Punch: Punch (76.1879)

106

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[March 8, 1879.

ALARMING SPREAD OF IMPERIALISM!

Uncle (who Jims passed all his military life in India, and jitst returned). " Off, already,
George? What's your hurry, my Boy?"

Nephew. ""Why, you see, Uncle, I've got a Speaker's Order for the House o'
Commons. I want to hear-

Uncle. " Dear me ! You don't mean to say that old Rubbish is going on still ! "

Mosthyn DicxrE continuing to relish this joke without reference to me, I take the
opportunity of looking round the hall to get some further idea of what Meadowsweet Manor
is like.

Judging from what I can see of the Italian style, portico and pillars without, tesselated
pavement within, polished marble (or imitation) columns, and lofty whitewashed ceilings,
ornamented with that sort of fancy-plaster-work which the decorative art at the confectioners'
seems to consider as an indispensable finish to the white-sugared top of a children's twelfth
cake,—judging, I say, from the general shininess and polish, I begin to think I am realising
the vision of the operatic poet who sang

" I dreamt that I dwe-elt in mar-ar-ble halls,
With vassals and serfs at my si-i-ide,"

And I add to myself, that I feel pretty sure I shall "be happy yet." For it is easy for

any one to discover, in less than a quarter
of an hour after his arrival in this house,
that these sudden outbursts of Mosthyn
Dickie's are simply his way, which really
alarm no one who is accustomed to them,
and that, in spite of all his grumbling, he
is absolutely idolised by every dependant
on the establishment.

He is a widower, and the lady of the
house is, I find, his daughter — Mrs. de
Breslin—who, with her two young chil-
dren, usually reside at Meadowsweet Manor.
The people about address her as '' Madame
de Breslin," or simply "Madame." and
from Mrs. Pound (the housekeeper with-
out a head") I soon ascertain enough of
the family history to make it evident to me
that the less said about Monsieur de Bres-
lin the better. He is spoken of as '' com-
pelled to travel a great deal on various im-
portant foreign missions."

I have just received this information
from Mrs. Pound, the housekeeper, who is
the real manageress of the entire establish-
ment, when Mosthyn Dickie enters my
room.

A PROMISE AT PARTING.

" But I understand that the acceptance of that
post is one that has been accompanied by the
most perfect conditions of allegiance to his party."
—Speech of Lord Granville at the Reform
Club Banquet to Lord Dufferin.

When along Neva's frozen banks

My sledge-bells cleave the air,
It may be I shall turn with thanks

To him who sent me there.
Yet deem not that the arts of Ben

Have bonds of Party cleft.—
Mine be the measures of the men

Who dined me ere I left!—
And still,—my light through snow and
storm,—

ShaU shine that Spread at the Reform'J

It may be, in a month or two,

When I'm thought "well in hand,"
Lord B. may think, " By Jove, he '11 do!

There 's nothing he won't stand."
But if some Jingo point to score

They have a sudden mind,
And wire to me, then all the more

I '11 think of where I dined.
And,—like a beacon through the storm,—
Shall shine that Spread at the Reform !

11

MILLERS AND THEIR MEN" FOR
THE LAST TIME—(WE HOPE).

Our friend, the Textile Manufacturer, is
not daunted even by the late verdict against
his friends the Millers and their Men. He
returns to the subject in a long and bounce-
able article, riding off on the difference be-
tween " sizing," and "stiffening;" and con-
tending that as there is a " demand" for
sized and stiffened goods, there can be no
harm in supplying them.

He forgets that the " demand " comes not
from the customers who wear, but from the
dealer who seUs the "loaded" goods.

It does not lessen the dishonesty of sell-
ing, for cotton, cloths half cotton half China
clay, that an unscrupulous draper asks an
unscrupulous manufacturer to supply him
with such half-and-half wares. Nobody,
we should suppose, ever thought of excusing
Melter Moss by pleading the Yl demand " for
the "Brummagem" fivers with which he
supplied the market. It remained for the
Textile Manufacturer to set up this plea.

What Weston may say now his Waxk
is over.—" Oh, my poor feat! "