Punch (79.1880)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [Ogtobeb 9, 1880.

ANOTHER “SCANDALOUS HOAX.”

Last week a picture appeared in Punch, entitled “ Summing Up.”
It represented a Sergeant summing up the irregularities of an incor-
rigible Private by saying, “ he might be a horficer.” It was drawn
at the suggestion of a Correspondent. It now appears that that
Correspondent “ drew ” us, as we have since been informed that this
very subject was similarly treated in a “ Comic Contemporary” ten
years ago.

We admit that we ought to know by heart every joke that has
ever been said or written anywhere, and that we ought distinctly to
remember every picture that has ever been drawn in every comic
periodical that has ever appeared,—in fact we admit that we ought
to know Everything. But—we don’t.

In this instance, picture and subject were both good, and to the
majority new, so—as was the case with the Monks in the Jackdaw
of JRheims, after the terrible curse—nobody is “ a penny the worse,”
except the misguided person who'paid the postage.

It is possible that it may have been a bond fide suggestion on the
part of the sender, who had recently heard it told as “ a fact that had

actually happen-
ed.” The oldest
jokes are gener-
ally sent us with
this assurance,—
very great assur-
ance. However,
we forgive him,
and those who
may recollect it—
to use the Parlia-
mentary phrase—“in another place,” as far back as t*he date above
mentioned, will scarcely blame us for the reproduction of “ a draining
after Ten-years.”

*** Latest detail and precise verification.—The picture appeared in the
Fun Almanack for 1867. So it was thirteen years, not ten! The talented
individual who took the trouble to work up this hoax, must be a busy man.
We should be delighted to hear from him.

The Fortune of War.—Prize-Money