Punch: Punch (19.1850)

30

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

THE REAL STREET OBSTRUCTIONS.

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The law says very properly, that no one shall obstruct the public j metropolitan thoroughfares without being reminded by some over-
thoroughfare ; and it is calculated that no less than five hundred I whelming van that all is van-ity.

ship-loads of oranges pass through the hands of the police every year, The other day we were completely blockaded between an enormous
in consequence of contumacious barrow or basket-women blocking up invitation to the Cremorne Eiysium, and a polite request, in letters six
the footway, while the same fate attends upon no less than fifty feet long, to go and provide ourselves with six shirts for forty shillings,
entire beds of oysters, that have prevented an opening for the general We had just turned round, in the hope of finding a loophole or a gusset
street traffic. to get out of the shirts when we found ourselves hemmed in, and regu-

When we wend our weary way along the streets of London, though larly stitched to the spot by a bold black letter assertion, that the word
we confess it is sometimes unpleasant to find ourselves solicited by a paletot, though " assumed by ail" is the exclusive property of EL, J.,
long chain of basket-women eutreating us to purchase then " sweet W, and D.,—somebody or other who aspire at the West-end to the
Chainey oranges," we must say that the real enemies to progress are I mantle of Moses. If some of the real obstructions who barricade the
the advertising machines, both human and bestial, as well as mechanical, streets, with their monster advertising vans, were to be walked off to
What with Panoramas and Paletots, Dioramas and Balloons, Registered | the Green Yard, the effect would be to give a freer circulation to the
Shirts, and Monster Concerts, there is no getting along the principal | air as well as to the passages.

L GROWL PROM THE BOUDOIR.

' R-b.-ii-k-b.-ow !

" Somebody, Mr. Punch, has been
writing lately to the Morning' Post to complain
of ■ ferocious dogs.' The grievance of this in-
dividual is, that there is no remedy against a
dog till a person has been bitten by him. It
is rather too late then, I know, especially if
the unhappy dog is mad; and I admit that
such of us as can't keep our teeth to them-
selves ought to be muzzled—so, by the way,
ought some bipeds that I have heard of. But
the writer in the Post would lay down the
cruel dogma that dogs should be punished
before they are guilty. The inhuman dog-
matist proposes ' an exterminating tax' on all
of us, except those kept for some ' essentially
useful purpose, and even then under proper restrictions.' This im-
placable hostility to our race seems excited by what our enemy calls
the bare idea of that dreadful thing, hydrophobia' Prom this peculiar
sort of phraseology, and from its having been so liberally underlined,
I conclude that the writer of the letter is a female, and I believe I know

who she is. She says that she and her family go _ creeping about the
house in fear of a ' ferocious beast' kept by a lady in her house. This
is evidently the language of some old woman: that old woman, Sir,
is my mistress's landlady, and the ' ferocious beast' is no other than
poor little I, commonly called ' Planet,' because

"1 am, &c,

"An Isle of Skye."

"P.S. Toby, who of course can read as well as I, is, I dare say, in-
dignant at the letter in the Post. Give my love to Toby."

Popularity of Lord Ashley.

The country is not aware of the obligations under which it lies to
Lobd Ashley. " No news," says the proverb, "is good news • " and
accordingly all persons residing in the provinces are indebted to t his
Lordship for the receipt of good news regularly every Sunday morning.
It must be particularly gratifying to persons anxious to hear from
relatives lying on the bed of sickness to obtain this very satisfactory
inteUigence: so much so, that we understand that the amount of
blessings invoked by them on the head of the noble lord in the fulness
of their hearts is quite incredible.