Punch (15.1848)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

273

John Bull Kicks the Old Year Out,

And the Old Year reads him a Moral.

Now get you out, and join the rout

Of all bad years gone by.
And don't believe a soul will grieve

When with the past you lie.
A sadder year, a sorrier year,

I never look to know;
In blood more rife, in sack and strife,

In war, and want, and woe.

All o'er the earth, with mocking mirtb,

You dashed old thrones about;
Made monarchs run from pike and guD,

Put Ministers to rout.
A desperate year, a drunken year,

With wine of madness stung—
You scattered words more sharp than swords,

And firebrands of the tongue.

In cellars damp, by stealthy lamp,

In garrets bleak and bare,
You crept and oowered, you lurked and lowered,

To plot, and plan, and snare;
You tempted fools, the traitor's tools,

To put, their trust in knaves,
Urged Chartists on to Kennington,

And served out Specials' staves.

You bade the mean detest the high,

The high distrust the mean,
All steps you staid that had been made

To bridge the gulf between ;
You used to alms hard, honest, palms,

And closed them up from toil,
Cursed Labour's rest with dreams unblesr,

Of slaughter, strife, and spoil.

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Old Order's dead—but in its stead

New Order see begun—
The ruddy night where sinks my light

Bespeaks to-morrow's sun;
Then ease my head upon my bed,

And close my glazing eye ;
My evil day will pass away,

My good will never die.

SWEEP! SWEEP!

We thought the cry of " Sweep! " was put down by Act of Parlia-
ment, but it has lately come up in another form. You cannot pass a
shop without a bier Sweep calling out from the window. Sometimes it
asks you to " STOP !" sometimes it invites you to " LOOK HERE ! "
These Sweeps seem to have the management of all the retail London
business. Nothing is too high or too low for them to lay their dirty
fingers upon. In one street it is a piano, in another it is a plum-pud-
ding, which is not exactly the article we should like to take from the
hand of a Sweep. They are general dealers in everything.

The Sweeps have been swept from our chimneys by the Ramoneurs;
bat they have fallen down upon Trade, and you will find a Sweep now
on almost every counter. They have taken to sweeping the pockets of
customers clean, instead of their flues. They have introduced them-
selves into every channel of Commerce. We should not be astonished
to see advertised, " A handsome yountr lady, worth £300 a-year," to be
disposed of in so many shares by a Sweep. Members of Parliament
will be returned by their agency, and we shall be having our Legislature
a more perfect system of Lottery than ever.

In the meantime, nothing goes off unless it has a Sweep to back it.
Our race-horses are ridden by Sweeps,—our grocers, publicans, and
little haberdashers are all under the thumb of a Sweep—and you will
see the Pavilion at Brighton taken off the hands of the Commissioners
of the Woods and Eorests by means of a good powerful Sweep, of the
strength of £1,000,000 in shares of £1 each. These Sweeps are
getting quite a crying nuisance, and we hope a sweeping measure will
soon be devised to brush them indiscriminately from all the large, and
especially the small shops of the metropolis where they have got a foot-
ing. They are universal gay deceivers. They make the finest promises,
get your money, and then laugh in your face. They carry off all the
booty they can, and leave nothing but a dreary " blank" behind. The
poor people who trust their shillings to them, should be warned against
their winning practices. The old law should be enforced, and every
shopkeeper who cries " Sweep!" should be immediately taken un.

THE HOUSE-KEEPING CLUB.

lubs ! Clubs! This is the
age of Clubs; and one Club,
in these days, knocks another
Club on the head, until it is
a wonder how so many con-
trive to prolong their exist-
ences. The latest new scheme
is a House-Keeping Club, the
members of which are to
have access to a common
larder, and club together for
the provisions of all the mem-
bers and their families. This
might answer very well if the
families were all of a size,
and the appetites of the
members about upon a par;
but it will certainly never
pay for the very small eaters
to contribute the same sum
of money as those who are given to gormandise. It will be awkward,
too, if the tastes cf the members should agree to such an extent that
all should be eager for the same joint at the same time, and there
should one day be such a run upon legs of mutton, and another day
such a cut into chops, that there should be a quarrelling amongst the
members for the tit-bits of the establishment. We fear the House-
Keeping Club will end in that monstrum horrendum, "a house
divided;" for the proverb concerning a multiplicity of cooks, must
equally apply to a multiplicity of housekeepers.

Whist.—In the game at present going on in France, will Lotjm
Napoleon lead up to the King or play the Deuce f An answer will
oblige.