Punch: Punch (76.1879)

120 PUNCH, OB, THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [March 15, 1879.

HOSPITALS AND HOMES.

0 be sure, as a rule,
there is no place like
home. But in case
of illness requiring
first-rate physic, sur-
gery, and nursing,
unless your home is
a very exceptional
one indeed, there is
no place like hos-
pital. Soon, how-
ever, it will be pos-
sible to combine the
advantages of a
hospital with those
of a home. An in-
stitution being or-
ganised, under the
denomination of a
"Home Hospital."

Its originators have got themselves incorporated and registered as "The
Home Hospital Association for Paying Patients." But the patients will pay
for nothing more than value received, prime cost. The members of the Asso-
ciation are to draw no dividends whatever from its revenues. Though a pro-
prietary Company "limited," it is strictly a benevolent Union. For terms of
subscription see its First Annual Report just published by Harrison and Sons,
St. Martin's Lane.

In attempting to cross a London street you are likely to get run over and
have your leg broken, or worse. There is then no place like a hospital for you.
But you may object to being taken to a common hospital. You want the
best of treatment, but may be unable to afford it, and yet not so poor as to
be a proper object of charity. The Home Hospital for Paying Patients is
designed to give you the treatment you want at a moderate tariff. You may
nominate your friend, if accident or illness befall him or her, to enjoy, so to
speak, the same assistance, instead of yourself. Whichever you please, dear
reader ; you pay your money, and can take your choice.

At present there exists but one Home Hospital, as yet in an inchoate

state, at Berkeley House, Manchester Square. But the
Home Hospital Association contemplates the establish-
ment of "several Home Hospitals in different parts of
the Metropolis." The more the better, if not exactly the
merrier.

In relation to the Public and the Medical Profession,
the idea of Home Hospitals obviously corresponds to that
of Co-operative Stores. The Home Hospitals Association
might call itself the "Co-operative Medico-Chirurgical
Attendance Society." Nevertheless its proceedings appear
to have created no alarm whatever amongst the doctors.
But then, as a rule, they do not overcharge their patients,
or send them adulterated medicine, short of weight and
measure, or else might the medical men, of the lower
class at least, now be infuriate with an agitation ana-
logous to that raging amongst shopkeepers of the
baser sort.

The President of the Home Hospitals Association is
the Duke of Northumberland. The Committee, besides
His Grace, includes the Earl of Bessborough, the
Bishop of Winchester, Sir Rutherford Alcock, and
Mr. Ernest Hart. Their funds at present amount to
something under £11,000; but, of course, now that
Mr. Punch's readers are in possession of the facts
above-stated, will be raised to a sum more than amply
sufficient to supply all the demand for Home Hospitals
that exists, or can be created by circumstances—espe-
cially those of the Homes in which ailments are aggra-
vated by that very serious complication res angusta
domi.

The Chancellor's Kickshaws.

Prince Bismarck, the other Saturday, gave his first
political dinner. It is said that one of the specialities
of the menu was a great success—anchovies swimming
in custard. Another, equally relished, is stated to have
been a melange of red currant jelly, raspberry jam,
beer, brandy, cream, and caviare.

BIGGAB'S FENIANISM AND FAITH.

The newspapers, Mr. Biggar, M.P., report a discourse delivered
by yourself, Sir, to a meeting of Irishmen in Bermondsey the other
Sunday evening, on "The Future of the Irish Race." In your idea
it seems the Irish race is less a matter of country than of creed.

" By the ' Irish Bace' Mr. Biggar said he meant to include all Irishmen
of the Roman-Catholic faith wherever they were to be found. Protestants he
did not consider Irishmen at all. They were merely "West Britons, who had
by accident been bom in Ireland ; and from his own experience he could say
they were the bitterest enemies of Ireland. He rejoiced that Irishmen had
clung to their faith."

You cling to your own then, Mr. Biggar, of course. Accordingly,
as an Irishman and therefore a Catholic, you proceeded to eulogise
Fenianism and Physical Force, on this wise—after your wisdom :—

"Now he, Mr. Biggab,, would not say whether he himself was a Fenian,
but if any one called him a Fenian he would answer that he did not count
that any disgrace. Physical force was the one thing for which the English
governing classes cared. They cared nothing for justice, they cared nothing
for reason, they cared nothing for the rights of the people, Irish or English.
They were moved only by their fears. He did not mean their fears for their
personal safety. . . . But it was possible—he would not say probable—that
some fine day the democracy would break loose, that the London warehouses
and Manchester factories would be reduced to ashes, and the shipping in the
Thames and the Mersey set on fire ; and that was an outlook which the
English governing classes did not like. At present the English democracy
was entirely unrepresented in the House of Commons."

Entirely, Mr. Biggar? Surely not quite so. Ready, as you
describe it, for riot and arson, is not the English democracy repre-
sented in some measure at least, by one Irish Member ?

The Fenians are all Irishmen; therefore, by your account, all
Catholics. But what does your Holy Father, the Pope, say to your
Fenians ? Does he own them for a Catholic confraternity, or con-
demn them as a secret society? Do you suppose that His Holiness-
would have approved of the following recommendation of democracy
and Fenianism combined, if he had heard you utter it ?—

"He"—that is, you—"urged all Irishmen to unite in some organisa-
tion—he did not care which—and make as much display of physical force
as possible. They might be few in numbers, but when they remembered the
great results which flowed from the determined action of the handful of men at
Manchester and Clerkenwell, they could not doubt of their ultimate success."

You seem to have forgotten that among the greatest results
which flowed from the Fenian murders at Manchester and Clerken-

well, was the disagreeable fact that some of those who committed
them were hanged. You call them martyrs. But were they such
martyrs whom the Pope would be likely to canonise ?

THE SHIP FOR THE SILYER STREAK.

"Though the Calais-Douvres," said Mr. j. S. Forbes, at the
recent Cannon Street Hotel Meeting, " has done her work admirably,
she is not a cheap ship. She has carried 55,000 passengers, and I
venture to say she has made many converts to the Calais route . . .
an average of 715 per day was carried in her, with the minimum of
inconvenience, and, as we say in the Report, ' a material diminution
of those peculiar evils and annoyances heretofore incident to the sea
transit.'"

Delighted to hear it. Let them progress in this line, not usque
ad nauseam, but beyond it. In sanguine hopes of this result, I
place the following new Lines, for which I have got the necessary
powers, at the disposal of the London, Chatham and Dover Board.

Take the Calais-Douvres

On your way to the Louvre.
She is an improvement:

On board her you can sit,

Nor make a sic transit,
Unconscious of movement.

"When in her you cross,

If she plays " pitch-and-toss,"
She does it without detection ;

For which bless the orbs

Of Mister Forbes,
Of the L. C. and D. direction.

{Signed) L. C. an D-over the Sea.

Pen-Feathers.

{From a Collection of Old Saws.)

From Geese pinions taken,
Geese opinions to maken.

The Khedive's Glee (as sung by the heads of his International
Administration).—" Roto, Brothers, row.'"

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