Punch (73.1877)

iv

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[January 5, 1878.

voice. " And though I should be the last to press my own claim to so much as a drumstick, still, after all the hard fighting
I have had, I must naturally expect my little pickings, disinterested as I am known to be, and purely Christian as my
motives must be admitted to be—for a Bear."

" Nothing can be more reasonable," rejoined the Oracle; " and, provided the Bear does nothing to block the Lion's
road to India, I really don't see why your respective interests or appetites need clash."

" Of course we don't want a slice ! " shrieked two large Black Eagles, one single, the other double-headed. " But in the
meantime," continued the one with two heads, " if you would only tell me how to keep my two heads from quarrelling-"

"And how about our share?" struck in the Servian Buzzard, the Greek Kite, and the spirited little Montenegrin
Sparrow-Hawk.

" Keally, my feathered friends, I am afraid that whatever trouble you may have had with the living Turkey, the
carving of the dead bird is likely to cost you as much difficulty. I must, for the present, decline the task of assigning
your respective portions. My one counsel to you is not to cross the Lion's path, or to leave him out of any arrangement you
may make; or you may find that his claws are sheathed not snipped, and his teeth none the less sharp that he is in no way
forward to show them—for all the kind friends who are so ready to roar for him, and so prompt to poke him up."

" This is scarcely the counsel we came for," growled the Bear.

" It is the best I can give you," curtly replied the Oracle. " And now for you, most reverend Red Hats ! If you can find
one among you able to read the signs of the times, and less disposed to rely on Papal infallibility than secular sense, concen-
trate your votes on him, and leave the Church and the World to find a modus vivcndi, instead of a modus internecandi, as
at present."

" Is that all the guidance you have to give us ? " sighed the Bed Hats.

" That—and this, which contains the same advice distilled into Wit, and crystallised into Wisdom-•" And the

Teacher, with a graceful turn of his wrist, lightly pitched

Mum ^e.bciitj)-C|rte

on the pile of shaky Crowns, a-top of which the tottering Tiara strove to maintain a hopeless balance. " Take it among
you ! " he cried. " Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it, for the better ruling of Kingdoms and Churches at home
and abroad, in the present and in the future ! "

Crushingly fell that weight of wisdom on the untrustworthy substratum of Crowns—for even those made of iron, and
cemented with blood, were honeycombed. Not one but collapsed ; some with an elaslicity that gave hopes of restoration to
better form hereafter ; others feebly, flatly, beyond all power of tinkering, all arts of beating out or beating hi J

" Past praying for, most of them ! " sighed the Teacher. " For the rest, let us pray ! "