Punch: Punch (57.1869)

158

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[October 23, 1869.

STUDIES OF ANIMAL LIFE.

The Mouse {Ridiculus mus).

NEW WORK AND NEW WARE EOR
BIRMINGHAM.

{Dedicated to the Birmingham National Educational League.)

For knick-knacks, and trifles, and toys,

Showy lacquer-work, brazen and iron,
For bluster, and bunkum, and noise,

And getting more smoke up than fire on,
The town of all towns in our isle,

If from Thurso to Truro you rummage 'em,
Seemed the one P. R. chroniclers style

" The Hardware Ken "—Cockney ce, "Brummagem."

So clever her forgers and hammermen

In putting new faces on metals,
Thanks to deft metallurgical glamour, men

Would at their hands for gold take brass kettles;
Till all things that appear what tbey 're not,

While with Truth's aquafortis untested,
From mock gems to bad sovereigns, have got

With the " Brummagem " title invested.

But henceforth, since the movement begun

By Dixon, Mtjndella & Co.
For getting a mighty work done,

That seemed talked to death long ago,
Let us hope with new meaning annexed

The " Brummagem " title To see
Worn by those who solve questions long vexed,

And make things that have but seemed, to be.

Of all the hard wares that e'er came
From brain-pan 'neath Brummagem brow,

The greatest, for profit and fame,
If the hardest, is this they 're at now :

To new-mould the England to come!

Heaven's mint-mark to bring out anew !
The brain-blind, brain-deaf, and brain-dumb

With new eyes, ears, and tongues to endue !

Here's a Birmingham Union arrayed

For work before which shrinks to naught
All her ancient Trades'-Union essayed,

Or her currency doctors have taught:—
To bring words into fruitage of act,

Aspirations to turn into deeds,
To make Education a fact

Spite of clashing of churches and creeds !

God speed unto her and to all

Who for this work put hand to her hand 1
Roar, forges, and, sledge-hammers, fall—

When was forging, or casting, so grand ?
Showy face for mean matter, till now,

'Twas Birmingham's business to plan,
Her new work's to make substance of show,

In our schools, and her metal is Man !

The Very Place for Him.

The office of Master of the Mint is vacant. There can be but
one opinion as to who should have the appointment—Mr. Lowe. He
will then be able to do what he pleases with the sovereign, and having
both the Exchequer and the Mint under his control, his happiness will
be complete, unmixed—without alloy.

" This Must End Them."—Addison.

We don't often touch unpleasant matters. But it is a strange
coincidence that the man who detected the Cato Street conspiracy
should, half a century later, die as Cato died.