Punch (8.1845)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI

THE RECONCILIATION.

a Eroptjecj? bp $unc$.

elieve us, it is not
true that wealth
must be only ano-
ther name for wick-
edness. It is not
true that virtue
must inevitably be
found with rags.
Money may be the
root of evil, and
yet he who culti-
vates the said root
may be as clean
a husbandman as
any digger on this
side Eden. Human
brutishness may be
hung about with
tatters — as human
truth and sweetness
may be found under
richest purple and

starving, than do
three courses de-
naturalise the well-fed. All the household virtues do not, of neces-
sity, hover about an empty cupboard, any more than do the imps of
Satan nestle in the butler's pantry.

There are faults on both sides ; otherwise, what a lop-sided world
this would be !

Wealth and Poverty call one another hard names; and then reward
themselves with an abundance of self complacency. The rich man is

solemn ends ; that he is to be considered and cared for, in his con-
dition, with tenderness, with fraternal benevolence ; that there is
something more than alms due from the high to the low ; that
human sympathy can speak otherwise than by the voice of money ;
and that, too, in at once a loftier and a sweeter tone of hope and
comforting-.

The time will come when Poverty will be relieved from its serf-
dom. We have emancipated the slave to the colour of his skin.
We have next to emancipate the slave to Poverty : to take from him
the stain and blot, the blight and the disgrace of pauperism ; to cure
him of the leprosy he takes from want alone ; to divest him of the
collar and the chain, which human pride and prejudice have, for cen-
turies past, beheld about the neck of the Poor. When Poverty shall
be declared no longer infamous—no, not declared ; that, with pha-
risee-lip, we declare now—but thought, believed, made a creed of,
then may Poverty expect its higher rights. At present, Poverty
has an ignominious, a felonious character ; and honest, yet withal
worldly men, give good steerage-room to the foul disgrace.

Then will it be pleasant to see—whoever shall see it—the recon-
ciliation of the Rich and the Poor. When all old selfishness, old
prejudices, old feuds—on both sides—shall be buried and forgotten ;
when the Rich shall have cast away the arrogance of wealth, their
pride, their wicked and irreligious sense of exclusiveness—and the
Poor shall have quenched all heart-burnings, all thoughts of re-
vengeful wrong,—then will it be a glorious sight (no bravery like
it) to see man reconciled to man ; and knowing that, whilst human
finest linen. Want i life endures, there must still be human inequalities,—still to know
and hunger no ; there shall be a wise, a sympathising, and an enduring reconciliation,
more deify the Q.

PRODIGIES OF PARR S LITE PILLS.

The following testimonial is from Ma. Hackett, the celebrated
American Comedian :—

To the Proprietors of Parr's Life Pills.

Gentlemen,

For some years I never went on the stage without suffering vetry

severely from a weakness in the voice, accompanied by an extraordinarv
&n ogre, living upon the hearts ot the poor; grinding them under his , J . . .. c j 1 *u * t „„ ut

n8 i » ?m • i .-. > i i i derangement in the action of the arms and legs, so that 1 was never able

golden heel, like worms ; penning them up like unthoughttul cattle ; t t d f j h f t- tl boards f theatre< ^

___:___. r__,____---3----i„m -----;~ . o . _ . . . J .. *

in unions ; for game and poor-law offences, locking them in jails ;
harrying them here and there ; in any and every manner grinding
their bones to make his fine white bread. And Wealth, with this
report of wickedness upon it, is a monster—a new Dragon of Wantley
■—a hydra with a hundred heads, some bare, some coronetted. And
so is Wealth abused, and pelted with hard names. To be sure, the
missiles break like bubbles against its golden plates. Words are
but air,— and Wealth, rattling its ingots, may7 laugh at the vocabulary
of Want, be it ever so uncleanly7.

And then Wealth has its say, too. Poverty is an ungrateful dog ;
•a mere animal—an engine made for the express use of him who can
purchase it. An ungracious, foul-tongued, coarse, disorderly wretch ;
& creature in no way tuned with the same moral harmony, ennobled
by the same impulses, that animate the man with the pocket. Down
with Poverty ! Crush it ! Imprison it—brand it ! The offal and
the weed of the earth ; the blight of the world, and the nuisance of
the rich.

And after this fashion do Wealth and Poverty traduce one another.
After this fashion do they—in the very hastiness of ignorance—
commit a mutual wrong. After this fashion set up a false standard
of mutual excellence.

K What! " says Wealth, " do I not fulfil my ordained purpose ? Do
J not profess myself Christian ? Do I not go to church, and enact all
the 'inevitable decencies' of life? Do I not pay the poor rates—
Easter dues—and all that ? I envy no man his worldly goods. I
am content with my own. I fairly, nay honourably fulfil the station
a varded me, and what care I—what should I care—for the rest ? I
know my duties, and I do them."

And Poverty, in its sense of suffering, hugs itself that in the next
world it will go hard with Dives, and lays up for itself, in its own
complacency, the reward of Lazarus ; confounding in its wretched-
aess, its wants for excellences.

Surely there will come a time when the Rich and the Poor will
fairly meet, and have a great human talk upon the matter ; will
{bold a parliament of the heart, and pass acts that no after selfishness
and wrong—on either side—shall repeal! The Rich will come —not
with cricket-balls or quoits in their hands—to make brotherhood
rrith the Poor ; but touched with the deep conviction that in this
vorld the lowest created man has a solemn part to play, directed to

toms used to be accompanied by a hissing in the ears, and a determination
of vegetable matter to the head, which I found very disagreeable. I
used to live almost exclusively on goose, which, however, was extremely
indigestible, but I was allowed nothing else by those who came to see me.

At length I was persuaded to try your Parr's Life Pills, the effect of
which has been truly wonderful. Instead of the hissing in my ears, I
now experience the sensation of listening to the most delightful sounds,
and instead of the determination of vegetable matter to the head, which
from nervous excitement I constantly stood in fear of, I have pleasing
visions of wreaths and bouquets falling iu genial showers around me.
You are welcome to use this testimonial in any way you think proper, and
I beg of you to send me a quantity to take out to America, where some of
my professional brethren have suffered from the symptoms described, even
more than Your obedient, obliged Servant,

- Hackett.

P.S. I enclose you a couple of portraits of me in my favourite character
of Falstaff, showing the position in which I was before, as well as after,
taking your Life Pills.

BEFORE r a Kin g PARr's life pills. AFTK.R TAKING pakr S LIFE PILL*.