Punch (28.1855)

i

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI

SV!R. SPOONBILL’S EXPERIENCES !N THE ART OF SKATING,—PART til.

Timely arrival of the “breaker ladder,’" and rescue of Mr. Spoonbill.


After imbibing certain hot Beverages,

BEGINS TO FEEL PRETTY COMFORTABLE;

HE

And makes the best of his way home.

rHOT

iVATLP*

shews the cheerful manner in which
Spoonbill ended his first (and last)

DAY’S SKATING.

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THE COST OF A WOMAN’S TONGUE.

We always regarded the female tongue as a rather _ formidable
weapon ; but we had no idea that it could do so much mischief as it
seems to have perpetrated in the hands, or rather iu the mouth of one
Charlotte Jones of Merthyr-Tydvil, who is, it seems, confined in
Cardiff Gaol, for having indulged rather too freely her woman’s i
privilege of speech. She is alleged to have done what nearly every
member of her sex is constantly doing; that is to say, she made one
of her neighbours the subject of a “ few words.” These words, or ;
alleged words, having been brought to the ears of the Consistory
Court, she is ordered to retract them, though she says she never
uttered them. But as calumny cannot even be withdrawn without'
the payment of fees, she is called upon to discharge a little account of j
between seven and eight pounds which she has run up in the County
Court of Llandaff. Her husband, being a labourer at fifteen shillings I

a week, is unable to meet the little liability his wife’s tongue has
incurred; and she is pronounced guilty of “Contempt” of the Court
in question, because she does not happen to have seven or eight pounds
about her to pay its demand.

She is accordingly consigned to a prison at Cardiff; and it appears
that nobody has the power to get her out again ; for neither the Bishop
of the diocese, nor the Home Secretary can give her any relief. She
therefore gets Mr. Bright to present a petition to the Commons ; and
upon his remarking that “such a state of things was scandalous to the
country,” there arose cries of “ hear ! hear ! ” and a “ laugh.'1

We can only hope that the “laugh” was hysterical; for we cannot
conceive it possible that any legislator can see food for laughter in the

existence of “ a state of things ” which is admitted to be “ scandalous
to the country” Indeed we do not precisely see the joke; and we
have come to" the resolution that the “ laugh ’’ was no less unworthy ot
the wag than of the patriot.