Punch (8.1845)

248

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

THE POLITICAL TINKER.

Most of our readers will be familiar
•with an old fellow, who goes about bel-
lowing and shouting in the capacity of a
political tinker. His anxiety to get a
job makes him sometimes very noisy, and
uufortunately he is seldom entrusted with
repairs that he does not make a much
larger hole than the one he has been
employed in stopping. The old tinker
is said to have a very sharp eye to the
tin, of which in his time he has received
large quantities. He sometimes uses a
good deal of soft sawder, of which he
gave a curious instance the other day,
when trying to patch up a sad hole in a
pretty kettle of fish belonging to Lord
Ellenborough.

half a turn instead of by a neck, and the great patrons of the turf will abandon the study of
horse-flesh for the cultivation of a knowledge of iron.

We have heard of high-mettled racers, and of horses showing their mettle ; but when the
racers are made of metal altogether, the sport will of course be beautiful. The task of
training will necessarily devolve on those who are accustomed to railroad trains ; and when
riding the race, the substitute for whip and spurs will be a scuttle full of coals and a poker.

If the system of railroad racing should be adopted, Punch will probably go upon the turf with
a splendid stud of locomotives, and will be prepared to back his own lot against the field to any
amount, and for any distance.

The folio wing is the sort of account that might be given of our run for the first Sweepstakes.
The race is supposed to be between ourselves and one or two individuals who are a guod
deal addicted to political sporting :—

THE START

THE TEMPLE WAITERS.

We regret to hear that the ancient and
honourable order of Temple Waiters, com-
prising the old original esquires of the foren-
sic knights or crusaders of Pump Court, is
likely to become extinct The same civilising 1
spirit which has driven the red man into the
West, is fast hurrying the white-aproned man
away from the East, and the Temple Waiters !
will soon be added to the Allobroges, the
Cimbri, and other lost tribes whose names
now figure in the pages of history. The
Temple Waiters are being rapidly super-
seded by a race of clerical churls, " who" —
as Gibbon would say—" fired by a thirst for
gold, are content to add to the daily duties
of barristers' clerks, the menial occupation
of handing the cup or changing the plate at . .

the evening meals of their masters" In After two or three false starts, the whole lot got fairl/off, and Peel went at a slapping
plain language, the poor old Temple Waiters Pace on Free Trade—r.is two-year-old boiler ; but he wai a good deal encumbered by the
are beinc superseded in the Temple Hall Conservative ruck, who were fearfully tailing him till he went slap away, and left them
by a number of barristers'clerks who, flunkies nowhere. Brougham now made all the running, but went very wide, and in going dowu
at heart and footmen in soul, degrade the the hill was lost sight of altogether. Punch now came up on his four-year-old, and went slap
clerical character by practising an art com- in among the lot, winning cleverly by several heads, to the delight of the assembled
mon to him who beats the suburban carpet, multitude."
lets out the useful truck, or delivers with care

the social message ^ <^~~~^S\

In a word, it is too bad that the regular . £^r' fS§w!h fflftJIk
waiters at the Temple—men who have been | ^3g^gyP-Sf.M«Hl
born, as it were, to the badge, and bred up
te the white apron, it is, we say, too bad that
these men should be discarded from the Tem-
ple Hall to make room for the clerks of bar-
risters, who abandon the brief for the napkin,
the wig-box for the dish of calfs-head, and
the blue bag for the bread-basket. We call
upon the benchers of the Temple to restore
the waiters to the position they have hitherto
occupied.

RAILWAY RACES.

As the rail is rapidly superseding the
road, it is to be expected that the engine
will soon annihilate the horse, or—to use
a figure that would have suggested itself
to the old wags—put the horse completely
h/jrs de combat. Instead of encouraging the
breed of racers, the sporting world will
be employed in improving the build of
locomotives ; and we shall hear of Braith-
waite's lot being backed against the
Panklibanon Iron "Works' favourite,
for the Oaks or the Derby. We shall be
having thorough-bred engines winning by j THF W,NNER-