summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/14277-h
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorRoger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>2025-10-15 04:44:04 -0700
committerRoger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>2025-10-15 04:44:04 -0700
commit5ae0b4efab035c90cd104a4881f1ca8c9bedd853 (patch)
tree159f181f6ed4725d7a1a57aacfa9770af48a48ae /14277-h
initial commit of ebook 14277HEADmain
Diffstat (limited to '14277-h')
-rw-r--r--14277-h/14277-h.htm2044
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/193.pngbin0 -> 20973 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/194.pngbin0 -> 226759 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/195.pngbin0 -> 54702 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/196.pngbin0 -> 26414 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/197.pngbin0 -> 55758 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/198.pngbin0 -> 175010 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/199.pngbin0 -> 240998 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/201a.pngbin0 -> 76756 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/201b.pngbin0 -> 6315 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/202.pngbin0 -> 248071 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/203.pngbin0 -> 74176 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/204a.pngbin0 -> 20464 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/204b.pngbin0 -> 16130 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/204c.pngbin0 -> 9869 bytes
-rw-r--r--14277-h/images/pointer.pngbin0 -> 313 bytes
16 files changed, 2044 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/14277-h/14277-h.htm b/14277-h/14277-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1aec036
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/14277-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,2044 @@
+<!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, April 25th, 1891.</title>
+ <style type="text/css">
+ /*<![CDATA[*/
+
+ <!--
+ body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+ p {text-align: justify;}
+ p.center {text-align: center;}
+ p.author {text-align: right; margin-top: -1em; margin-right: 5%;}
+ 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
+ {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.i16 {margin-left: 8em;}
+
+ .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;}
+ -->
+ /*]]>*/
+ </style>
+</head>
+
+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14277 ***</div>
+
+ <h1>PUNCH,<br />
+ OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.</h1>
+
+ <h2>Vol. 100.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <h2>April 25th, 1891.</h2>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page193"
+ id="page193"></a>[pg 193]</span>
+
+ <h3>MR. PUNCH'S POCKET IBSEN.</h3>
+
+ <p class="center">(<i>Condensed and Revised Version by Mr P.'s
+ Own Harmless Ibsenite.</i>)</p>
+
+ <h4>No. III.&mdash;HEDDA GABLER.</h4>
+
+ <p class="center">ACT I.</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ SCENE&mdash;<i>A Sitting-room cheerfully decorated in dark
+ colours. Broad doorway, hung with black crape, in the wall
+ at back, leading to a back Drawing-room, in which, above a
+ sofa in black horsehair, hangs a posthumous portrait of the
+ late</i> General GABLER. <i>On the piano is a handsome
+ pall. Through the glass panes of the back Drawing-room
+ window are seen a dead wall and a cemetery. Settees, sofas,
+ chairs, &amp;c., handsomely upholstered in black bombazine,
+ and studded with small round nails. Bouquets of immortelles
+ and dead grasses are lying everywhere about.</i>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p><i>Enter</i> Aunt JULIE (<i>a good-natured looking lady in a
+ smart hat</i>).</p>
+
+ <p><i>Aunt J.</i> Well, I declare, if I believe GEORGE or HEDDA
+ are up yet! (<i>Enter</i> GEORGE TESMAN, <i>humming, stout,
+ careless, spectacled.</i>) Ah, my dear boy, I have called
+ before breakfast to inquire how you and HEDDA are after
+ returning late last night from your long honeymoon. Oh, dear
+ me, yes; am I not your old Aunt, and are not these attentions
+ usual in Norway?</p>
+
+ <p><i>George.</i> Good Lord, yes! My six months' honeymoon has
+ been quite a little travelling scholarship, eh? I have been
+ examining archives. Think of <i>that</i>! Look here, I'm going
+ to write a book all about the domestic interests of the
+ Cave-dwellers during the Deluge. I'm a clever young Norwegian
+ man of letters, eh?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Aunt J.</i> Fancy your knowing about that too! Now, dear
+ me, thank Heaven!</p>
+
+ <p><i>George.</i> Let me, as a dutiful Norwegian nephew, untie
+ that smart, showy hat of yours. (<i>Unties it, and pats her
+ under the chin.</i>) Well, to be sure, you have got yourself
+ really up,&mdash;fancy that!
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[<i>He puts hat on chair close to
+ table.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Aunt J.</i> (<i>giggling</i>). It was for HEDDA'S
+ sake&mdash;to go out walking with her in. (HEDDA <i>approaches
+ from the back-room; she is pallid, with cold, open, steel-grey
+ eyes; her hair is not very thick, but what there is of it is an
+ agreeable medium brown.</i>) Ah, dear HEDDA!
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[<i>She attempts to cuddle
+ her.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Hedda</i> (<i>shrinking back</i>). Ugh, let me go, do!
+ (<i>Looking at</i> Aunt JULIE'S <i>hat.</i>) TESMAN, you must
+ really tell the housemaid not to leave her old hat about on the
+ drawing-room chairs. Oh, is it <i>your</i> hat? Sorry I spoke,
+ I'm sure!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Aunt J.</i> (<i>annoyed</i>). Good gracious, little Mrs.
+ HEDDA; my nice new hat that I bought to go out walking with
+ <i>you</i> in!</p>
+
+ <p><i>George</i> (<i>patting her on the back</i>). Yes, HEDDA,
+ she did, and the parasol too! Fancy, Aunt JULIE always
+ positively thinks of everything, eh?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Hedda</i> (<i>coldly</i>). You hold <i>your</i> tongue.
+ Catch me going out walking with your aunt! One doesn't
+ <i>do</i> such things.</p>
+
+ <p><i>George</i> (<i>beaming</i>). Isn't she a charming woman?
+ Such fascinating manners! My goodness, eh? Fancy that!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Aunt J.</i> Ah, dear GEORGE, you ought indeed to be
+ happy&mdash;but (<i>brings out a flat package wrapped in
+ newspaper</i>) look <i>here</i>, my dear boy!</p>
+
+ <p><i>George</i> (<i>opens it</i>). What? my dear old morning
+ shoes! my slippers! (<i>Breaks down.</i>) This is positively
+ too touching, HEDDA, eh? Do you remember how badly I wanted
+ them all the honeymoon? Come and just have a look at
+ them&mdash;you <i>may</i>!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Hedda.</i> Bother your old slippers and your old aunt
+ too! (Aunt JULIE <i>goes out annoyed, followed by</i> GEORGE,
+ <i>still thanking her warmly for the slippers</i>; HEDDA
+ <i>yawns</i>; GEORGE <i>comes back and places his old slippers
+ reverently on the table.</i>) Why, here comes Mrs.
+ ELVSTED&mdash;<i>another</i> early caller! She had irritating
+ hair, and went about making a sensation with it&mdash;an old
+ flame of yours, I've heard.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Enter Mrs.</i> ELVSTED; <i>she is pretty and gentle, with
+ copious wavy white-gold hair and round prominent eyes, and the
+ manner of a frightened rabbit.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Mrs. E.</i> (<i>nervous</i>). Oh, please, I'm so
+ perfectly in despair. EJLERT L&Ouml;VBORG, you know, who was
+ our Tutor; he's written such a large new book. I inspired him.
+ Oh, I know I don't look like it&mdash;but I did&mdash;he told
+ me so. And, good gracious, now he's in this dangerous wicked
+ town all alone, and he's a reformed character, and I'm
+ <i>so</i> frightened about him; so, as the wife of a Sheriff
+ twenty years older than me, I came up to look after Mr.
+ L&Ouml;VBORG. Do ask him here&mdash;then I can meet him. You
+ will? How perfectly lovely of you! My husband's <i>so</i> fond
+ of him!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Hedda.</i> GEORGE, go and write an invitation at once; do
+ you hear? (GEORGE <i>looks around for his slippers, takes them
+ up and goes out.</i>) Now we can talk, my little THEA. Do you
+ remember how I used to pull your hair when we met on the
+ stairs, and say I would scorch it off? Seeing people with
+ copious hair always <i>does</i> irritate me.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Mrs. E.</i> Goodness, yes, you were always so playful and
+ friendly, and I was so afraid of you. I am still. And please,
+ I've run away from my husband. Everything around him was
+ distasteful to me. And Mr. L&Ouml;VBORG and I were
+ comrades&mdash;he was dissipated, and I got a sort of power
+ over him, and he made a real person out of me&mdash;which I
+ wasn't before, you know; but, oh, I do hope I'm real now. He
+ talked to me and taught me to think&mdash;chiefly of him. So,
+ when Mr. L&Ouml;VBORG came here, naturally I came too. There
+ was nothing else to do! And fancy, there is another woman whose
+ shadow still stands between him and me! She wanted to shoot him
+ once, and so, of course, he can never forget her. I wish I knew
+ her name&mdash;perhaps it was that red-haired opera-singer?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Hedda</i> (<i>with cold self-command</i>). Very
+ likely&mdash;but nobody does that sort of thing here. Hush! Run
+ away now. Here comes TESMAN with Judge BRACK. (Mrs. E. <i>goes
+ out</i>; GEORGE <i>comes in with</i> Judge BRACK, <i>who is a
+ short and elastic gentleman, with a round face, carefully
+ brushed hair, and distinguished profile.</i>) How awfully funny
+ you do look by daylight, Judge!</p>
+
+ <div class="figleft"
+ style="width:30%;">
+ <a href="images/193.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/193.png"
+ alt="I am a gay Norwegian dog." /></a>
+
+ <p>"I am a gay Norwegian dog."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <p><i>Brack</i> (<i>holding his hat and dropping his
+ eye-glass</i>). Sincerest thanks. Still the same graceful
+ manners, dear little Mrs. HED&mdash;TESMAN! I came to invite
+ dear TESMAN to a little bachelor-party to celebrate his return
+ from his long honeymoon. It is customary in Scandinavian
+ society. It will be a lively affair, for I am a gay Norwegian
+ dog.</p>
+
+ <p><i>George.</i> Asked out&mdash;without my wife! Think of
+ that! Eh? Oh, dear me, yes, <i>I</i>'ll come!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Brack.</i> By the way, L&Ouml;VBORG is here; he has
+ written a wonderful book, which has made a quite extraordinary
+ sensation. Bless me, yes!</p>
+
+ <p><i>George.</i> L&Ouml;VBORG&mdash;fancy! Well, I
+ <i>am</i>&mdash;glad. Such marvellous gifts! And I was so
+ painfully certain he had gone to the bad. Fancy that, eh? But
+ what will become of him <i>now</i>, poor fellow, eh? I
+ <i>am</i> so anxious to know!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Brack.</i> Well, he may possibly put up for the
+ Professorship against you, and, though you <i>are</i> an
+ uncommonly clever man of letters&mdash;for a
+ Norwegian&mdash;it's not wholly improbable that he may cut you
+ out!</p>
+
+ <p><i>George.</i> But, look here, good Lord, Judge
+ BRACK!&mdash;(<i>gesticulating</i>)&mdash;that would show an
+ incredible want of consideration for me! I married on my chance
+ of <i>getting</i> that Professorship. A man like L&Ouml;VBORG,
+ too, who hasn't even been respectable, eh? One doesn't do such
+ things as that!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Brack.</i> Really? You forget we are all realistic and
+ unconventional persons here, and do all kinds of odd things.
+ But don't worry yourself!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[<i>He
+ goes out.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>George</i> (<i>to Hedda</i>). Oh, I say, HEDDA, what's to
+ become of our Fairyland now, eh? We can't have a liveried
+ servant, or give dinner-parties, or have a horse for riding.
+ Fancy that!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Hedda</i> (<i>slowly, and wearily</i>). No, we shall
+ really have to set up as Fairies in reduced circumstances,
+ now.</p>
+
+ <p><i>George</i> (<i>cheering up</i>). Still, we shall see Aunt
+ JULIE every day, and <i>that</i> will be something, and I've
+ got back my old slippers. We shan't be altogether without some
+ amusements, eh?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Hedda</i> (<i>crosses the floor</i>). Not while I have
+ <i>one</i> thing to amuse myself with, at all events.</p>
+
+ <p><i>George</i> (<i>beaming with joy</i>). Oh, Heaven be
+ praised and thanked for that! My goodness, so you have! And
+ what may <i>that</i> be, HEDDA, eh?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Hedda</i> (<i>at the doorway, with suppressed scorn</i>).
+ Yes, GEORGE, you have the old slippers of the attentive Aunt,
+ and I have the horse-pistols of the deceased General!</p>
+
+ <p><i>George</i> (<i>in an agony</i>). The pistols! Oh, my
+ goodness! <i>what</i> pistols?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Hedda</i> (<i>with cold eyes</i>). General GABLER'S
+ pistols&mdash;same which I shot&mdash;(<i>recollecting
+ herself</i>)&mdash;no, that's THACKERAY, not IBSEN&mdash;a
+ <i>very</i> different
+ person.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[<i>She goes through the
+ back Drawing-room.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>George</i> (<i>at doorway, shouting after her</i>).
+ Dearest HEDDA, <i>not</i> those dangerous things, eh? Why, they
+ have never once been known to shoot straight yet! Don't! Have a
+ catapult. For <i>my</i> sake, have a
+ catapult!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[<i>Curtain.</i></p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h4>Bow-Wow!</h4>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The RAIKES' teeth were bared&mdash;a most terrible
+ sight!&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">At the Messenger Companies. Now all seems
+ joy</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">For the Public, the P.O., the Co., and
+ the Boy!</p>
+
+ <p>The Dog in the Manger JOHN BULL did affright,</p>
+
+ <p>But&mdash;his bark is perhaps rather worse than his
+ bite!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page194"
+ id="page194"></a>[pg 194]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/194.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/194.png"
+ alt="Sons of Britannia" /></a>
+
+ <h3>SONS OF BRITANNIA; OR, THE UNITED SERVICE.</h3>
+
+ <p>[The Senior Admiral of the Fleet, SIR PROVO WILLIAM
+ PARRY WALLIS, G.C.B., who was in the action between the
+ British Frigate <i>Shannon</i> and the American Frigate
+ <i>Chesapeake</i> on June 1st, 1813 (taking command of the
+ <i>Shannon</i> after the disabling of Captain BROKE),
+ celebrated the hundredth anniversary of his birthday on
+ April 12th, 1891.</p>
+
+ <p>Lieutenant GRANT "displayed great bravery and judgment"
+ (<i>Times</i>) in the defence of Thobal against the
+ Manipuris, April, 1891.]</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page195"
+ id="page195"></a>[pg 195]</span>
+
+ <h3>SONS OF BRITANNIA.</h3>
+
+ <h4>1813&mdash;1891.</h4>
+
+ <p class="center"><i>Britannia loquitur</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>From Boston Bay to Thobal fort</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Is a far cry, but bravery bridges</p>
+
+ <p>The centuries, and of space makes sport.</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The shot that swept the salt
+ sea-ridges</p>
+
+ <p>When VERE BROKE of the <i>Shannon</i> smote</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The foe, and, struck, left WALLIS
+ smiting,&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Sends echoes down the years that float</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To Thobal o'er the sounds of
+ fighting.</p>
+
+ <p>Memories of greatness make men great!</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Brave centenarian, you with pleasure</p>
+
+ <p>May greet the youth who guard our State.</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">You, whose long memories can measure</p>
+
+ <p>So wide a sweep of England's war,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Must joy to see her served as boldly</p>
+
+ <p>As in those sad mad days afar,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">When, gazing on her children coldly,</p>
+
+ <p>She alienated kindred hearts,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Which might till now have beaten
+ loyal.</p>
+
+ <p>At least you both played well <i>your</i> parts,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Though blunderers blind, official,
+ royal,</p>
+
+ <p>May then or now have marred the work</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Of arduous years, and gallant
+ spirits,</p>
+
+ <p>My sons at least no peril shirk,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Valour from age to age inherits.</p>
+
+ <p>The old tradition, duteous stands</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">For the old Flag, wherever flying!</p>
+
+ <p>Brave WALLIS, gallant GRANT, clasp hands!</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">My sons! Unfaltering, undying,</p>
+
+ <p>Beneath grey hairs, or youth's brown locks,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The spirit proud of patriot valour!</p>
+
+ <p>Not desperate odds in war's wild shocks</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Shall strike its flush to craven
+ pallor.</p>
+
+ <p>Mud-fort, or "mealey" bastion, deck</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Of shot-torn ship, or red
+ "death-valley,"</p>
+
+ <p>What odds? Of danger nought I reck,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Whilst thus my sons to me can rally.</p>
+
+ <p>Come what, come will! Whilst centuried age</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And youth in Spring strike hands before
+ me,</p>
+
+ <p>Let foemen band, let battle rage,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">You'll keep my Flag still flying o'er
+ me!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:40%;">
+ <a href="images/195.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/195.png"
+ alt="General Idea" /></a>
+
+ <h3>"GENERAL IDEA"</h3>HITTING ON A NOVEL PLAN FOR OUR
+ COAST DEFENCES
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h4>The Yankee Oracle on the Three-Volume Novel.</h4>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Our people will not stand it&mdash;no!</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Of Fiction, limp or strong,</p>
+
+ <p>Yanks want but little here below,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Nor want that little <i>long</i>!</p>
+
+ <p>(But oh! our (Saxon) stars one thanks,</p>
+
+ <p>Romance is <i>not</i> (yet) ruled by Yanks!)</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>SONGS OF THE UN-SENTIMENTALIST.</h3>
+
+ <p class="center">THE TAX-COLLECTOR'S HEART.</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I know his step, his ring, his knock,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I hear him, too, explain,</p>
+
+ <p>With emphasis my nerves that shock,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">That he "won't call again!"</p>
+
+ <p>I know that bodes a coming storm&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A summons looms a-head!</p>
+
+ <p>I follow his retreating form,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And note his stealthy tread!</p>
+
+ <p>Some grace to beg, implore, beseech,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">'Twere vain! Let him depart!</p>
+
+ <p>I know no human cry can reach</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">That Tax-Collector's heart!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>He kept his word. To claim that rate</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">He never called again.</p>
+
+ <p>An outraged Vestry, loth to wait,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Soon made their purpose plain.</p>
+
+ <p>I know not how, I missed the day,&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">But that fell summons came.</p>
+
+ <p>Two shillings costs it took to play</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">That Tax-Collector's game.</p>
+
+ <p>I own the outlay was not much!</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">But, <i>that</i> is not the smart:</p>
+
+ <p>'Tis that no anguished shriek can touch</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">That Tax-Collector's heart!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>"MORS ET VITA."&mdash;A fine performance, April 15, at
+ Albert Hall, with ALBANI, HILDA WILSON, Messrs. LLOYD, and
+ WATKIN MILLS, and Dr. MACKENZIE, as conductor or con-doctor. I
+ should have given, writes our correspondent, a full and
+ enthusiastic account of it, but that I was bothered all the
+ time by two persons near me, who would talk and wouldn't
+ listen. Thank goodness, they didn't stay throughout the
+ performance. In a theatre they'd have been hushed down, but
+ this is such a big place that a talking duet is heard only in
+ the immediate neighbourhood of the talkers; and then no one
+ wants to have a row during the performance of sacred music.
+ It's like brawling in church.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>QUEER QUERIES.</h3>
+
+ <p>THE TITHES QUESTION.&mdash;I am the Vicar of a country
+ Church in Wales; but owing to the total failure of my last
+ attempt to distrain on the stock of a neighbouring farmer, on
+ which occasion I was tossed over a hedge by an infuriated cow,
+ my family and myself are starving. I wish to know if I can
+ legally pawn the lectern, the ancient carved pulpit, and
+ several rare old sedilia in the Church? Or they would be
+ exchanged for an immediate supply of their value in
+ groceries.&mdash;URGENT.</p>
+
+ <p>ANNOYANCE FROM NEIGHBOUR.&mdash;I live in a quiet street,
+ and my next-door neighbour has suddenly converted his house
+ into a Fried Fish Shop. Some of his boxes protrude into my
+ front garden. Have I the right of seizing them, and eating
+ contents, supposing them to be fit for human consumption? My
+ house is perpetually filled with the aroma of questionable
+ herrings, and very pronounced haddocks. I have asked, politely,
+ for compensation, and received only bad language. What should
+ be my next step?&mdash;PERPLEXED.</p>
+
+ <p>DEED OF GIFT.&mdash;Upon my eldest son's marriage I wish to
+ make him a really handsome money present. My idea is to hand
+ over to him &pound;100, on condition that he repays me ten per
+ cent, as long as I live, my age now being forty-five. Then as
+ to security. Had I better get a Bill of Sale on the furniture,
+ which he has just had given him by his wife's father for their
+ new house, or how can I most effectually bind
+ him?&mdash;GENEROUS PARENT.</p>
+
+ <p>HOLIDAY TRIP.&mdash;Would one of your readers inform me of a
+ locality where I can take my next summer's holiday of a month,
+ for &pound;3 10<i>s.</i>, fare included? It must be near the
+ sea and high mountains, with a genial though bracing climate.
+ Good boating and bathing. Strictly honest lodging-house keepers
+ and romantic surroundings indispensable.&mdash;EASY TO
+ PLEASE.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>COMING DRESS.</h3>
+
+ <p class="center">(<i>Sweet Seventeen to the would-be Sumptuary
+ Reformers at the Kensington Town Hall.</i>)</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Vainly on Fashion you make war,</p>
+
+ <p>With querulous Book, and quaint Bazaar,</p>
+
+ <p>Good Ladies of the Higher Light!</p>
+
+ <p>A Turkish Tea-gown, loose or tight,</p>
+
+ <p>Won't win us to the Rational Cult;</p>
+
+ <p>Japanese skirts do but insult</p>
+
+ <p>Our elder instincts, to which <i>Reason</i></p>
+
+ <p>Is nothing more nor less than treason.</p>
+
+ <p>Your "muddy weather costume" moves us</p>
+
+ <p>No more than satire, which reproves us</p>
+
+ <p><i>Ad nauseam</i>, and for whose rebuff</p>
+
+ <p>We never care one pinch of snuff.</p>
+
+ <p>No, Ladies HARBERTON and COFFIN.</p>
+
+ <p>Your pleading, like the critics' "scoffin"</p>
+
+ <p>Touches us not; have we not smiled,</p>
+
+ <p>Mocking, at Mrs. OSCAR WILDE?</p>
+
+ <p>And shall we welcome with delight</p>
+
+ <p>Queer robes that make a girl "a fright?"</p>
+
+ <p>Pooh-pooh! We're simply imperturbable,</p>
+
+ <p>The Reign of Fashion's undisturbable.</p>
+
+ <p>The "Coming Dress?"&mdash;that's all sheer
+ humming,</p>
+
+ <p>We only care for Dress <i>be</i>-Coming!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page196"
+ id="page196"></a>[pg 196]</span>
+
+ <h3>MODERN TYPES.</h3>
+
+ <p class="center">(<i>By Mr. Punch's Own Type Writer.</i>)</p>
+
+ <h4>No. XXV.&mdash;THE ADULATED CLERGYMAN.</h4>
+
+ <p>The Adulated Clergyman possesses many of the genuine
+ qualities of the domestic cat, in addition to a large stock of
+ the characteristics which tradition has erroneously assigned to
+ that humble but misunderstood animal. Like a cat, he is
+ generally sleek and has become an adept in the art of
+ ingratiating himself with those who wear skirts and dispense
+ comforts. Like a cat, too, he has an insinuating manner; he can
+ purr quite admirably in luxurious surroundings, and, on the
+ whole, he prefers to attain his objects by a circuitous method
+ rather than by the bluff and uncompromising directness which is
+ employed by dogs and ordinary honest folk of the canine sort.
+ Moreover, he likes a home, but&mdash;here comes the
+ difference&mdash;the homes of others seem to attract and retain
+ him more strongly than his own. And if it were useful to set
+ out the points of difference in greater detail, it might be
+ said that the genuine as opposed to the traditional cat often
+ shows true affection and quite a dignified resentment of snubs,
+ is never unduly familiar, and makes no pretence of being better
+ than other cats whose coats happen to be of a different colour.
+ But it is better, perhaps, at once to consider the Adulated
+ Clergyman in his own person, and not in his points of
+ resemblance to or difference from other animals.</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:50%;">
+ <a href="images/196.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/196.png"
+ alt="The Adulated Clergyman" /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>He who afterwards becomes an Adulated Clergyman has probably
+ been a mean and grubby schoolboy, with a wretched but
+ irresistible inclination to sneak, and to defend himself for so
+ doing on principle. It is of course wrong to break rules at
+ school, authority must be respected, masters must be obeyed,
+ but it is an honourable tradition amongst schoolboys that boys
+ who offend&mdash;since offences must come&mdash;should owe
+ their consequent punishment to the unassisted efforts of those
+ who hold rule, rather than to the calculating interference of
+ another boy, who, though he may have shared the offence, is
+ unwilling to take his proportion of the result. A sneak,
+ therefore, has in all ages been invested with a badge of
+ infamy, which no amount of strictly scholastic success has ever
+ availed to remove from him; and his fellows, recognising that
+ he has saved his own skin at the expense of theirs, do their
+ best to make up the difference to him in contempt and abuse.
+ Schoolboys are not distinguished for a fastidious reticence. If
+ they dislike, they never hesitate to say so, and they have a
+ painfully downright way of giving reasons for their behaviour,
+ which is apt to jar on a temperament so sensitive that its
+ owner always and only treads the path of high principle when
+ self-interest points him in the same direction.</p>
+
+ <p>The school career of the future pastor was not, therefore, a
+ very happy one, for at school there are no feeble women to be
+ captivated by heartrending revelations of a noble nature at war
+ with universal wickedness, and all but shattered by the
+ assaults of an unfeeling world. Nor, strange to say, do
+ schoolmasters, as a rule, value the boy who ranges himself on
+ their side in the eternal war between boys and masters.
+ However, he proceeded in due time to a University. There he let
+ it be known that his ultimate destination was the Church, but
+ he had his own method of qualifying for his profession. He was
+ not afflicted with the possession of great muscular strength,
+ or of a very robust health. Neither the river nor the
+ football-field attracted him. Cricket was a bore, athletic
+ sports were a burden; the rough manners of the ordinary
+ Undergraduates made him shudder. However, since at College
+ there are sets of all sorts and sizes, he soon managed to
+ fashion for himself a little world of effete and mincing
+ idlers, who adored themselves even more than they worshipped
+ one another. They drank deep from the well of modern French
+ literature, and chattered interminably of RICHEPIN, GUY DE
+ MAUPASSANT, PAUL BOURGET, and the rest. They themselves were
+ their own favourite native writers; but their morbid sonnets,
+ their love-lorn elegies, their versified mixtures of passion
+ and a quasi-religious mysticism, were too sacred for print,
+ though they were sometimes adapted to thin and fluttering airs,
+ and sung to sympathisers in private. Most of these gentlemen
+ were "ploughed" in their examination, but the hero of this
+ sketch secured his degree without honours, and departed to read
+ for the Church.</p>
+
+ <p>Soon afterwards he was ordained, was plunged ruthlessly into
+ an East-End parish, and disappeared for a time from view. He
+ emerged, after an interval of several years. The occasion was
+ the inaugural meeting of a Guild for the Conversion of
+ Music-hall <i>Artistes</i>, which is to this day spoken of
+ amongst the irreverent as the Song and Sermon Society. The
+ sensation of the meeting was caused by the fervent speech of a
+ clergyman, who announced that he himself had been for some
+ months a professional Variety Singer, attached to more than one
+ Music-hall, and that, having studied the life <i>de
+ pr&egrave;s</i>, he knew all its temptations, and was therefore
+ qualified to speak from experience as to the best means of
+ elevating those who pursued it. The details of his story, as
+ they fell from the mouth of the reverend speaker, were highly
+ spiced. His hearers were amused, interested, and stirred; and,
+ when a daily newspaper gave a headlined account of the speech,
+ with a portrait of the speaker, the professional fortune of the
+ Adulated Clergyman (for it was he) was assured.</p>
+
+ <p>Shortly afterwards his biography appeared in a series
+ published in a weekly periodical under the title of
+ <i>Unconventional Clerics</i>, and he himself wrote a touching
+ letter on "The Plague Spots of Nova Zembla," in which an
+ eloquent appeal was made for subscriptions on behalf of the
+ inhabitants of that chill and neglected region. Ladies now
+ began to say to one another: "Have you heard Mr. So-and-So
+ preach? Really, not? Oh, you should. He's so wonderful, so
+ convincing, so unlike all others. You must come with me next
+ Sunday," and thus gradually he gathered round him in his remote
+ church a band of faithful women, drawn from the West End by the
+ fame of his unconventional eloquence. A not too fastidious
+ critic might, perhaps, have been startled by a note of
+ vulgarity in his references to sacred events, as well as by the
+ tone of easy and intimate familiarity with which he spoke of
+ those whose names are generally mentioned with bated breath,
+ and printed with capital letters; but the most refined women
+ seemed to find in all this an additional fascination. His
+ sermons dealt in language which was at the same time plain and
+ highly-coloured. He denounced his congregation roundly as the
+ meanest of sinners. To the women he was particularly merciless.
+ He tore to rags their little vesture of self-respect, shattered
+ their nerves with emotional appeals, harrowed all their
+ feelings, and belaboured them so violently with prophecies of
+ wrath, that they left church, after shedding gallons of tears
+ and emptying their expiatory purses into the
+ subscription-plate, in a state of pale but pious pulp. In the
+ drawing-rooms, however, to which he afterwards resorted, his
+ manner changed. His voice became soft; he poured oil into the
+ wounds he had inflicted. "How are you to-day?" he would say, in
+ his caressing way. "Is the neuralgia any better? And the
+ dulness of spirits? has meditation prevailed over it? Ah me! it
+ is the lot of the good to suffer, and silence, perhaps, were
+ best." Whereupon he is treated as a Father Confessor of
+ domestic troubles, and persuades young married women that their
+ husbands misunderstand them.</p>
+
+ <p>It is unnecessary to add that his subscription-lists
+ flourished, his bazaars prospered, his missions and retreats
+ overflowed with feminine money, and his Church was overloaded
+ with floral tributes. The brutal tribe of men, however, sneered
+ at him, and perversely suspected his motives; nor were they
+ reconciled to him when they saw him relieving the gloom of a
+ generally (so it was understood) ascetic existence by dining at
+ a smart restaurant with a galaxy of devoted women, whom he
+ proposed to conduct in person to a theatre. Such, then, is, or
+ was, the Adulated Clergyman. It is unnecessary to pursue his
+ career further. Perhaps he quarrelled with his Bishop, and
+ unfrocked himself; possibly he found himself in a Court of Law,
+ where an unsympathetic jury recorded a painful verdict against
+ him.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.</h3>
+
+ <p>My faithful "Co." says he has been reading the latest novel
+ by "JOHN STRANGE WYNTER," called, <i>The Other Man's Wife</i>,
+ as the French would observe, "without pleasure." As a rule he
+ rather enjoys the works of the Author of <i>Bootle's Baby</i>,
+ and other stories of a semi-ladylike semi-military character;
+ but the newest tale is one too many for him. The "man" is a
+ mixture of snob and cad,&mdash;say "a snad,"&mdash;the "other
+ man" a combination of coward and bully, the "wife" a worthy
+ mate to both of them. The plot shows traces of hasty
+ construction, otherwise it is difficult to account for the
+ "man's" intense astonishment at inheriting a title from his
+ cousin, and the farfetched clearing up of a sensational
+ West-End murder. My "Co." fancies that the peerage given to the
+ "man," and the <i>vendetta</i> of the Polish Countess, both
+ introduced rather late in Vol. II., must have been
+ after-thoughts. However, the end of the story is both novel and
+ entertaining. The feeble, fickle heroine is made to marry, as
+ her second husband, the man who (as an accessory after the
+ fact) has been the murderer of her first! And the best of the
+ joke is&mdash;she does not know it! My "Co." has also been much
+ amused by a brightly-written Novel, in one volume, called <i>A
+ Bride from the Bush</i>. Mr. E. W. HORNUNG evidently knows his
+ subject well, and has caught the exact tone, or rather nasal
+ twang of our <span class="pagenum"><a name="page197"
+ id="page197"></a>[pg 197]</span> Australian cousins. My
+ "Co." says that "the Bride" is a particularly pleasant young
+ person, thanks to her youth, good heart, and beauty.
+ However, it is questionable&mdash;taking her as a
+ sample&mdash;whether her "people" would "pan out" quite so
+ satisfactorily. On the whole it would seem that Australians
+ who have "made their pile" by buying and selling land are
+ better at a distance&mdash;say as Aborigines!</p>
+
+ <p>It is also the opinion of my faithful "Co." that the
+ Clarendon Press series of <i>Rulers of India</i>, has never
+ contained a better volume than the <i>Life of Mayo</i>, a work
+ recently contributed by the Editor, Sir WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER.
+ Admirably written, the book gives in the pleasantest form
+ imaginable, a most eventful chapter in the History of
+ Hindostan. But more, the pages have a pathetic personal
+ interest, as the subject of the memoir was for many years
+ misunderstood, and consequently, misrepresented. Even the
+ <i>London Charivari</i> was unfair to the great Earl, but as
+ Sir WILLIAM hastens to say, "at his death stood first in its
+ generous acknowledgment of his real dessert, as it had led the
+ dropping fire of raillery three years before." The author has,
+ by publishing this most welcome addition to a capitally edited
+ series, added yet another item to the long list of services he
+ has rendered to our Empire in the distant East.</p>
+
+ <p>Since Miss FLORENCE WARDEN'S <i>House on the Marsh</i>, says
+ the Baron, I have not read a more exciting tale than the same
+ authoress's <i>Pretty Miss Smith</i>. It should be swallowed
+ right off at a sitting, for if your interest in it is allowed
+ to cool during an interval, you may find it a little difficult
+ to get up the steam to the high-pressure point necessary for
+ the real enjoyment of a sensational story.</p>
+
+ <p class="author">THE BARON DE BOOK-WORMS.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>SILENT SHAKSPEARE.</h3>
+
+ <p>DEAR MR. EDITOR,</p>
+
+ <p>The great success that has attended the production of
+ <i>L'Enfant Prodigue</i> at the Prince of Wales's Theatre has
+ encouraged me to make a suggestion in the cause of English Art.
+ Why not SHAKSPEARE in dumb show? The Bard himself introduced it
+ in "The Play Scene." Allow me to suggest it thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ SCENE&mdash;<i>A more remote part of the Platform in
+ Elsinore Castle. Enter</i> GHOST; <i>then</i> HAMLET.
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p><i>Hamlet</i> (<i>in dumb show</i>). "Where wilt thou lead
+ me? Speak!" (<i>In dumb show.</i>) "I'll go no further."</p>
+
+ <p><i>Ghost, by kissing his hand towards the horizon, shows
+ that his hour is almost come, when he is bound to render
+ himself to sulphurous and tormenting flames. The latter part of
+ his description is composed of his shrinking about the stage,
+ as if suffering from intense heat.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Hamlet buries his face in his hands, and sobs pitifully,
+ expressing</i> "Alas, poor Ghost!"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Ghost repudiates compassion by turning up his nose, and
+ throwing forward his hands; and then, by pointing from his
+ mouth to his ear, demands</i> HAMLET'S <i>serious
+ attention.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Hamlet touches his own lips, points to</i> GHOST,
+ <i>slaps his heart, and bows, intimating that the</i> GHOST
+ <i>is to</i> "Speak!" <i>and he is</i> "bound to hear."</p>
+
+ <p><i>Ghost explains that he is his father's spirit by
+ stroking</i> HAMLET'S <i>face, and then his own, and then
+ shrinks about the stage to weird music, descriptive of his
+ prison-house. He concludes by appealing to</i> HAMLET'S <i>love
+ for him by pressing his clasped hands to his own heart, and
+ then pointing towards the left-hand side of his son.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Hamlet jerks his hands passionately upwards, as if
+ saying</i>, "Oh Heaven!"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Ghost then asks for revenge by touching his dagger, and
+ pointing towards the sky. He acts the murder in the garden,
+ showing the serpent who stung him by gliding about the stage on
+ his chest, like the boneless man. He shows his murderer to be
+ of his own blood by walking up and down as himself, and then in
+ the same way, but with a slight limp, as if he were his
+ brother.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Hamlet might here exhibit</i> "<i>Zadkiel's Almanack"
+ as</i> "prophetic," <i>and slap the sole of his shoe for</i>
+ "soul;" <i>for</i> "my Uncle" <i>it would be sufficient to
+ produce a pawnbroker's ticket</i>:&mdash;"Oh my prophetic soul!
+ Mine Uncle!"</p>
+
+ <p><i>Then the Ghost in great detail acts the murder in the
+ orchard, imitating the apples and the singing birds, the
+ setting sun, &amp;c., &amp;c. He shows the composition of the
+ poison after its plucking from a bush, and its arrival in the
+ laboratory. He represents the actual pouring of the poison in
+ his ear. He hints too (by suggesting the action of the
+ bell-ringer) that he was never really mourned, and concludes a
+ most spirited Ballet d'Action by a rapid sketch of the paling
+ of the ineffectual fires of the glow-worm. As he leaves to the
+ music of</i> "Then you'll Remember Me," HAMLET <i>imitates
+ cockcrow, which brings the entertainment to an appropriate
+ termination.</i></p>
+
+ <p>Surely this would be an improvement upon the conventional
+ reading? In this case where speech is silvern, silence would be
+ golden.</p>
+
+ <p>Trusting some Manager will take the matter up,</p>
+
+ <p class="center">I remain, always yours sincerely,</p>
+
+ <p class="author">A DUMB WAITER.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p><b>OPERATIC NOTES.</b></p>
+
+ <p><i>Monday.&mdash;Faust</i> and Foremost. Miss EAMES better
+ even than she was last week. NED DE RESZK&Eacute; not so
+ diabolical a <i>Mephistopheles</i> as M. MAUREL.</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>NEDDY RESZK&Eacute;</p>
+
+ <p>Not so goblineske,</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>and a stouter sort of demon, but of course a "<i>bon
+ diable</i>."</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:50%;">
+ <a href="images/197.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/197.png"
+ alt="Cards held by Druriolanus Operaticus." /></a>
+ Cards held by Druriolanus Operaticus.
+ </div>
+
+ <p><i>Wednesday.</i>&mdash;<i>Rom&eacute;o et Julietta.</i>
+ JACK and NED DE RESZK&Eacute; <i>Rom&eacute;o</i> and <i>The
+ Friar</i>. Why the waltz alone, which ought to be on every
+ organ besides Miss EAMES'S, but which, strange to say, isn't
+ thoroughly popular, should be enough to make an Opera; but it's
+ like the proportion of one swallow in the composition of a
+ summer, and, however well sung, it does not do everything. It's
+ a dull Opera.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Thursday.</i>&mdash;<i>Carmen</i> again. House not
+ immense. Persons "of note" chiefly on the stage. JULIA same as
+ before; therefore refer to previous notice. Cab and carriage
+ service after the theatres everywhere wants reforming
+ altogether. We may not be worse off than in any other capital
+ of Europe, but we ought to be far ahead of them.</p>
+
+ <p>Somebody or other complained of my writing "GL&Uuml;CK"
+ instead of "GLUCK," He didn't like the two dots; one too many
+ for the poor chap, already in his dotage, so to relieve him and
+ soothe him, I'll write it "GLUCK," and then he can go to the
+ proprietor of "DAVIDSON'S Libretto Books" and ask him to take
+ the dotlets off the "&Uuml;" in GL&Uuml;CK. I wonder if my
+ strongly-spectacle'd fault-finder writes the name of HANDEL
+ correctly? I dare say so correct a person never falls into any
+ sort of error; or if he does, never admits it. I like it done
+ down to dots, as "H&Auml;NDEL," myself; it looks so uncommonly
+ learned.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Saturday.</i>&mdash;<i>Tannh&auml;user.</i> Full and
+ appreciative house to welcome the <i>rentr&eacute;e</i> of
+ Madame ALBANI, who was simply perfection and the perfection of
+ simplicity as the self-sacrificing heroine <i>Elizabeth</i>.
+ From a certain Wagnerian-moral point of view, no better
+ impersonator,&mdash;dramatically at least, if not
+ operatically,&mdash;of the sensual Falstaffian Knight could be
+ found than Signer PEROTTI; and, from every point of view, no
+ finer representation of the Cyprian Venus than Mlle. SOFIA
+ RAVOGLI. M. MAUREL was admirable in every way as the moral
+ <i>Wolframo</i>, and Signor ABRAMOFF the gravest of Landgraves.
+ The full title of this Opera should be <i>Tannh&auml;user; or,
+ The Story of a Bard who sang a questionable kind of Song in the
+ highest Society, and what came of it.</i></p>
+
+ <p>Fine effect at end of First Act, when prancing steeds, with
+ secondhand park-hack saddles, at quite half-a-crown an hour,
+ are brought in, and, on a striking tableau of bold but
+ impecunious warriors refusing to mount, the Curtain
+ descends.</p>
+
+ <p>Then what pleasure to see <i>Albani-Elizabeth</i> receiving
+ the guests in Act II., varying the courtesies with an
+ affectionate embrace whenever a particular friend among the
+ ladies-of-the-court-chorus came in view. My LORD CHAMBERLAIN,
+ viewing the scene from his private box, must have picked up
+ many a hint for Court etiquette from studying this remarkable
+ scene. Then how familiar to us all is the arrangement of the
+ bards all in a row, like our old friends the Christy Minstrels,
+ <i>Tannh&auml;user</i> being the Tambourine, and <i>Wolfram</i>
+ the Bones! Charming. Great success. Repeat it by all means.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page198"
+ id="page198"></a>[pg 198]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/198.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/198.png"
+ alt="Chivalry at the breakfast-table." /></a>
+
+ <h3>CHIVALRY AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.</h3>"NOW, COOK, JUST
+ YOU LOOK HERE! LOOK AT THAT PIECE OF BACON I'VE JUST GIVEN
+ YOUR MISTRESS! IT'S THE THICKEST AND WORST CUT I EVER SAW
+ IN MY LIFE!&mdash;AND THIS PIECE I'M JUST GOING TO TAKE
+ MYSELF IS <i>ONLY A LITTLE BETTER!</i>"
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>"PLEASE GIVE ME A PENNY, SIR!"</h3>
+
+ <p class="center">A NEW SONG TO AN OLD TUNE.</p>
+
+ <p class="center"><i>Poor Income-Tax Payer,
+ loquitur</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Please give me a Penny, Sir!</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">My hope is almost dead;</p>
+
+ <p>You hold the swag in that black bag,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And high you lift your head.</p>
+
+ <p>Some years I have been asking this,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">But no one heeds my plea.</p>
+
+ <p>Will you not give me <i>something</i> then,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2"><i>This</i> year, good Mister G.?</p>
+
+ <p class="i6">Oh! please give me a Penny!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Please give me a Penny, Sir!</p>
+
+ <p class="i2"><i>You</i> won't say "no" to me,</p>
+
+ <p>Because I'm poor, and feel the pinch</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Of dreadful "Schedule D"!</p>
+
+ <p>You're so high-dried, and so correct,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">So honest and austere!</p>
+
+ <p>Remember the full "Tanner," Sir,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I've stumped up year by year,</p>
+
+ <p class="i6">And please give me a Penny!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Please give me a Penny, Sir!</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">My Income is but small,</p>
+
+ <p>And the hard Tax laid on our backs</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I <i>should</i> not pay at all.</p>
+
+ <p>But I'm too feeble to resist,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And do not like to lie;</p>
+
+ <p>And Sixpence, under Schedule D,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Torments me till I cry,</p>
+
+ <p class="i6">Do please give me a Penny, Sir!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Consols, or Dividends, or Rents</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Don't interest <i>me</i> much;</p>
+
+ <p>"Goschens," reduced or otherwise,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Are things <i>I</i> may not touch,</p>
+
+ <p>Two hundred pounds per year, all told,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Leaves little room for "exes;"</p>
+
+ <p>And 'tisn't only <i>public</i> men</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">That "lack of pence" much vexes.</p>
+
+ <p class="i6">So please give me a Penny, Sir!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The mysteries of High Finance</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I don't presume to plumb;</p>
+
+ <p>So year by year my back they shear,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Sure that they'll find <i>me</i>
+ dumb.</p>
+
+ <p>But the oft-trodden worm will turn;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">"Demand Notes" never slack;</p>
+
+ <p>And "Schedule D" fast at twice three,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Breaks the wage-earner's back.</p>
+
+ <p class="i6">So please give me a Penny, Sir!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The moneyed swells who make "returns,"</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Much at their own sweet will,</p>
+
+ <p>Don't gauge the poor clerk's scanty purse,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The small shopkeeper's till,</p>
+
+ <p>How hard 'tis to make both ends meet,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">When hard times tightly nip;</p>
+
+ <p>Or how small incomes sorely feel</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The annual sixpenny dip.</p>
+
+ <p class="i6">So please give me a Penny, Sir!</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Please give me a Penny, Sir!</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">'Tis heard on every side,</p>
+
+ <p>Muttered by poverty's pinched lip,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Silent so long&mdash;from pride.</p>
+
+ <p>Ah! listen to their pleadings, Sir,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And pity the true poor,</p>
+
+ <p>Whose life is one long fight to keep</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The wolf from the house-door.</p>
+
+ <p class="i6">Oh, please give me a Penny, Sir!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>"ROOSE IN URBE."&mdash;Dr. ROBSON ROOSE has returned to town
+ after a trip to Madeira.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h4>"SWEET STRIFE."</h4>
+
+ <p class="center"><i>By an Unionist M.P.</i></p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>When PARNELL's mocked by HEALY,</p>
+
+ <p>In strident voice and squealy;</p>
+
+ <p>When HEALY'S snubbed by PARNELL,</p>
+
+ <p>In voice as from the charnel&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>I understand the windy</p>
+
+ <p>Wild charm of WAGNER'S shindy.</p>
+
+ <p>Discord <i>may</i> be melodious,</p>
+
+ <p>When Harmony sounds odious;</p>
+
+ <p>Than <i>Israfel</i> more dear is</p>
+
+ <p>Old Erin's latest <i>Eris!</i></p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h4>THE <i>IN</i>-KERRECT KERR.</h4>
+
+ <p>IT was once said that Pianos may now be had on "MOORE and
+ MOORE" easy terms every day. Mrs. WALTER found that those "easy
+ terms" involved such pleasures as returning the instrument she
+ had paid many instalments on, getting an order from the
+ masterful Mr. Commissioner KERR to pay costs as well, and
+ committal to prison for three weeks on the charge of "contempt
+ of Court"&mdash;for disobeying an order which Justices SMITH
+ and GRANTHAM declare the genial Commissioner had no sort of
+ right to make!!!</p>
+
+ <p>If this is the "hire-purchase system," a piano-less life is
+ infinitely preferable to braving its manifold perils and
+ penalties. Easy terms, indeed? Yes,&mdash;about as "easy" as
+ "easy shaving" with a serrated oyster-knife! Mrs. WALTER'S fate
+ should be a warning to would-be piano-purchasers, and, <i>Mr.
+ Punch</i> would fain hope, to exacting System-workers and
+ arbitrary Commissioners.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page199"
+ id="page199"></a>[pg 199]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/199.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/199.png"
+ alt="Please give me a penny!" /></a>
+
+ <h2>"PLEASE GIVE ME A PENNY!"</h2>NEEDY INCOME-TAX PAYER
+ (loq.). "HOPE YOU WON'T FORGET ME <i>THIS TIME</i>, SIR!!"
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <!-- page 200 blank -->
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page201"
+ id="page201"></a>[pg 201]</span>
+
+ <h3>FOR BETTER OR WORSE!</h3>
+
+ <p class="center">(<i>Two Views of the Same Subject.</i>)</p>
+
+ <p class="center">POSSIBLE ROMANCE.</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ SCENE&mdash;<i>A Dungeon beneath the Castle Moat. Wife
+ chained to a post, with bread and water beside her. Enter
+ Husband, with cat-o'-nine-tails.</i>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p><i>Husband.</i> And now, after ten days' seclusion, will you
+ make over your entire property to me, signing the deed with
+ your life's blood?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Wife</i> (<i>in a feeble voice</i>). Never! You may kill
+ me, but I will defy you to the last!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Husband.</i> Then die!
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[<i>He is about to leave the
+ dungeon, when he is met by a Messenger from the Court of
+ Appeal.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Messenger.</i> In the name of the Law, release your
+ prisoner!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Husband.</i> Foiled!
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[<i>Joy of</i> Wife, <i>and
+ tableau, as the Curtain falls.</i></p>
+
+ <p class="center">PROBABLE REALITY.</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ SCENE&mdash;<i>The Church-door of a fashionable Church.
+ Wife bidding adieu to Husband.</i>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p><i>Husband.</i> Surely, now that my name and fortune are
+ yours, you will reconsider your decision, and at least
+ accompany me back to our wedding breakfast?</p>
+
+ <p><i>Wife</i> (<i>in a firm voice</i>). Never! You may kill
+ me, but I will defy you to the last!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Husband.</i> This is rank nonsense! You must take my arm.
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[<i>He is about to leave the
+ Church-porch, when he is met by a Messenger from the Court of
+ Appeal.</i></p>
+
+ <p><i>Messenger.</i> In the name of the Law, release your
+ prisoner!</p>
+
+ <p><i>Husband.</i> Sold!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[<i>Joy
+ of Wife, and tableau, as the Curtain falls.</i></p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p class="center">"WHAT'S IN A NAME?"</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The "Cony" is feeble, the Bear's a rough bore.</p>
+
+ <p>But CONYBEARE'S both, and perhaps a bit more!</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:60%;">
+ <a href="images/201a.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/201a.png"
+ alt="Smart new boy in cloak-room" /></a> SMART NEW BOY
+ IN CLOAK-ROOM HAS NOTED GENTLEMEN SHUTTING UP THEIR
+ CRUSH HATS, AND PROMPTLY FLATTENS DE JONES'S BEST SILK
+ TOPPER!
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:25%;">
+ <a href="images/201b.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/201b.png"
+ alt="The Other Man." /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <h3>THE OTHER MAN.</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>My health is good, I know no pain,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I am not married to a wife;</p>
+
+ <p>From all accounts I'm fairly sane,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And yet I'm sick to death of life.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The path that leads to wealth and fame</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Cannot be traversed in a day;</p>
+
+ <p>I find it twice as hard a game,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Because a spectre bars the way.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>It has no terrors such as his</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Away from which the children ran;</p>
+
+ <p>It's not the Bogey, but it <i>is</i></p>
+
+ <p class="i16">The Other Man.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I met a girl, she seemed to be</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A kind of vision from above.</p>
+
+ <p>She wasn't&mdash;but, alas! for me,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I weakly went and fell in love.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Her father was a <i>millionnaire</i>,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Which didn't make me love her less.</p>
+
+ <p>I thought her quite beyond compare,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And gave long odds she'd answer
+ "Yes."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>She thrilled me with each lovely look</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">She gave me from behind her fan,</p>
+
+ <p>She took my heart, and then she took&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i16">The Other Man.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Farewell to Love! I thought I'd try</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">My level best to get a post;</p>
+
+ <p>The salary was not too high,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Two hundred pounds a-year at most.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Committeemen in conclave sat,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Their questions all were cut and
+ dried:</p>
+
+ <p>Oh, was I this? And did I that?</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And twenty thousand things
+ beside&mdash;</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>As did I smoke? and could I play</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">At golf? or did I get the gout?</p>
+
+ <p>And&mdash;most important&mdash;could I say</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">My mother knew that I was out?</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Then two were chosen. Should I "do"?</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Perhaps!&mdash;and, just as I began</p>
+
+ <p>To hope, of course they gave it to</p>
+
+ <p class="i16">The Other Man.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>All uselessly I've learnt to swear</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And use expressions that are vile;</p>
+
+ <p>In vain, in vain I've torn my hair</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">In quite the most artistic style.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Yet one thing would I gladly learn&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Yes, tell me quickly, if you
+ can&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Shall I be also, in my turn,</p>
+
+ <p class="i16">The Other Man?</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h4>THE KEY TO A LOCK.</h4>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ ["A lock of &mdash;&mdash;'s hair, set in a small
+ gold-rimmed case, and said to be an ancient family
+ possession, was knocked down for forty pounds."]
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Take yonder lock of tangled hair,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A silver seamed with sable,</p>
+
+ <p>Dim harbinger from dreamland fair</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Of reverie and fable;</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Yes, grandson mine, the treasure take,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A trinket loved, if little,</p>
+
+ <p>And wear it, darling, for my sake,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">In yonder locket brittle;</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Small, as my banker's balance, small</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And faint&mdash;a touching token;</p>
+
+ <p>My luck, the lock, the locket, all</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Seem, child, a trifle broken.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Investments, boy, are looking glum;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">They flit and fade; in fine a</p>
+
+ <p>Not inconsiderable sum</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Has gone to&mdash;Argentina.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Nay, chide me not; one day, refilled</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">By these, may shine your pocket,</p>
+
+ <p>And Fortune's resurrection gild</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The lock within the locket.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Because, you see, when strong and sage</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">You grow, and all the serried</p>
+
+ <p>Lights of the great Victorian age</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">With me are quenched and buried;</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>When other men in other days</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Walk paramount&mdash;then shall you</p>
+
+ <p>Submit the thing to such as praise</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The Past, its relics value.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The curl was worn, you'll tell your friends,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">By TENNYSON or BROWNING</p>
+
+ <p>(The detail of the name depends</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">On who is worth renowning).</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>You'll vaunt that one who knew the grand</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Victorian Stars, and rather</p>
+
+ <p>Deserved himself to join the band</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">(In fact your father's father),</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Who, past expression, loved whate'er</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The market cottons <i>then</i> to,</p>
+
+ <p>Committed to your childish care</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">This genuine memento.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>You'll catalogue it, as befalls</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Your choice, my little gran'son;</p>
+
+ <p>You'll bear it to the deathless halls</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Of CHRISTIE, WOODS, AND MANSON.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>So, when the fateful hammer sounds,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And you have cashed in rhino</p>
+
+ <p>A cheque for, haply, forty pounds,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">You'll bless your grandsire, I know;</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Who, while his fortunes failed, and much</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Was life's horizon o'ercast,</p>
+
+ <p><i>Created</i> souvenirs with such</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A keen, commercial forecast.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page202"
+ id="page202"></a>[pg 202]</span>
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:100%;">
+ <a href="images/202.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/202.png"
+ alt="Sir William Variety Harcourt." /></a>
+
+ <h3>ALL-ROUND POLITICIANS&mdash;SIR WILLIAM VARIETY
+ HARCOURT.</h3>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page203"
+ id="page203"></a>[pg 203]</span>
+
+ <h3>BACCHUS OUTWITTED; OR, THE TRIUMPH OF SOBRIETY.</h3>
+
+ <p class="center">(<i>Fragment from a Romance founded upon
+ evidence given before the Select Committee upon
+ Dram-drinking.</i>)</p>
+
+ <p>"I really think the experiment should be made," said the
+ Professor. "Our knowledge on the subject is so imperfect, that
+ nothing definite can be accurately pronounced."</p>
+
+ <p>"True enough," replied one of his friends; "but although the
+ end to be attained is excellent, may not the means be termed by
+ the scrupulous 'questionable?'"</p>
+
+ <p>"By the over-scrupulous, perhaps," returned the Professor,
+ with a smile.</p>
+
+ <p>"And the expense," observed a second of his intimates, "will
+ be no small consideration. If we put the matter to a thorough
+ test, a large quantity&mdash;a very large quantity of the
+ necessary liquid will have to be purchased and disposed of. Am
+ I not right in hazarding this supposition?"</p>
+
+ <p>"Undoubtedly," responded the Professor, "and the cost will
+ be enhanced by the fact that the necessary liquids will have to
+ be of the best possible quality. As Dr. PAVEY observed before
+ the Committee 'It is not the alcohol in itself that is
+ injurious, but the by-products.' Our aim must be to eliminate
+ the by-products."</p>
+
+ <p>"I think the idea first-rate," said the third friend; and
+ then he paused and added, seemingly as an after-thought, "Pass
+ the bottle."</p>
+
+ <p>So the Professor and his three companions decided to make
+ the investigation in the cause of scientific research. It was
+ resolved that after a week they should meet again, and that in
+ the meanwhile they should in their own persons carry on the
+ experiment continuously. When this had been arranged the
+ friends parted company.</p>
+
+ <p>At the appointed time the contemplated gathering became a
+ concrete fact. The Professor's friends were the first to appear
+ at the rendezvous. They were unsteady as to their gait, their
+ neckties were in disorder and their hair falling carelessly
+ over their eyes, added a fresh impediment to an eyesight that
+ seemingly was temporarily defective. They sank into three
+ chairs regarding one another with a smile that gradually
+ resolved itself into a frown. Then they filled up the pause
+ caused by the non-appearance of the Professor by weeping
+ silently. Their emotion was not of long duration, as the
+ originator of the experiment was soon in their midst. He seemed
+ to be in excellent health and spirits.</p>
+
+ <p>"My dear friend," he said, and it was noticeable that he was
+ prone to clip his words, and to use the singular, in lieu of
+ the plural, when the latter would have been more conventional,
+ "My dear friend, glad see you all. Hope you well."</p>
+
+ <p>His comrades received the well-meant greeting with a
+ resentful frown, which ended in further weeping.</p>
+
+ <p>"This very painful," continued the Professor, resting his
+ hand somewhat heavily on the back of a chair; "very painful
+ indeed! Fact is, you been taking wrong things!"</p>
+
+ <p>His friends sorrowfully shook their heads negatively.</p>
+
+ <p>"Yes you have! Sure of it! You, Sir&mdash;imbibed whiskey!
+ No harm in good whiskey&mdash;excellent thing, good whiskey!
+ But injuriverius&mdash;should say, injurious&mdash;if has too
+ much flavour of malt! Your whiskey too much flavour of malt!
+ You took brandy&mdash;bad brandy&mdash;too much taste of
+ grapes! You took rum&mdash;bad rum&mdash;too much
+ mo&mdash;mo&mdash;molasses! Now I took all three&mdash;whiskey,
+ brandy, rum, but pure&mdash;no by-products. No, not at all.
+ Result! See! Sober as judge!"</p>
+
+ <p>And, succumbing to a sudden desire for slumber, the
+ Professor, at this point of his discourse, joined his friends
+ under the table!</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figcenter"
+ style="width:50%;">
+ <a href="images/203.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/203.png"
+ alt="Cycling Notes." /></a>
+
+ <h4>CYCLING NOTES.</h4>
+
+ <p><i>He.</i> "DO YOU BELONG TO THE PSYCHICAL SOCIETY?"</p>
+
+ <p><i>She.</i> "NO; BUT I SOMETIMES GO OUT ON MY BROTHER'S
+ MACHINE!"</p>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h4>LEAVES FROM A CANDIDATE'S DIARY.</h4>
+
+ <p><i>March 20. "George Hotel," Billsbury.</i>&mdash;Arrived
+ here yesterday afternoon. Mother made up her mind to come with
+ me, being very anxious, she said, to hear one of my splendid
+ speeches. She brought luggage enough to last for a week, and
+ insisted on taking her poodle <i>Carlo</i>, who was an awful
+ nuisance, in the train. He growled horribly at old TOLLAND and
+ BLISSOP when they came to see me at the Hotel before dinner.
+ Very awkward. TOLLAND wanted to put before me the state of the
+ case with regard to registration expenses. The upshot was that
+ the Candidate is expected to subscribe &pound;80 a year to the
+ Association for this purpose, which I eventually agreed to do.
+ Found fourteen letters waiting for me. No. 1 was from Miss
+ POSER, the Secretary of the Billsbury Women's Suffrage League,
+ asking me to receive a small deputation on the question, and to
+ lay my views before them. No. 2 from the Anti-Vaccination
+ League, stating that a deputation had been appointed to meet
+ me, in order to learn my views, and requesting me to fix a
+ date. No. 3 and No. 4, from two local lodges of Oddfellows,
+ each declaring it to be of the highest importance that I should
+ become an Oddfellow and proposing dates for my initiation. Nos.
+ 5, 6 and 7 were from Secretaries of funds for the restoration
+ or building of Churches and Chapels, appealing for
+ subscriptions. Nos. 8, 9, and 10, from three more local Cricket
+ Clubs, who have elected me an Honorary Member, and want
+ subscriptions. No. 11 from a Children's Meat Tea Fund. No. 12
+ asked me to subscribe to a Bazaar, and to attend its opening in
+ June. No. 13, from the local Fire Brigade, and No. 14 from the
+ Secretary of the Local Society for improving the Breed of
+ Bullfinches, recommending this "national object" to my
+ favourable notice. Shall have to keep a Secretary, likewise a
+ book of accounts. Where is it all going to end?</p>
+
+ <p>The Mass Meeting went off well enough. The Assembly Rooms
+ were crammed. (The <i>Meteor</i> says, with its usual accuracy
+ and <i>good taste</i>, "The attendance was small, the
+ proceedings were dull. A wonderful amount of stale Jingoism was
+ afterwards swept up by the caretakers from the floor. Our
+ Conservative friends are so wasteful.") I was adopted as
+ Candidate almost unanimously, only ten hands being held up
+ against me. One or two questions were asked&mdash;one about
+ local option, which rather stumped me&mdash;but I managed to
+ express great sympathy with the Temperance party without, I
+ hope, offending publicans.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Carlo</i> somehow or other got out of the hotel and
+ followed us to the meeting without being noticed. Poodles are
+ all as cunning as Old Nick. He lay quite low in some corner or
+ other, until Colonel CHORKLE was in the middle of a tremendous
+ appeal to "the stainless banner which 'as so often been borne
+ to triumph by Billsbury's embattled chivalry." The Colonel
+ thumped on the table very hard, and <i>Carlo</i>, I suppose,
+ had his eye on him and thought he was going to thump me. At any
+ rate he sprang out and dashed at the Colonel, barking
+ furiously. I had to seize him and take him outside. The Colonel
+ turned quite pale. <i>The Meteor</i> says: "The war-like ardour
+ which burns in the breast of Colonel CHORKLE was well-nigh
+ extinguished by an intelligent dog, whose interruptions
+ provoked immense applause." I had to apologise profusely to the
+ Colonel afterwards. Mrs. CHORKLE looked daggers at me. Mother
+ was delighted with the meeting. She has written about it to
+ Aunt AMELIA.</p>
+ <hr />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a name="page204"
+ id="page204"></a>[pg 204]</span>
+
+ <h3>ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.</h3>
+
+ <h4>EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF TOBY, M.P.</h4>
+
+ <p><i>House of Commons, Monday Night, April 13.</i>&mdash;So
+ long since Lord STALBRIDGE parted company from RICHARD
+ GROSVENOR that he forgets manners and customs of House of
+ Commons. Not being satisfied with choice made by Committee of
+ Selection of certain Members on Committee dealing with Railway
+ Rates and Charges, STALBRIDGE writes peremptory letter to
+ Chairman, giving him severe wigging; correspondence gets into
+ newspapers; House of Commons, naturally enough, very angry. Not
+ going to stand this sort of thing from a mere Peer, even though
+ he be Chairman of North-Western Railway. Talk of making it case
+ of privilege. Sort of thing expected to be taken up from Front
+ Bench, or by WHITBREAD, or some other Member of standing.
+ Somehow, whilst thing being thought over and talked about,
+ SEXTON undertakes to see it through. As soon as questions over
+ tonight, rises from below Gangway, and in his comically
+ impressive manner, announces intention of putting certain
+ questions to JOHN MOWBRAY, Chairman of Committee of Selection.
+ Ordinary man would have put his questions and sat down. But
+ this a great occasion for SEXTON. Domestic difficulties in
+ Irish Party kept him away from Westminster for many weeks. No
+ opportunity for Windbag to come into action; now is the time,
+ as champion of privileges of House of Commons. Position one of
+ some difficulty. Not intending to conclude with a Motion, he
+ would be out of order in making a speech. Could only ask
+ question. Question couldn't possibly extend over two minutes;
+ two minutes, nothing: with the Windbag full, bursting after
+ compulsory quiescence since Parliament opened.</p>
+
+ <p>SEXTON managed admirably; kept one eye on SPEAKER, who from
+ time to time moved uneasily in chair. Whenever he looked like
+ going to interrupt, SEXTON lapsed into interrogatory, which put
+ him in order; then went on again, patronising JOHN MOWBRAY,
+ posing as champion of privileges of House, and so thoroughly
+ enjoying himself, that only a particularly cantankerous person
+ could have complained. Still, it was a little long. "This isn't
+ SEXTON'S funeral, is it?" HARCOURT asked, in loud whisper.</p>
+
+ <div class="figleft"
+ style="width:28%;">
+ <a href="images/204a.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/204a.png"
+ alt="A Cameron Man." /></a> A Cameron Man.
+ </div>
+
+ <p>"No," said CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN; "it was meant to be
+ STALBRIDGE'S; but I fancy SEXTON will save him from full
+ inconvenience of the ceremony."</p>
+
+ <p>So it turned out; House tired of business long before
+ Windbag SEXTON had blown himself out. Poor JOHN MOWBRAY
+ admittedly flabber-ghasted by the interminable string of
+ questions under which SEXTON had tried to disguise his speech.
+ STALBRIDGE got off without direct censure, and DONALD CAMERON
+ abruptly turned the conversation in the direction of Opium.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Business done.</i>&mdash;In Committee on Irish Land
+ Bill.</p>
+
+ <p><i>House of Lords, Tuesday.</i>&mdash;Lords met to-night
+ after Easter Recess; come together with a feeling that since
+ last they met a gap been made in their ranks that can never be
+ filled. The gentle GRANVILLE'S seat is occupied by another.
+ Never more will the Peers look upon his kindly face, or hear
+ his lisping voice uttering bright thoughts in exquisite
+ phrase.</p>
+
+ <p>KIMBERLEY sits where he was wont to lounge. K. a good safe
+ man; one of the rare kind whose reputation stands highest with
+ the innermost circle of those who work and live with him. To
+ the outside world, the man in the street, KIMBERLEY is an
+ expression; some not quite sure whether he isn't a territory in
+ South Africa. Known in the Lords, of course; listened to with
+ respect, much as HALLAM'S <i>Constitutional History of
+ England</i> is occasionally read. But when tonight he rises
+ from GRANVILLE'S seat and makes a speech that, with
+ readjustment of circumstance, GRANVILLE himself would have
+ made, an assembly not emotional feels with keen pang how much
+ it has lost.</p>
+
+ <p>The MARKISS should be here. Perhaps for himself it is as
+ well he's away. To him, more than anyone else in the House, the
+ newly filled space on the Bench opposite is of direful import.
+ _The MARKISS has no peer now GRANVILLE is gone; the two were in
+ all characteristics and mental attitudes absolutely opposed,
+ and yet, like oil and vinegar, the mixing perfected the salad
+ of debate. The lumbering figure of the black-visaged Marquis at
+ one side of the table talking at large to the House, but with
+ his eye fixed on GRANVILLE; at the other, the dapper figure,
+ with its indescribable air of old-fashioned gentlemanhood, the
+ light of his smile shed impartially on the benches opposite,
+ but his slight bow reserved for the MARKISS, as, leaning across
+ the table, he pinked him under the fifth rib with glittering
+ rapier&mdash;this is a sight that will never more gladden the
+ eye in the House of Lords. GRANVILLE was the complement of the
+ MARKISS; the MARKISS was to GRANVILLE an incentive to his
+ bitter-sweetness. Never again will they meet to touch shield
+ with lance across the table in the Lords. LYCIDAS is dead, not
+ ere his prime, it is true;</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone,</p>
+
+ <p>Now thou art gone, and never must return!"</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>It seemed in stumbling inadequate phrase that CRANBROOK,
+ KIMBERLEY, DERBY, and SELBORNE strummed their lament. But,
+ speaking from different points of view, without pre-concert,
+ they struck the same chord in recognising the ever unruffled
+ gentleness of the nature of LYCIDAS&mdash;a gentleness not born
+ of weakness, a sweetness of disposition that did not
+ unwholesomely cloy. Only Mr. G. could have fitly spoken the
+ eulogy of GRANVILLE. After him, the task belonged to the
+ MARKISS, and it was a pity that circumstances prevented his
+ undertaking it. <i>Business done</i>,&mdash;Irish Land Bill in
+ Commons.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Wednesday.</i>&mdash;Brer FOX turned up today,
+ unexpectedly. So did MAURICE HEALY, even more unexpectedly.
+ Irish Sunday Closing Bill under discussion. Great bulk of Irish
+ Members in favour of it. First note of discord introduced by
+ Windbag SEXTON. Belfast Publicans, who find their business
+ threatened, insist that he shall oppose the Bill; does so
+ accordingly, separating himself from his party. Brer FOX
+ quickly seized the opportunity; he, too, on he side of the
+ Publicans, who hold the purse, and, money (like some of their
+ customers) is tight. So PARNELL lavishly compliments Windbag
+ SEXTON on his "large and patriotic view"; hisses out his scorn
+ for the Liberal Party; declares that Ireland abhors the
+ measure, which he calls a New Coercion Bill.</p>
+
+ <div class="figright"
+ style="width:20%;">
+ <a href="images/204b.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/204b.png"
+ alt="The mildest-mannered Man." /></a> "The
+ mildest-mannered Man."
+ </div>
+
+ <p>Then, from bench below him, uprises a bent, slight figure,
+ looking less like a man of war than most things. A low, quiet
+ voice, sounds clearly through the House, and Mr. MAURICE HEALY
+ is discovered denying Brer FOX'S right to speak on this or any
+ other public question for the constituency of Cork.</p>
+
+ <p>"If he has any doubt on this subject," the mild-looking
+ young man continued, "let him keep the promise he made to me
+ about contesting the seat."</p>
+
+ <p>That was all; only two sentences; but the thundering cheers
+ that rang through House told how they had gone home.</p>
+
+ <p><i>Business done.</i>&mdash;Irish Sunday Closing Bill read
+ Second Time.</p>
+
+ <div class="figleft"
+ style="width:15%;">
+ <a href="images/204c.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/204c.png"
+ alt="Grandolph" /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p><i>Friday.</i>&mdash;GRANDOLPH looked in for few minutes
+ before dinner. A little difficulty with doorkeeper. So
+ disguised under beard, that failed to recognise him; thought he
+ was a stranger, bound for the Gallery. But when GRANDOLPH
+ turned, and glared on him, saw his mistake as in a flash of
+ lightning.</p>
+
+ <p>"Same eyes, anyhow," said Mr. JARRATT, getting back to the
+ safety of his chair with alacrity.</p>
+
+ <p>GRANDOLPH sat awhile in corner seat, stroking his beard, to
+ the manifest chagrin of his jilted moustache.</p>
+
+ <p>"Awfully dull," he said. "Glad I'm off to other climes;
+ don't know whether I shall come back at all. If Mashonaland
+ wants a King, and insists upon my accepting the Crown, not sure
+ I shall refuse."</p>
+
+ <p>"GRANDOLPH seems hipped," said WARING, watching him as he
+ swung through the Lobby. "It's the beard. Never been the same
+ man since he grew it.</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p class="i16">"There was a Young Man with a beard,</p>
+
+ <p class="i16">Who said, 'It is just as I feared!</p>
+
+ <p class="i16">Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a
+ Wren,</p>
+
+ <p class="i16">Have all built their nests in my
+ beard.'"</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p><i>Business done.</i>&mdash;Committee on Irish Land Bill
+ Dropping into Poetry, again.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <div class="figleft"
+ style="margin-bottom:8em">
+ <img src="images/pointer.png"
+ alt="pointer" />
+ </div>
+
+ <p style="text-indent:-1em"><b>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.</b></p><br clear="all" />
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14277 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/14277-h/images/193.png b/14277-h/images/193.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b29d619
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/193.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/194.png b/14277-h/images/194.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..490404b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/194.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/195.png b/14277-h/images/195.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3a37225
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/195.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/196.png b/14277-h/images/196.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..972c4e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/196.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/197.png b/14277-h/images/197.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b58a3bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/197.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/198.png b/14277-h/images/198.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49f19be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/198.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/199.png b/14277-h/images/199.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..79ca6b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/199.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/201a.png b/14277-h/images/201a.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f126a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/201a.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/201b.png b/14277-h/images/201b.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..79b2fb0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/201b.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/202.png b/14277-h/images/202.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..563f121
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/202.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/203.png b/14277-h/images/203.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..97da225
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/203.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/204a.png b/14277-h/images/204a.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a277914
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/204a.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/204b.png b/14277-h/images/204b.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b5be302
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/204b.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/204c.png b/14277-h/images/204c.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8946f38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/204c.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/14277-h/images/pointer.png b/14277-h/images/pointer.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a7b795
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14277-h/images/pointer.png
Binary files differ