PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
Volume 93, October 8, 1887.
edited by Sir Francis Burnand

OUR AMERICAN COUSIN AGAIN TO THE FRONT.

THE BATTLE OF THE WAY.

A Lay of Lake-land.

"Now, Lake-men, claim your right of way, and see the business done,

Come with your crowbar, spade, and pick;—and sure the battle's won,

For bolts and bars show Spedding's race that you don't care a fig,

And prove that right's no match for might when rallied round Latrigg."

So shouted Routh-Fitzpatrick, and Lake-men with a cheer,

To Fawe Park Gates from Keswick's peaceful slopes were drawing near,

When high upon the topmost wall as if to break the spell,

There uprose the Solicitor of Mrs. Spencer Bell.

He spoke and as his voice he raised his arms he waved around,

"Beware," he cried, "what you're about, for this is private ground.

With sundry pains and penalties you'll surely be repaid,

Who dare to-day set hand to move this lawful barricade!"

But Routh-Fitzpatrick heeded not his protest, nor replied;

So Mrs. Bell's Solicitor, he promptly stood aside,

And watched the next proceedings with a disapproving frown,

For up went crow-bar, pick, and axe, and gate and bar went down.

Yes, 'neath the sturdy Lake-men's blows the barriers gave way,

And lo! in rushed the joyous thronging crowd without delay;

And some on foot, and some in drags, and some in waggons stowed,

Held on their way triumphantly down the disputed road.

So onward towards Silver Hill advanced the active host,

And cleared each wire fence away, and levelled every post;

And when with crowbar, pick, and axe, they'd made their purpose plain,

To Nichol Ending they returned in triumph once again.

Then Secretary Jenkinson uprose and spoke a word,

And said how by the sights that day his manly breast was stirred,

And how that, if on Saturday as they had now begun

They held their own, they might regard the fight already won.

And then a telegram from Mr. Plimsoll he read out,

The which the Lake-men greeted with a hearty answering shout;

And Mrs. Bell's Solicitor retired from the field,

But with an ugly look that seemed to say, "We'll never yield!"

And so commenced the fray that day, and though we know, of course,

As everybody tells us, there's no remedy in force,

Still, if the Lake-men's pick and axe this matter sets at rest,

We must admit how ills to cure at Keswick they know best.

But which side wins or loses in the still impending fight,

Whether force of public freedom, or trick of legal right,

The eager world on-looking may have watched a deadlier fray,

But none more keen in contest than the Battle of the Way!

Parnellite Proverb (applied to the Baleful Balfour).—Give him an inch (of law) and he'll take a (National) League.

THE MORNING'S REFLECTIONS.

Scene—Breakfast-table of an Illustrious Statesman of stalwart proportions and "Gladstonian" politics. Illustrious Statesman discovered, admiringly perusing three closely-printed columns of leading Morning Paper.

I. S. (soliloquising). Hah! Really reads very well, very well indeed. Points neatly put, hits smartly delivered! They shan't call me the "Champion Slugger" for nothing. American pugilist, named Sullivan, original bearer of that honorific title, I believe. Should like to see Sullivan. A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous—curious. Not kind, always, or Joseph and William—but no matter.

Hm—m—m! Hm—m—m—m! Excellent! Sparklers calculated to illuminate Lewes, startle Sussex, electrify thecountry. Slugging and sparkling my specialities. One or two decent speakers about; "our distinguished leader" can—distinguish, at great length and with considerable verbosi—I mean eloquence. Randolph can rattle, and Morley can pound, and Rosebery twitter pleasantly. But they can't coruscate and crush. The power of the bolt, which at once shines and smashes, is Jovian—not Rhodian, as Dizzy once nastily suggested. "My thunder," and I'm proud of it.

By the way, wonder what the other "Thunderer" thinks of it. Touches a tender chord, the chord of memory. Lost chord now, indeed. But no matter, let's see.

[Turns paper.

Hm—m—m! Hm—m—m—m! Hah! Too bad! "His bludgeon, or—considering his present connection—may we say his shillelagh?" Tut-tut! The Cloud-Compeller as a bludgeon-man, the Titan-queller flourishing a blackthorn like a tenth-rate Theseus, a Hibernian Hercules! Absurd! No sense of keeping whatever. "Swashbuckler," too! Nasty, and not even new!

As to "beating the big drum in Sussex"—why, how often have I done it—to their delight—in their own pages! "Travesty of contemporary history"—this to their own omniscient Historicus!

Shows the "Champion Slugger" has struck home, though. Your hard-hitter—your fellow who smites, as the appreciative rustic (Sussex man, I wonder?) put it, "blooming hard, blooming high, and blooming often," generally scores—even in the cricket-field. I am the Bonnor of debate, the Thornton of the platform. And doesn't the "Ring" like it?

Knocked holes in the "Jubilee Session," I fancy, "Ignorant people who mistake the flush of fever for the bloom of health, the torpor of apoplexy for the tranquillity of sleep," think that blazing Balfour and stertorous Smith are never "a penny the worse" for my repeated poundings. Pooh! "Salted with fire"—my fire—they—not being of the indomitable race of Dizzy—will not "undecaying live" much longer. I prophesy—but no, prophecy, private prophecy at least, is not profitable. Don't suppose a Delphic priest, or even a Derby tipster ever wasted time in prophesying to himself!

Still—still, if Champion "slugging" combined with coruscation does lead to Leadership—as why should it not?—I fancy I know some one who will have what the sporting patterers call, I think, "a look in" one of these days. Parochial shrewdness is all very well, so is philosophical precision combined with Puritan fervour. But the "swashing blow" strikes home, and if the Unionist bucklers are beaten down thereby, let who likes cry "swashbuckler!" As to "shillelaghs"—why is not "blackthorns to the front!" the order of the hour?

[Left smiling.

In Troubled Waters.—Mr. Chamberlain is being praised in some quarters for saying that we should leave Irish affairs, and "attend to our own business." The inference seems to be that "Irish affairs" are not "our business." Is not Ireland as much a part of the United Kingdom as England, Scotland, or Wales? We shall be glad of a line from Mr. Chamberlain—when he gets to his Fisheries.

GOLD AND STEEL: OR, SOMETHING LIKE A "SCIENTIFIC FRONTIER."

The Nizam of Hyderabad (to Britannia). "Here, Madam, is an earnest of my good-will—and my Sword is ready when wanted."

Mr. Punch, as Britannia's Chief Spokesman and First Plenipotentiary, replies to the Nizam of Hyderabad, First of India's Mahommedan Princes:—

Thanks, great descendant of Ghazee-ood-Deen!

A gracious gift! It well may move the spleen

Of England's enemies—and yours. The Bear

Will stir, and growl in his chill Northern lair

To see the Indian Tiger arm-in-arm

With England's Lion, linked by the strong charm

Of mutual confidence and common aim.

A generous friendship, Prince, is our best game.

Not loyalty alone approves your gift,

But wise self-interest, and sagacious thrift.

Sage Salar Jung would cordially approve

The liberal impulse, the far-sighted move.

Punchius, my Prince, is far too great to gush,

And fulsome flattery wakens manhood's blush.

England's true honour England's hand must hold;

Steel for defence, and for equipment gold

'Tis hers to furnish; when that hand shall fail,

Auxiliar sword or purse will nought avail

To prop her sway, or 'stablish shaken power,

Not though she had the more than Danaë dower

Of all "the wealth of Ormuz and of Ind."

Fear must not shake and softness must not blind

The man, the people, who would lead and light

Progress's Army in the World's great fight.

Each nation finds, when Fate its courage tests,

Its last, best frontier is its soldiers' breasts.

War's sinews, though, wise captains won't contemn,

Loyalty, liberal aid,—who laughs at them

Is churl and goose at once. All England's ranks

Will hail your generous gift with cordial thanks,

Nizam-ool-Moolk! Our Dufferin has Wit,

Trust him to make the wisest use of it;

Or failing that—which doubtless will not fail—

Trust Punch to throw his bâton in the scale,

Whose wood, in hands like his, as skilled as bold,

Ofttimes outweighs the worth of steel and gold.

Nizam, that North-West Frontier, Punch's eye

Shall watch henceforth with sharpest scrutiny.

The lakhs not lacking, should swift wisdom lack,

That bâton will descend with thundering thwack

On dolts who dull delay shall cause or suffer;—

But there, our Dufferin is not a duffer.

Red-tape itself would hardly be so mad

As to misread the moral Hyderabad

Reads to Calcutta in this princely proffer.

Punch—for his Queen—acknowledges the offer

Of him who brings, a tribute free as leal,

Gold for her peace, and for her war-time steel.

ROBERT AT LILLIE BRIDGE.

Well, it does seem rayther rum, I confess, but it's nevertheless true, that hardly nothink of a singlar and xtraordinary charackter seems to appen in London that I don't seem to be present. In these dredful dull days, when there ain't not no great dinners a going on, no not hardly one Livery Company a dining in their Alls of dazzling light, and the Lord Mare hisself a injoying of his olliday at Pangburn, what is a pore Hed Waiter to do to wile away a idle hour or 2; so hearing as two of the seven Champions of England was about to run a race of ever so many hundred yards in just a few seconds, at Lilly Bridge, me and Brown went there on that now sillybrated Monday, and saw sich a rewolutionary riot as would have done justice to old Ireland itself. Determined to be in good time, we went early, and took up our plaices, and patiently waited. At about 5 o'clock pea. hem. the two galliant Champions walked on the ground, and took a good look at it. I didn't think werry much of their pussonal aperance, and shouldn't a thort as they was Champions if I hadn't bin told, and one was a good deal older than the other one, which didn't seem quite fare to me. However, I didn't interfere, as it wasn't no bizziness of mine, and the two running Champions walked in to dress, or rather praps I should say, to undress for the race. Harf past 5 came, and no Champions, and 6 o'clock struck and no Champions, and we began to get jest a little fidgetty; at a quarter-past 6 a wild roomer spread around that we was all a going to be sold!

There was about a hundred thowsand on us, more or less, a waiting patiently and quietly for a sight that thousands had cum hundreds of miles for to see, and we was told as how as the two galliant Champions had had a jolly row jest as they was a undressing, and then both on em dressed themselves again, and set off at their werry best speed, in quite different and rong directions, and never cum back! At this howdacious swindle our true British pluck begun for to arise, and we all with one acord began to shout tout, "Give us back our Money!" As they didn't do it, we all made a rush to the Pay Places, jest to help ourselves to our several shillings, but the cowardly money-takers had bolted with our money!

Then we Great Britains, feeling as we had been hartfully swindled, rose up in our mighty wroth and wowed wengeance! And wengeance we took! Some of the leading sperits among us who had come hundreds of miles to see the Recorder beaten, tho why they wanted to beat him I coudn't at all understand, shouted out "We'll have sum-think for our money afore we gos back," and quite right too, if they'd ha' stopped at the beer and lemonade, and the spunge cakes, at which the first rush was made, but when it came to destruction and fire and rebellyon, me and Brown withdrawed our countenances from the hole thing and remembered our duty to our Queen and Country, and seeing as the blue Gardiens of the Peeple was rayther hard pressed by the raging and angry Mob, we got two of our friends, as was there, to jine us, and then them, and me, and Brown, thinking as perhaps a reserve force might be wanted, and out of respect to the great Country that begot us, and bread us, and eddicated us, we stood a long ways off and formed ourselves into a reserve Corpse accordingly, and from there we surweyed all the wild and wicked proceedings in peace and quietness, and, strange to say, wasn't wanted after all!

Ah, if a few more of the few respectable-looking gents as was there had imitated our bold xample, things might have ended werry different to what they begun, but so it is, the mere mob is jest as easily led away to do rong as to do rite, it's only the few who has the moral curridge to judge for theirselves as can stand apart on the roof of a publichouse, and look down with pitty and contemp on what is quite beneath 'em.

As I stood a moralising from my exhalted persition, with a glass of werry nice hot rum and water to keep up my sperrits and keep out the cold, I coudn't help thinking wot a werry wunderfull chap is the Brittish Publick when he hasn't noboddy to guide him. In this werry partickler case, becoz sumbody had bin and robbed 'em all of a shilling a peace, they sets to work, and not only gobbles up all poor Mrs. King's refreshments, but breaks all her glasses and things, although she knowed more about it than the Emperor of China, and that coudn't ha' been werry much, and smashes down all the palings and places, and then sets 'em on fire, altho' they belonged to a Gent who was out of Town miles and miles away.

Well, I must say that, having in my werry long xperience seen lots of crowds of all sorts and sizes, for a thorough blackguard set as doesn't seem to have one single good quality, or, if they has, they hides it so carefully that not no one can never find it, but who seems to delight in orful langwidge and senseless mischief, commend me to a sporting mob in the naybourhood of Lundon; and the less they are allowed to congregate there, the better for all honest and decent people.

Robert.

AN ANXIETY.

Aunty. "Why, Laurie, you seem to be Growing every day!"

Laurie (whose one idea is his Birthday next week). "Yes, Aunty;
I'm afraid I shall be Six before my Birthday!"

Vicarious Whipping.—Why are Railway Chairmen and Directors like James the First when he was a boy? Because, according to received tradition, His Majesty, in statu pupillari, was provided with another boy, who, whenever Jemmy deserved the rod, had to be flogged, as a substitute, in the Royal youth's place; and the Railway Authorities are allowed similar substitutes, namely, signalmen, engineers, and other subordinates, against whom, when fatal accidents happen by their superiors' fault, Coroners' Juries usually return verdicts of manslaughter.

Description of an Assassin.—"A Man who takes life seriously." N.B.—I never like hearing a Medical Man so described in ordinary conversation.

"LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE."

SALUBRITIES ABROAD.

(En Route for Home after the Royat Treatment.)

At Geneva I meet an old friend, one of the heartiest men I've ever known and one of the best. He is delighted, really delighted, at our accidental meeting. I am for going on, but he will not hear of it.

"I know the place," says he, cheerily, with a wink and a nudge, "and I'll take you about."

What a wink it is! and what a nudge! So full of humorous appreciation of life and character. Such a knowing not-to-be-done-by-anyone sort of wink. And the nudge is intended to draw your attention to the wink and emphasise it. John Birley is the frankest, openest, freest-and-easiest of men, with a boundless capacity for enjoyment, the strongest sympathies with suffering, and of a reverential grateful spirit that thanks Heaven for all bounties, and accepts misfortunes and sorrows as kindly reminders from Providence that the misfortunes and sorrows of others have to be considered and relieved, and again he thanks Heaven for having put it into his power to relieve them. His chief enjoyment is in giving pleasure to others. The most selfish would gain some good from contact with John Birley; and the craftiest, to whom it might occur to make John Birley's acquaintance for the sake of what he could make out of him or by him, would soon discover his error, and would be informed that he stood detected, very clearly, plainly, and straightly, not by anything that John Birley would say, but he would have it intimated to him beyond possibility of mistake by John Birley's wink and a playful nudge from John Birley's elbow in his left or right side, for John speaks with both elbows. The crafty rogue would there and then know—if he were not too fatally crafty for himself as are so many rogues, or too conceited to realise the humour of the situation,—that his little game, whatever it might have been with John Birley, was up, that his schemes were upset and that to "try it on," any further with John Birley would be utter waste of time and trouble. That is what John Birley's wink would convey to the rogue. But to the honest man, to the friend, the wink and nudge assure good comradeship and something rare in store for him. To the unfortunate and suffering there is another tone to the wink and nudge, and to these they are full of promise of hope and help, and act as a fine invigorating tonic.

Such is John Birley, whom I meet en route and who insists upon my stopping with him and showing me the place. He travels a great deal, he knows everybody and everybody knows him. No matter what the language of the country may be, no matter whether he is in France, Germany, Russia, Egypt, India, or Africa, among cultivated peers, outlandish peasants, or uncouth savages, John Birley invariably makes himself thoroughly understood, for any deficiency in his acquaintance with the language he ekes out with a wink and a nudge adapted to the occasion, and he is sure to obtain exactly what he wants, or an excellent substitute for it, if the thing itself is not to be had. And this has always been so. It so happens that he has retired from business and is now very rich, but long ago when he was working hard, and struggling too, his manner and method were just the same; he has never been discouraged, never been discontented, always energetic, always sanguine, and has elbowed his path for himself through the crowd, politely, pleasantly, apologising sympathetically for any toes he may have accidentally trod upon in his onward course, and working himself well into the front rank by the magic charm of his wink and nudge. He has pulled some others after him who have clung on to his coattails, and brought out of the ruck not a few of those on whose toes, as I have already said, he had pressed rather heavily in passing.

I know I cannot be in better hands, and he is going to show me about everywhere within the very few days I can absolutely spare, now that my cure is finished, my Royat time over, and that I am on my way back to England, home, and beauty.

He maps out a few excursions. He has taken them all before, long ago. But, delighted to go over old ground, the greater part of his pleasure will be found in my enjoyment; for to revisit places associated with pleasant memories, or with nothing but the remembrance of their loveliness, their grandeur, or their solemnity, is to him, in some way like welcoming old friends. All John Birley's friends are old ones; he has no new ones,—he never had. Some men of the world discussing him, aver that it is a sort of proof to themselves of there being something good still left in them, that they can reckon themselves among John Birley's friends. They are of all shades and colours are his friends, and they will analyse each other's characters behind each other's backs in the presence of John Birley, and afterwards they will be more inclined towards each other, more sympathetic, and more charitably disposed, in consequence of each other's good points having been brought out into strong relief by John Birley's kindly light. So it is with seeing the beauties of nature or art in his company; and so it is that I consider myself to have alighted on my legs in having come across him in this, the lovely playground of Europe, the home of the Merry Swiss Boys and Girls.

There is the Lake to be done; there is Nyon, Thonon, Rolle, Lausanne, Ouchy, Evian-les-Bains, Vevey, and then there are the heights above, including the ascent to St. Gergues, and to wherever can be obtained the best views of Mont Blanc, the Dent du Midi, and the other well-known "objects of interest." Were Puller here, he would say that "the best views of these mountains can be obtained at the photographers"—but he is not here, he is finishing his treatment at Royat. So it is all arranged, and we dine together, as a commencement.

"You don't mind a third party present?" says Birley to me, apologetically, "as I have just found old Sir Alec McQuincey, wandering about without a companion. Wretched to be alone, eh? and not well, eh? Suffering from liver—nasty that—gives jaundiced view of life. So must cheer the old boy up. He's off for a cure to Evian-les-Bains; so I said to him, 'Dine with us to-night, and we'll land you there to-morrow, eh?'—that's right, isn't it?"—and he gives me a cheery wink and nudge, taking me, as it were, into partnership with him in his scheme for entertaining Sir Alec McQuincey, and for keeping up the latter's spirits, previous to seeing him off to-morrow to the place across the Lake where he is to undergo his treatment, which I trust may enable him to "live happily ever after," and enjoy any amount of City dinners ("He is a City magnate," says Birley, with a nudge, "and that's not good for liver complaint, eh?") till the end of next Season.

Sir Alec is a capital companion, hearty, cheery, and full of anecdotes. He has got an excellent listener in John Birley, whereat I am rather astonished as John generally has a lot to say for himself, and a good story from one man invariably draws out another from J. B. But on this occasion he is so unusually silent that I am puzzled. It is true that Sir Alec commences most of his anecdotes with an apology to Birley in this shape, "I've told this to Birley before, but," turning to me, "you haven't heard it, and it may interest you," whereupon Birley nods approval, and I politely assure Sir Alec that I am already deeply interested by anticipation, and in the words of the ancient drama, now obsolete, I feel inclined to add, "Proceed, sweet warbler, your story interests me much; proceed."

The sweet warbler, who, by the way, is a trifle hoarse and occasionally a little indistinct, tells several of these narratives—they are narratives—and I cut in with occasional observations more or less to the point, which are silently acknowledged by Birley, but not by Sir Alec, who seems bent upon getting on with his series, interspersed with anecdotes, to the exclusion of all other conversation. He begins with the fish, and his first story about somebody who rose from nothing and arrived at being something, lasts, with the assistance of several discursive but illustrative anecdotes, till we reach the merry Swiss cream and stewed fruit. With the coffee and cigars he opens volume two of his interesting and remarkable stories of great men—each biographical monologue being really interesting by itself, only taken together they ought to be spread over a considerable period, like the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, and still Birley contentedly listens, gently inhaling his cigarette, and, when referred to, nodding corroboration. It occurs to me that as Sir Alec has told all these before to John Birley, so the latter may have told most of his to Sir Alec and to myself, and that that is why he is now so silent. At all events, he only rarely makes observations, and these of the curtest. I fancy he wants me to come out and amuse Sir Alec, in return for Sir Alec interesting me; and it occurs to me that I shall be ungrateful if I do not cut in with something new, just to save Birley from hearing Sir Alec's stories all over again, and Sir Alec from hearing Birley's, with which I presume, as they are such very old and intimate friends, he must be acquainted.

So I rouse myself, with a strong determination to shine or perish in the attempt. I make a sharp and apposite remark on some portions of the story which Sir Alec is now recounting, whereat Birley smiles, and Sir Alec smiles too, but resumes his narrative at once, as if he were afraid of losing the thread in consequence of my interruption. I am conscious of having only glimmered; I have not yet shone. On he goes again; he is telling us of a wonderful silver tea-pot, how it was lost in a cart, how some one saw it outside the Old Bailey, how some one came up at that moment and a Judge said to an Alderman, "That's the tea-pot!" Now at this moment I remember that I have a story which neither of these two has ever heard of a Judge and an Alderman which will come in capitally here, and so as I am quite certain that if I keep it to myself and allow the opportune moment to pass, I shall forget it entirely, and so lose a magnificent chance of shining brilliantly in the presence of Sir Alec (who if favourably impressed can be, I am aware, of the greatest possible service to me), I take advantage of Sir Alec drawing strenuously at the last half-inch (he is a thrifty man evidently) of his expiring cigar, to say briskly, "By the way,—excuse my interrupting you—but that reminds me," and then I give my story of the Judge and the Alderman, which makes Birley laugh, and brings a smile to Sir Alec's lips, though it seems to me there is a puzzled expression on his countenance, as though he couldn't quite understand the point, and was appearing to be amused chiefly out of politeness to me as being a friend of John Birley's.

However, Sir Alec does smile, and then forthwith resumes his narrative. When he has finished, as he has mentioned the names of some persons with whom I am acquainted, I ask him if they are so and so, and he replies, "Yes," and adds something which elicits from me a sharp remark that gets a roar from Birley, and produces on Sir Alec's countenance another smile and the same sort of puzzled expression I had noticed before. I feel that I have shone, but that somehow I have not turned my light strongly enough on to Sir Alec. I question him as to the identity of some other celebrated persons he has been mentioning, and he replies with something about them which doesn't seem to exactly correspond with my question; but once more—being in the happiest vein, and shining in a manner that positively astonishes myself, I let off another brilliant jest, which is received in precisely the same manner by my audience as were my previous conversational fireworks. I think to myself, "I am ingratiating myself with Sir Alec. This will be a first-rate thing for me and for several members of my family, as a man in Sir Alec's influential position," &c.

Sir Alec now starts another subject, and as I foresee that if he sticks to it, I have something which will cap everything, I at once question him as to something he has just uttered. He replies, but, as before, I am bothered by his reply, which seems to me utterly inconsequent. So I repeat my question. And he smiles, nods and says, "Well—yes—" doubtfully. But my question required quite a different sort of answer. It had been, "How many times did you say Lord Grangemore sneezed on that occasion?" To which it is evident that a doubtful "Well—um—yes," is not a satisfactory answer. So I repeat the question, whereupon he turns towards me confidentially and says, "No, I don't think so. It was her sister he married." I look at him inquiringly to see if this is his fun, but at that moment I catch a wink from Birley who is putting up his hand to his ear and intimating in the clearest possible pantomime for my private and particular benefit, that our entertaining friend Sir Alec McQuincey is uncommonly deaf!

Now I comprehend Birley's silence. Now I comprehend why Sir Alec goes on talking, and why he looks puzzled at any interruption, and why he could only smile when he got the cue, as it were, from his companion, and was made aware that there had been something said which required to be smiled at.

I relapse into silence. I accept an excellent cigar from Sir Alec, and I let him talk for the rest of the evening uninterruptedly, until he looks at his watch, says that nine-thirty is late enough for him, that he has enjoyed his evening with us amazingly, and goes off to bed.

"Agreeable old chap," says Birley, stretching out his legs, preparatory to taking a short stroll. "Seen a lot of life has old Alec. He's a capital Chairman at a Board-meeting. Just deaf enough when he doesn't want to hear any arguments. I let him talk on."

"So I see," I say, and we walk out to bid good-night to Mont Blanc.

"The Mons looks like a warrior taking his rest—his last rest," says Birley, gravely, giving me a subdued nudge. "Napoleon the Great, and his cocked hat, carved out of white stone. Ah!" and, meditatively we linger, and then walk slowly back to the Hotel.

"We'll take old Alec to his warm bath at Evian-les-Bains to-morrow," says Birley. "Good night." Then he pauses on the stairs, as with a wink full of fun, and last playful nudge, he says, "I suppose you'll let him have all the talk to himself, eh? Won't you? Ha! ha! I shall."

My friend Skurrie to whom his own Plan of Return, which I have accepted, is as the law of the Medes and Persians, says he will give me three days more for Geneva and Birley, and that then we must emphatically start homewards as he insists on Jane and myself seeing Heidelberg en route and every half hour of our time from Wednesday to Monday is so carefully adjusted that to miss one train will upset all the plans he has taken such pains and trouble to arrange for us. I am closeted with him for two hours, when he explains it all to me, gives me, so to speak, the key of the puzzle, insists on my verifying the items by Cook's Tourist Train-Book (an invaluable work), and then reducing it to writing. After this I am headachey, and exhausted.

[P.S.—Revising this, long after the event, I say, "Beware of Skurrie and his fixed plan of sight-seeing against time.">[

GRASP YOUR THISTLE.

Light Puffs raised a Little Swell.

The Port Bow.

Mr. Punch, Sir,—I would like to ask you, slick out, if you reckon it was all fair and square with that there Thistle's keel. For to hear that interested parties in that race had gone down in a diving-bell the evening before and screwed themselves on to that yacht would not have surprised me. And, let me tell you had they done so, they would have considerably impeded her progress the following day. That Captain Barr was cute enough when he said, "he couldn't make out what had come to his ship." Take my word what had come to it was just that diving-bell, and I shouldn't mind calculating that the owner of the Volunteer was boss of the interested parties fixed up inside of it. You ask "can such things take place in the States?" Wal—I guess they just can. Muchly so, when there's money on it. As to the diving-bell advantage, I speak feelingly, as I have assisted over a twenty-mile course in one myself. We were on that occasion found out at the finish. But it was all straight. The umpire, whom we had previously squared, and who was above reproach, gave it in our favour. It's knowing these things, coupled with the fact that I backed the Thistle for two hundred dollars, that makes me just throw out these friendly hints to you, Sir, from,

The Other Side of the Atlantic.

A Point of Law.

(By a Pun-propounding Gladstonophobist.)

He's "popping up again," despite our praying;

Fools and fanatics flocking to his side.

Him to suppress I'm sure would not be slaying,

But "Justifiable G. O. M.-icide!"

Butter for Ailesbury.—The Jockey Club's decision!

Reporters at the Reporters' Congress.—Scarcely Short-handed!

"HOME! SWEET HOME!" (ALAS!)

THE LAST (SIGNAL) MAN.

Verity in a Vision.

(With Apologies to the Shade of Campbell.)

"The effect of material progress, and of the growth of mechanical invention, is to place the lives and interests of an increasing number of people in the keeping of a single man. Responsibility becomes concentrated to a dangerous and a truly alarming degree."—Times.

Of all dark shapes of human doom,

The lot of darkest dye

Is his whose soul must sole assume

Responsibility!

I saw a vision in my sleep,

The earth had swung with secular sweep

To the last gulf of Time.

I saw the last of human mould,

Alone, unfriended, unconsoled

As Adam when the night first rolled

O'er Eden's early prime.

The Sun's eye had a sickly glare,

The Earth with age was wan;

The wrecks of shattered thousands were

Around that lonely man.

Some had expired in pain,—its brands

On clammy face and clutching hands,—

In sudden palsy some.

Among them was no sound or tread

Even of Death among the dead,

Pain's very voice was dumb.

Still, statue-like, that lone one stood,

With fixed earth-seeking eye,

Silent as a flame-blasted wood

When winds have all swept by.

The last surviving unscathed One!

His face was grey, his race was run,

Cold as antarctic snow,

Unmoved by hopes, untouched by fears,

Left by the tide of human tears

That never more may flow.

He moaned, "No more shall man let stand

His power, his pride, his skill;

The arts that made fire, flood, and land

The vassals of his will.

Yet shall I mourn man's vanished sway,

The Systems that have had their day?

Out on the sordid arts,

The triumphs with which earth once rang,

The Progress which spared not one pang

To trampled human hearts!

"No; let oblivion's curtain fall

On me too, last of men.

I would not if I could recall

Life's tragedy again.

Its burden I would not bring back,

Responsibility's iron rack

No more shall make me writhe;

No lapse of vision, loss of word,

Shall make me feel a man abhorred,

Strew earth with slain as by War's sword

Or Death's relentless scythe.

"No more with weary wandering eyes

I'd watch, where, if I tire,

Hundreds in hideous agonies

May helplessly expire.

No man that breathes mere mortal breath

Alone should stand at odds with Death.

Systems? O learning lost!

On nerve, sight, sinew—human all,

And apt to fail at urgent call—

The bitter burden had to fall;—

Behold at what a cost!

"On me it fell, ah! not on Him,

The Corporate Demon dark,

Whose greed of gain gave systems dim

Capricious action. Hark!

The click, the crash! Nay, never mine—

Thank Heaven!—again to watch the line

With chill and catch of breath.

The knowledge that at last I fly

Thy rack, Responsibility,

Takes all the sting from Death!

"'Justice' no more shall hale me up

To answer this wild waste

Of human life. That bitter cup

At least I shall not taste.

Go, Sun, and say,—if e'er thy face

Shine on another earthly race,—

On what an ill-paid clod

Man laid Responsibility—

Because its Justice ruled awry,

And Mammon was its god."

Poor Old England!

These are hard times, and the oracles of the newspapers teem with thrifty suggestions. The last advice to the hard-pressed agriculturists is, to go in for cultivating mushrooms and blackberries. What a prospect for the country children! Fancy every mushroom-meadow tabooed to the early rural rambler, and all the blackberries strictly "preserved," in the sense of partridges, not of plum-jam. And what a fate for the land of the oak, the apple-tree, the wheat and the bearded barley, to come down, like tramps and village-urchins, to fungi and bramble-fruits!

Political Economy.—Lord Rosebery, when next in power, will insist on the Government being "short-handed."

JUSTICE AT FAULT.

Mr. Punch. "YES—YOU'VE GOT ONE OF 'EM! BUT YOU OUGHT TO HAVE BOTH!!"

"It is intolerable that a Railway Company should, for the sake of increasing its receipts, play fast and loose with the safety of great numbers of human beings. The block-system ought, in fact, to be made compulsory, and it should not be in the power of a Railway Company to suspend it."—Morning Paper.

CROSSING THE BAR.

Mr. Punch—My very dear Sir,

As on more than one occasion you have done me the honour of publishing some of my experiences, I feel that in you I am addressing a gentleman of keen intelligence, admirable judgment, and excellent sense. I am sure that you will not for a moment imagine that I am using language of exaggerated eulogy when I say that never in the course of what I may term my forensic life have I found an individual so eminently qualified to assume the highest duties inseparable from the Judicial Bench. Having this opinion of your merits, I cannot refrain from addressing you on a matter of the greatest possible importance to every member of the profession to which it is my pride to belong.

A Q.C., M.P.—the Long of it.

Another Q.C., M.P.—the Short of it.