ nineteen mortal pages to telling the <i>Story of Miss
+ Kilmansegg</i>, with copious extracts from that easily
+ accessible work.</p>
+
+ <p>This is not Memoir-writing, it is book-making. The reader
+ can skip these chapters, and, diligently searching, will find
+ here and there a ray of light thrown on this beautiful placid
+ life, weighed down as it was from earliest manhood by family
+ circumstances at which Mr. FRITH delicately hints. "Give,
+ give!" was, truly, the cry of the daughters of the horseleach.
+ There are, however, several other anecdotes contributed by
+ personal friends of LEECH's, who have come to Mr. FRITH's
+ assistance, and succeed in the main in making the book an
+ interesting one, as giving the outside world some glimpses of a
+ sweet and manly character. The volumes are crowded with
+ illustrations. These are LEECH's own work, and make the volumes
+ worth more than their published price.</p>
+
+ <p class="author">THE BARON DE BOOK-WORMS &amp; CO.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>TO EVANGELINE.</h2>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Oh, come and be my Queen,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And share my lot</p>
+
+ <p>In some artistic cot</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">At Turnham Green,</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">EVANGELINE!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The painted tambourine</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Shall grace its wall,</p>
+
+ <p>And many a table small</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And folding screen</p>
+
+ <p>Shall on its floor be seen,</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">EVANGELINE!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Your beauty's dazzling sheen</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Upsets me quite&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Of late my appetite</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Has wretched been,</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">EVANGELINE!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I shun the soup tureen</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And pine for you;</p>
+
+ <p>At pudding, joint, and stew</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">My face turns green&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>What do the symptoms mean,</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">EVANGELINE?</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>If Fate should come between</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">My Love and me,</p>
+
+ <p>This countenance will be</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">No more serene,</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">EVANGELINE!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>With nitro-glycerine</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I'll speed my flight,</p>
+
+ <p>Or else I will ignite</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Some Magazine&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Some <i>Powder</i> Magazine,</p>
+
+ <p class="i8">EVANGELINE!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>An Aunt at Will.</h3>
+
+ <blockquote class="note">
+ <p>[A lawsuit has been occasioned in India through white
+ ants devouring a will.]</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>It is usually supposed that Australia is topsey-turvey mad,
+ but in India it seems that matters also go by contraries, when
+ compared with their mode of procedure at home. A lawsuit has
+ been occasioned in Calcutta through white ants devouring a
+ will. In England our Aunts (who are generally whites) make
+ wills (bless them!) and <i>we</i> devour them, or at least live
+ on the proceeds.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page282"
+ id="page282"></a>[pg 282]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/282.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/282.png"
+ alt="DEAR CHILD!" /></a>
+
+ <h3>DEAR CHILD!</h3>
+
+ <p><i>Papa</i> (<i>to Friend from Town</i>). "THERE, MY
+ BOY, THAT'S WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO! GET A GEE, AND COME OUT
+ WITH THE HOUNDS!"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Little Daughter</i>. "OH, PAPA, TAKE CARE YOU DON'T
+ FALL OFF, AS YOU DID THE OTHER DAY!"</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>KATHLEEN AND PETRUCHIO;</h2>
+
+ <h3>OR, SHAKSPEARE BALFOURISED.</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Kathleen</i>. HIBERNIA. <i>Petruchio</i>. Mr.
+ BALFOUR.</p>
+
+ <p class="i4"><i>Grumio</i>.... Mr. JACKSON.</p>
+
+ <p class="i4"><i>Haberdasher</i>.. Mr. GLADSTONE.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Petruchio</i>. Thus have I politicly begun my
+ reign,</p>
+
+ <p>And 'tis my hope to end successfully;</p>
+
+ <p>My falcon now is sharp, and passing empty;</p>
+
+ <p>And, till she stoop, she must not be
+ full-gorg'd,</p>
+
+ <p>For then she never looks upon her lure.</p>
+
+ <p>Another way I have to man my haggard,</p>
+
+ <p>To make her come, and know her keeper's call;</p>
+
+ <p>That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites</p>
+
+ <p>That bate, and beat, and will not be obedient.</p>
+
+ <p>She plays no tricks to-day, nor none shall play;</p>
+
+ <p>Last Session she ruled not, nor shall next
+ Session;</p>
+
+ <p>Resolute government is the only way</p>
+
+ <p>To smooth these stormy spirits.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">All the same,</p>
+
+ <p><i>After</i> the hurly-burly, I intend</p>
+
+ <p>All shall be done in reverend care of her;</p>
+
+ <p>And, in conclusion, she shall have her rights,</p>
+
+ <p>If she will cease to rise, and rail, and brawl,</p>
+
+ <p>And with her clangour keep the world awake.</p>
+
+ <p>This is the way to kill her wrath with kindness,</p>
+
+ <p>And thus I'll curb her mad and headstrong
+ humour.&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>He that knows better how to tame a shrew,</p>
+
+ <p>Let him speak out! 'Tis time the kingdom knew!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <hr class="short" />
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Kathleen</i>. The more my wrong the more his
+ smile appears!</p>
+
+ <p>How doth he madden me&mdash;and master
+ me!&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>I&mdash;I, who never knew how to submit,</p>
+
+ <p>Nor never fancied that I should submit,&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Am starved for strife, stupid for lack of
+ struggle,</p>
+
+ <p>With Law kept bridled, and with Order saddled:</p>
+
+ <p>And that, which spites me more than all these
+ stints,</p>
+
+ <p>He does it under name of perfect love;</p>
+
+ <p>As who should say, if I should have my will,</p>
+
+ <p>'Twere deadly sickness or else present death.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <hr class="short" />
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Petruchio</i>. KATHLEEN, thou mend'st apace!</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">And now, my love,</p>
+
+ <p>Will we return unto thy father's house,</p>
+
+ <p>And ruffle it as bravely as the best,</p>
+
+ <p>With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings,</p>
+
+ <p>With ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales, and
+ things;</p>
+
+ <p>With orange tissue trimmed with true-blue
+ bravery,</p>
+
+ <p>Eschewing wearing of the green,&mdash;that's
+ knavery.</p>
+
+ <p>See GRUMIO there! He waits thy loving leisure</p>
+
+ <p>To deck thy body with his boxed-up treasure.</p>
+
+ <p>A cap of mine own choice, come fresh from town;</p>
+
+ <p>It will become thee better than a crown.</p>
+
+ <p>'Tis my ideal. (<i>Enter</i> Haberdasher.)
+ Well&mdash;what would <i>you</i>, sirrah?</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Haberdasher</i>. Here is the hat the lady did
+ bespeak!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Petruchio</i>. Why, this was moulded on a foreign
+ block,</p>
+
+ <p>A Phrygian cap. Fie, fie! 'tis crude and
+ flaunting.</p>
+
+ <p>Why, 'tis a coal-vase or a bushel-basket,</p>
+
+ <p>A fraud, a toy, a trick, a verdant fool'scap:</p>
+
+ <p>Away with it! Come, let me have a smaller!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Kathleen</i>. I'll have no smaller: this doth fit
+ the time,</p>
+
+ <p>And gentlewomen wear such hats as these.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Petruchio</i>. When you are gentle, you shall
+ have one too,</p>
+
+ <p>But of another pattern.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Grumio</i> (<i>aside</i>). Mine, to wit.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Kathleen</i>. Why, Sir, I trust I may have leave
+ to speak:</p>
+
+ <p>And speak I will. I am no child, no babe:</p>
+
+ <p>Your betters have endured me say my mind,</p>
+
+ <p>And, if you cannot, best you stop your ears.</p>
+
+ <p>My tongue will tell the craving of my heart,</p>
+
+ <p>Or else my heart, concealing it, will break;</p>
+
+ <p>And rather than it shall, I will be free</p>
+
+ <p>E'en to the uttermost,&mdash;at least in words!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Petruchio</i>. Why, so thou art. But 'tis a
+ paltry hat</p>
+
+ <p>This Haberdasher would fob off on thee.</p>
+
+ <p>I love thee well, but <i>he</i>, he loves thee
+ not.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Kathleen</i>. Love me or love me not, I like the
+ hat,</p>
+
+ <p>And it I will have, or I will have none.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Grumio</i> (<i>aside</i>). Then is she like to go
+ bareheaded long!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>[<i>Left arguing. Sequel&mdash;some day.</i></p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>OUR OLD FRIEND ONCE MORE.&mdash;Mrs. RAM has lately taken to
+ theatre-going. She says, however, that she doesn't much care
+ about going on first nights of new pieces, as the Stalls are
+ full of Crickets.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page283"
+ id="page283"></a>[pg 283]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/283.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/283.png"
+ alt="KATHLEEN AND PETRUCHIO." /></a>
+
+ <h3>KATHLEEN AND PETRUCHIO.</h3>
+
+ <p>KATHLEEN. "I'LL HAVE NO SMALLER; THIS DOTH FIT THE TIME.
+ AND GENTLEWOMEN WEAR SUCH HATS AS THESE."</p>
+
+ <p>PETRUCHIO. "WHEN YOU ARE GENTLE, YOU SHALL HAVE ONE TOO,
+ BUT&mdash;OF ANOTHER FASHION."&mdash;<i>Shakspeare
+ Balfourised</i>.</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page285"
+ id="page285"></a>[pg 285]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:40%;">
+ <a href="images/285-1.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/285-1.png"
+ alt="The G.O.M. Illuminated by a Ray of Sunlight (Soap)." />
+ </a>The G.O.M. Illuminated by a Ray of Sunlight (Soap).
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>PAUL PRY IN THE PURPLE.</h2>
+
+ <h4>(<i>Extracts from Letters found in a German
+ Post-bag.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <h4><i>To a Bishop.</i></h4>
+
+ <p>It has occurred to me that your sermons are not quite as
+ good as they should be. You do not seem to grasp your subject
+ with sufficient strength. I have not time to come to listen to
+ you, as I have other pressing engagements, and consequently
+ write from hearsay. Still, I believe I have good reason for my
+ strictures. However, that you may have an excellent example
+ upon which to model your discourses in the future, I will
+ myself visit your cathedral at a near date, and occupy your
+ pulpit. I will wire ten minutes before I arrive with my
+ sermon.</p>
+
+ <h4><i>To a General.</i></h4>
+
+ <p>I congratulate you upon the success of the recent
+ manoeuvres. Nothing could have been finer than the manner in
+ which the entire Army saluted me on my approach. Perhaps the
+ bands might have played the National Anthem half-an-hour longer
+ or so, but for all that, the effect was excellent. And now I
+ have got a really splendid idea. And you must help me. I want
+ to order all the troops to another part of the country without
+ telling their officers, and then, when they least expect it,
+ you and I will order a general assembly. It will be such a joke
+ to see the commanders when they appear on parade without any
+ soldiers! They will be so surprised! And sha'n't we laugh! But
+ mind, not a word to anyone until we have had our fun. As an old
+ soldier who has deserved well of his Fatherland, I rely on your
+ discretion.</p>
+
+ <h4><i>To a Theatrical Manager.</i></h4>
+
+ <div class="figleft"
+ style="width:15%;">
+ <a href="images/285-2.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/285-2.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>I was at the performances in your play-house the other
+ evening, and, as I told you at the time, was not at all
+ satisfied with the representation. I informed you that when I
+ had time I would jot down my complaints, and I am now keeping
+ my promise. I don't like the costume of the Tragedy
+ Queen&mdash;her heels are too high and why does she wear
+ gloves? The Low Comedian does not make the most of his part. He
+ has to walk about with a band-box. Now why does he not seize
+ the opportunity to place it on a chair and sit upon it? This
+ would have a very comical effect. I have seen it done, and it
+ made me laugh. Please let him sit upon the band-box for the
+ future. If he sits down accidentally the effect will be
+ heightened. It will be very funny. By the way, let all the
+ box-keepers give programmes free of charge to officers and
+ ladies under forty. I shall soon be at the theatre again to
+ attend a rehearsal. I will wire ten minutes before I come, so
+ that you may have proper time to call your company together.
+ Till then, you incompetent sausage, you can enjoy your Lager
+ and pipe in peace!</p>
+
+ <h4><i>To a Doctor.</i></h4>
+
+ <p>I have been reading some of the Medical Journals, and I am
+ not quite sure whether I think your manner of cutting off a leg
+ is the proper way. It may be, but, on the other hand, it may
+ not. Before you cut off another leg communicate with me, and I
+ will fix a date (as early as I can&mdash;probably within six
+ months), when I can see your patient, and give you my opinion.
+ By the way, do not go your rounds until you hear from me, as I
+ may want to see you at any time.</p>
+
+ <h4><i>To a Coach-builder.</i></h4>
+
+ <p>You don't know how to make a carriage. The other day I
+ thought of a capital idea, but, for the moment, cannot remember
+ it. However, I fancy it had something to do with square wheels.
+ At any rate you had better not make any more carriages until I
+ call. I will come as soon as I can&mdash;probably before Spring
+ twelvemonths.</p>
+
+ <h4><i>To a Relative.</i></h4>
+
+ <p>Had not time to answer your letter before. I do not in the
+ least agree with you. I hate people who do not mind their own
+ business. Why not attend to your own, and leave mine alone? If
+ you do not take care, <i>I will arrange to visit you in
+ State!</i> So you had better mind what you are about!</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>PROGRAMME OF THE CYCLOPÆDIC CIRCUS.</h2>
+
+ <h4>(<i>Under the Immediate Patronage of Lord
+ Salisbury.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <p>The Members of the School Board of Little Peddlington have
+ the honour to announce that, in deference to the expressed
+ opinion of the</p>
+
+ <h4>PREMIER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM,</h4>
+
+ <p>that it would be wise to substitute Circuses for
+ school-rooms in the provinces, have arranged for the holding
+ of</p>
+
+ <h3>A GRAND SCHOLASTIC GALA,</h3>
+
+ <p>on a scale of unprecedented magnificence. The Members have
+ engaged, at considerable expense, that admirable Artist,</p>
+
+ <h4>THE COURIER OF BOTH THE GLOBES,</h4>
+
+ <p>who will, during a rapid ride on a retired cab-horse,
+ exhibit and explain a series of gigantic maps of</p>
+
+ <h4>EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, AND AMERICA.</h4>
+
+ <p>This Star Artist will be followed by that talented
+ <i>troupe</i> of relatives who for many years have drawn
+ enormous crowds to their performances under the assumed but
+ appropriate name of</p>
+
+ <h4>THE BOUNDING BROTHERS OF THE SPELLING-BEES.</h4>
+
+ <p>They will go through their marvellous feats in tossing
+ barrels (bearing on their sides painted letters), and thus
+ combining amusement with instruction. Their last act will be to
+ keep in simultaneous motion a sufficient number of labelled
+ milk-cans to spell the sentence, "Farewell to all kind friends
+ in front." This marvellous double quartette will be followed
+ by</p>
+
+ <h4>THE ARITHMETICAL BICYCLIST,</h4>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:19%;">
+ <a href="images/285-3.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/285-3.png"
+ alt="The Arithmetical Bicyclist." /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>who will ride his favourite two-wheeled vehicle while he
+ sings a song introducing in a pleasing manner the
+ Multiplication Table. This sweet-toned vocalist will be
+ succeeded by</p>
+
+ <h4><i>The Star-loving Pig attended by Comical
+ Herschel.</i></h4>
+
+ <p>In which the former will spell out (with the assistance of
+ card-board letters) a number of interesting astronomical facts
+ at the instigation of his mirth-provoking master and
+ proprietor. This talented performer will be followed by</p>
+
+ <h4>THE UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE QUADRILLE.</h4>
+
+ <p>In which the entire <i>troupe</i> will appear on horseback,
+ and go through the programme of studies (proficiency in which
+ is required by the Tenth Standard) without a single
+ mistake.</p>
+
+ <p>The performances will then be brought to an appropriate and
+ jubilant conclusion by</p>
+
+ <h4><i>A Silver Collection in aid of the Rates!</i></h4>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>QUEER QUERIES.&mdash;OUR DEFENCES.&mdash;I am informed that
+ Mr. STANHOPE is expected shortly to go abroad, "in order to
+ recruit." Can even the blindest military optimist any longer
+ deny that the British Army is a nefarious imposture, when the
+ Minister for War is forced into an ignominious attempt to raise
+ a body of foreign mercenaries by his own personal efforts?</p>
+
+ <p class="author">HALF-PAY PATRIOT.</p>
+
+ <p>SCIENTIFIC.&mdash;Could you kindly tell me what "the Great
+ Ice Age" means? My Pater took me to hear some fellow lecture
+ about it the other day, but I couldn't understand much of what
+ he said. I thought he was going to talk about strawberry ices
+ and lemon ices, which I like awfully, but he didn't even
+ mention them! Don't you think <i>twelve</i> is the great Ice
+ Age&mdash;I mean the age when boys ought to be allowed to eat
+ as many as they like? N.B.&mdash;I am just twelve.</p>
+
+ <p class="author">TOMMY</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>WORTH SEEING.&mdash;"We understand that to the Exhibition of
+ "Instruments of Torture," and now on view in London, have been
+ lately added the Medici Collar, a Piano Organ, and a
+ "Shakspeare for the use of Schools."</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>MEM. BY "THE OFFICIAL RECEIVER."&mdash;"Firm as a Rock" will
+ not be henceforth a proverb of universal application.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page286"
+ id="page286"></a>[pg 286]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/286.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/286.png"
+ alt="ELECTION FEVER. A VICTIM'S VICISSITUDES." /></a>
+
+ <h3>ELECTION FEVER. A VICTIM'S VICISSITUDES.</h3>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page287"
+ id="page287"></a>[pg 287]</span>
+
+ <h2>TRAN-SLATED.</h2>
+
+ <h4>(<i>Being a newly-discovered fragment of an old Greek Play,
+ supposed to be a very early</i> "<i>Agamemnon</i>.")</h4>
+ <hr class="short" />
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Cly.</i> The coals I bought as Wallsend are not
+ so.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Ag.</i> Thus groundless hopes vanish&mdash;like
+ coals in smoke.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Cly.</i> You speak in words Mysterious, lacking
+ sense.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Ag.</i> The sense is patent to the reasoning
+ mind.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Cly.</i> And yet I paid for them upon the
+ nail.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Ag.</i> What matter, if the price was far too
+ low?</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Cly.</i> Then call you eighteen shillings low for
+ coal?</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Ag.</i> Yes, for "Prime Wallsend"&mdash;what
+ could you expect?</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Cly.</i> Listen! In passing 'long the public
+ way</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I saw a notice telling of these
+ coals.</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">It called them "ever-burning": said no
+ skill</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Could put them out when once they were
+ alight,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Because they were "the best the world
+ produced."</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I purchased some. Ai! ai! They turned out
+ slates.</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">My household maidens by Prometheus
+ swear</p>
+
+ <p class="i2"><i>They</i> never saw such stuff for
+ lighting fires.</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">What of it is not slag, that part is
+ slate,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And slated should they be that sold it
+ me.</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Moreover, when with anger I remarked</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To those who bore the sacks upon their
+ backs,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Within our cellars to deposit them,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">That they had better bear their loads
+ away</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Seeing I ordered coals, not lumps of
+ slate,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">They answered that, if they refused to
+ burn,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">They might be useful for a Rockery!</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">So now <i>they</i> have the shillings,
+ <i>I</i> the coals.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Ag.</i> And having them, we have no household
+ fires.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Cly.</i> What then to do? <i>You</i> sit with
+ idle hands.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Ag.</i> I cannot turn to Wallsend bits of
+ slag.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Cly.</i> But you can seek the Archon, and
+ denounce</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The man whose cunning robs our hearth of
+ flame.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p><i>Ag.</i> (<i>going out</i>). In what you say not
+ nothing I perceive.</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Women, in hunting cheapness, capture
+ costs.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <h4>CHORUS. STROPHE.</h4>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">The puny race of men</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Soars, in imagination, to the skies;</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">While tackling Science and Theosophy</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Their hands the coal-scoop grasp!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <h4>CHORUS. ANTISTROPHE.</h4>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i4">From high Olympus Zeus</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Smiles at the perjuries of
+ coal-heavers.</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">Not always is the cheapest article</p>
+
+ <p class="i4">The one that turns out best.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:60%;">
+ <a href="images/287-1.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/287-1.png"
+ alt="THINGS ONE WOULD WISH TO HAVE EXPRESSED DIFFERENTLY." />
+ </a>
+
+ <h3>THINGS ONE WOULD WISH TO HAVE EXPRESSED
+ DIFFERENTLY.</h3>"WELL, GOOD-BYE, MISS SMITH. TELL THE
+ OTHERS I WAS VERY SORRY NOT TO FIND ANYONE AT
+ HOME&mdash;A&mdash;A&mdash;A&mdash;EXCEPT YOU&mdash;A!"
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>A BOARD-SCHOOL CHRISTMAS.</h2>
+
+ <h4>(<i>An Anticipation of the not very Distant
+ Future.</i>)</h4>
+
+ <div class="figleft"
+ style="width:40%;">
+ <a href="images/287-2.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/287-2.png"
+ alt="Reading newspapers at their Club." /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>It was a very unseasonable Yule-tide. Instead of the
+ old-fashioned mild weather that had been the constant companion
+ of Christmas for many years, the ground was covered with snow
+ and the river blocked with ice. However, thanks to modern
+ improvements, the artisans had not been impeded in executing
+ their four hours of labour as provided by a recent statute.
+ They had been sitting at their Club (supported by the State),
+ reading the newspapers purchased out of the rates, and were
+ only annoyed that no food and drink was supplied them free
+ gratis and for nothing.</p>
+
+ <p>"It would never do," said an old workman, who remembered the
+ eight-hour day that used to prevail at the end of the
+ Nineteenth Century. "You see were we to have beer at will, the
+ brewers' draymen might complain. It was once attempted, but the
+ Licensed Victuallers made such a disturbance that the idea was
+ abandoned."</p>
+
+ <p>"There is something in what you say," observed a second
+ workman; "but, for the life of me, I don't see why the Nation
+ shouldn't provide bread."</p>
+
+ <p>"No, there you are out!" cried a third. "I am a baker, and
+ anything that interferes with my industry won't do."</p>
+
+ <p>And so they talked, discussing this and that, until all the
+ subjects of the leaders in the daily papers had been exhausted.
+ It was then that one of the workmen suggested a walk and a pipe
+ on the Embankment.</p>
+
+ <p>So they lounged down the main thoroughfare of London, with
+ its pleasant <i>cafés</i> and well-appointed
+ <i>restaurants</i>, and came to the conclusion (for the
+ fiftieth time) that it was far better than anything of the same
+ kind in Paris, or any other of the capitals of Europe. They had
+ all been abroad during their State-assisted vacation, and
+ consequently had the chief towns of the world, so to speak, at
+ their finger-tips. As they sauntered along, they came to a
+ group of half-starved, perambulating performers, who were
+ giving an entertainment to a crowd of bystanders. It was not a
+ good programme. First a young woman in rags, played on an old
+ piano, with decent precision, some extremely difficult
+ variations of CHOPIN's <i>Funeral March</i>. She was followed
+ by a man who painted a portrait of a leading statesman
+ indifferently well. Then another man jumped into the river, and
+ made his way in the cold water with the ease of a fifth-rate
+ professional swimmer. Then a second young woman recited
+ something or other in German, with an atrocious English accent.
+ And the whole concluded with a lecture upon chemistry (given by
+ a seedy-looking old man), which was illustrated with some
+ ambitious, but feeble experiments.</p>
+
+ <p>On the balance the performance was a bore, and the public
+ were rather pleased than otherwise, when a police constable
+ ordered the <i>troupe</i> "to move on." The poor people
+ gathered together their <i>impedimenta</i> and prepared to obey
+ the officer's behest. It was then that the performers came face
+ to face with the artisans. There was a cry of recognition.</p>
+
+ <p>"Why, would you believe it!" exclaimed one of the workmen,
+ "if it isn't SALLY JONES, and TOMMY BROWN, and NORAH JENKINS,
+ and HARRY SMITH!"</p>
+
+ <p>The well-fed and the starving cordially greeted one another.
+ Then there were mutual explanations, and the old man who had
+ lectured upon chemistry had his
+ say:&mdash;</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page288"
+ id="page288"></a>[pg 288]</span>
+
+ <p>"You want to know why we are all starving, and why we are so
+ much worse off than you, although we were educated at the same
+ Board School? I will tell you. It was because you very wisely
+ made up your minds to follow the occupations of your fathers.
+ You became builders, bakers, coal-heavers and paviors.</p>
+
+ <p>"Ah, we did that," sighed out the elderly workman, "because
+ we were too backward to attempt anything better. We were not
+ clever people like you! We couldn't play the piano, and paint
+ and swim, and go in for chemistry. We were not clever enough,
+ and had to put up with passing a very low standard."</p>
+
+ <p>"Thank your lucky stars it was so," exclaimed the chemist,
+ with tears in his eyes, "for your fate is happier than ours. We
+ are all fifth-rate, and can do nothing else. We have no chance
+ against those who have been born to this kind of thing, and we
+ have forgotten how to do your work. So we are starving,
+ and&mdash;"</p>
+
+ <p>But here the old man was interrupted by a policeman, who
+ ordered all of them to move on. And on they moved. Half one way
+ and half the other.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>OUR OWN FINANCIAL COLUMN.</h2>
+
+ <p>"CROESUS" has vanished! We can scarcely find it in our heart
+ to add anything to this distressing statement; but for the sake
+ of our readers whom he may have induced to patronise his
+ financial schemes, we give a few slight details of the
+ disaster.</p>
+
+ <div class="figleft"
+ style="width:40%;">
+ <a href="images/288-1.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/288-1.png"
+ alt="Portrait of 'Croesus.'" /></a>Portrait of
+ "Croesus."
+ </div>
+
+ <p>Four days ago enormous piles of letters began to arrive at
+ our office. They were addressed to "CROESUS," and had been sent
+ on to us from his last address marked "gone away; try office of
+ <i>Punch</i>." We opened them. They were all threatening
+ letters.</p>
+
+ <p>"Why," wrote one angry gentleman, "have I heard nothing from
+ you since I sent you my cheque for £10,000? Unless I receive a
+ reply within a week, legal proceedings will be taken." The rest
+ were similar in tone. Thereupon we resolved to call at the last
+ address given to us by "CROESUS." It was somewhere in the Mile
+ End Road. We arrived, entered, ascended the stairs, and found
+ in a dingy back bed-room, three used half-penny stamps, a false
+ nose, a pair of whiskers, and a large sheet of paper on which
+ were written only these words: "Sold Again"&mdash;which
+ obviously referred to some financial scheme or other. On
+ inquiring of the landlady, we heard that her lodger had
+ departed two days before, taking with him two large and heavy
+ wooden chests. He had promised to return. We then consulted the
+ police. They are very reticent, but consider they have got a
+ clue.</p>
+
+ <p>And here we owe it to our readers to make a confession. We
+ have never set eyes on "CROESUS." We engaged him entirely on
+ the strength of the most glowing recommendations from a whole
+ bevy of Bank-Managers, including the Managers of the Bank of
+ Lavajelli, of the Pei-ho Provinces, of Samarcand, of Ashanti
+ and of Dodge County, U.S.A. All these gentlemen wrote in the
+ most complimentary terms of "CROESUS." "He is a man," wrote the
+ Manager of the Dodge County Bank, "whom I have had the honour
+ to know intimately for a considerable number of years. Indeed,
+ we were educated together, and not a day has passed since then
+ without our meeting. I beg to state that I consider him
+ thoroughly fitted for the responsible position of financial
+ director of a high-class Metropolitan paper. His personal
+ appearance is aristocratic and prepossessing, his manners have
+ about them a distinction which impresses all who meet him, and
+ his dress, though modest, is always pleasing. His complete
+ command of twenty-four languages must be of the highest
+ advantage to him in unravelling the tangled skein of
+ international finance." Acting upon such testimonials we
+ engaged "CROESUS." We have now reason to believe that we have
+ been made the victims of a gross and cruel deception. An expert
+ in handwriting, whom we have consulted, gives it as his
+ opinion, that every single one of these recommendations is in
+ the handwriting of "CROESUS" himself, and the police, after
+ protracted inquiries, have assured us that the Banks, whose
+ supposed managers addressed us in favour of "CROESUS," never
+ had any actual existence at all.</p>
+
+ <p>All we can do now is to assist justice by publishing
+ herewith the photograph of "CROESUS." We apologise to all whom
+ he may have deceived, but we do not hold ourselves responsible
+ for any damage he has caused. We shall publish no more
+ financial contributions in the meantime.</p>
+
+ <p class="author">ED.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h2>ENGLISH AS SHE IS SUNG.</h2>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:18%;">
+ <a href="images/288-2.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/288-2.png"
+ alt="" /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>MR. PUNCH, SIR,&mdash;If I start a butcher's business, and
+ give my shop the special title of The <i>Welsh</i> Meat Shop,
+ is the great British Public so narrow-minded as to expect me to
+ sell them only Welsh meat, the produce of Welsh farms only? If
+ so, the Public, with all due respect, is a hass. For if I who
+ have to live,&mdash;though perhaps others may not see the
+ necessity for my existence,&mdash;by my trade, find that the
+ Welsh meat, which the Public had expected to be ready and
+ waiting, is not forthcoming, only one of two things can I do;
+ the one is to shut up shop (which I won't), and the other is to
+ provide my intending customers with French, Indian, English,
+ Irish, Scotch, American, Australian, New Zealandian, Cape
+ Colonial, in fact with any meat I can get from anywhere, and as
+ long as it is toothsome, and I can afford to sell it at an
+ average price, why should it not be sold at my Royal Welsh Meat
+ Shop?</p>
+
+ <p>When I call my shop The Royal Welsh Meat Shop, do I thereby
+ bar myself from dealing in English or foreign meats? Do I bar
+ myself from dealing in Indian pickles or China oranges? No,
+ certainly not; nor do I bar myself from selling neckties,
+ gloves, ginger-beer, and Brazil nuts. So, when a House of
+ Musical Entertainment is styled The English Opera House, it
+ must be understood, "all to the contrary nevertheless and
+ notwithstanding," to mean an English House where Opera may be
+ performed, and not a Theatre where only English Opera is
+ Housed. "My soul can not be fettered," as the poet
+ says,&mdash;what poet, I don't know and don't care, but he said
+ it, whoever he was, and <i>he was right</i>. If there is no
+ English Opera for my House, then I get a French Opera, or a
+ Dutch one, just as at an oyster-shop&mdash;but perhaps this is
+ not quite the illustration I should like, as, at an
+ oyster-shop, they <i>do</i> ask you which you will have,
+ "Natives," or "Seconds," or "Anglo-Dutch"; and, when you can't
+ afford Natives, you put up with an inferior quality at a lesser
+ price. But if that oyster-seller called his shop "The
+ Native-Oyster Shop," should I have any ground of action against
+ him for selling any other oysters except Natives? No. But then
+ he would ask me "If I wanted Natives or not?" And if I said
+ "Yes," he would give me Natives. Now I admit I do not ask the
+ Public at the doors Which will you have? because I may not be
+ able to have an English Opera always on tap, so to speak.
+ Metaphors a bit confused, but you know what I mean. If I had a
+ few English Operas on tap I might turn 'em on, say, on Mondays,
+ Wednesdays and Fridays: English Opera by English Composers on
+ those days, and on the other days, any Operas by any Composers.
+ But if the Public <i>won't</i> come on the English Opera
+ nights, and <i>will</i> come on the other nights? What then?
+ Why obviously I must keep my Natives (if I have any) in a
+ barrel, and deal only with the foreign supply. "Blame not the
+ Bard"&mdash;I mean blame not the patriotic man of business, but
+ let our cry be "Art for Art's sake," and the English Opera for
+ ever! that is, as long as Art and English Opera pay.</p>
+
+ <p class="author">Yours,<br />
+ A MANAGER FIRST AND ANYTHING YOU LIKE AFTERWARDS.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>LATEST FROM SHOTSHIRE.&mdash;The only appropriate beverage
+ for a Sportsman out shooting,&mdash;why "Pop" to be sure.</p>
+ <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 14165 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/14165-h/images/277.png b/14165-h/images/277.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4efb9bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/277.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/278.png b/14165-h/images/278.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9cdc173
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/278.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/279.png b/14165-h/images/279.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7367e99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/279.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/280.png b/14165-h/images/280.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2812ab5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/280.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/281-1.png b/14165-h/images/281-1.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..73a55e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/281-1.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/281-2.png b/14165-h/images/281-2.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1cafd76
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/281-2.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/282.png b/14165-h/images/282.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fa78938
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/282.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/283.png b/14165-h/images/283.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ced3262
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/283.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/285-1.png b/14165-h/images/285-1.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fa03000
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/285-1.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/285-2.png b/14165-h/images/285-2.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8d1b4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/285-2.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/285-3.png b/14165-h/images/285-3.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08da64f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/285-3.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/286.png b/14165-h/images/286.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b67dff8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/286.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/287-1.png b/14165-h/images/287-1.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..890ef31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/287-1.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/287-2.png b/14165-h/images/287-2.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a4b545
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/287-2.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/288-1.png b/14165-h/images/288-1.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f35980
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/288-1.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14165-h/images/288-2.png b/14165-h/images/288-2.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe1c4d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14165-h/images/288-2.png
Binary files differ