Punch (29.1855)

September I, 1855.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 83

i turned the indignant servant. Mr. Driver then said, " I must havo
this money. The Company order me to get it." Mr. Brown repeactu
what he had said, and added that he had only, as it happened, a few
shillings in the house. " The Company must have it," was the Col-
lector's answer. He then made a sign to his assistants, Mr. Brown
was thrown upon the floor, his slippers removed, and a number of
blows were inflicted with a stick upon the soles of his feet. The
sufferer implored for mercy, but the only answer was, "the money."
Mr. Brown persisting in declaring that he had it not, he was dragged
to the fire, and hot water from the kettle was poured over his feet, the
Collector still repeating at intervals, " the money." Mr. Brown's
cries now brought down his wife, to whom the Collector explained,
with perfect civdity, that he was only torturing her husband to get the
Company's money, and then proceeded to heat a shovel red hot, with a
view to the infliction of further sufferings. Mrs. Bkown's frantic
appeal for a brief delay was unheeded until she tore off her necklace
and ear-rings, and shewed that she was going to procure the money,
which she did by pawning her ornaments. The Collector gave her a
receipt, regretting any inconvenience he might have occasioned, and
departed, and we understand that this mode of collecting for the Com-
pany is found to work very well, and will be generally adopted.

'Mr. Punch utterly discredils the whole of the above report. It is

______ _ ____ evidently the production of some penn\-a-liner, who forgot that England

^s^^J^r ^^^3=^ was not India, and that practices which Mr. Vernon Smith admitted

_._=__■ ' , _x to be the regular means of collecting " the Company's" revenue in the

-—-=~-; ■>■'•—•--latter country, would not be tolerated here. To torture Her Majesty's

subjects with white faces and black clothes is one thing, to torture her
COOL AND COMFORTABLE THIS HOT WEATHER. subjects with black faces and white clothes another, and the stupid

_ - 'scnba who invented this ridiculous story clearly d'jes not know tpa

difference.]

A EIGHT WITH THE NATIVES AT DRUEY LANE.

We have a large marrowbone to pick with the Directors of the WONDERS OF THE VICTORIAN AGE.

Opera at Drurv Lane. The other evening we attended the performance ^ • './-« i i „„ ,

of Per Freischzitz at that theatre. The overture, to be sure, was admi- Our, gracious Queen long may she fill her throne,-

rably played. Caspar did his spiriting not gently indeed, but, we will ,^as "fn t0 see h9Pls Napoleon.

confess, extremely well, dramatically and musically. Agatha, or Agnes, ' he Majesty of England-bless her heart !-

sang characteristically in the character of an angelic kind of girl. We 1}'A\ cut her mutton with a Bonaparte ;

never saw or heard abetter Rodolpho, alias Max, nor so good an Anne. ^nd Cousin Germans have survived he view

As to Zamiel, he played the deuce with a fine appreciation ot the part. Ut Albert taking luncheon at bt. Cloud.

Killian, Kuno, and the Hermit, all of them, behaved very well to In our young days we little thought to see

Weber, and Prince Ottocar acted with almost as much propriety as Such legs stretched under such mahogany;

that which distinguishes Prince Albert. The Owl was effective in That British Royalty would ever share

the Incantation scene, which the audience wanted to encore. But to At a French Palace, French Imperial fare :

ad of these personages the fashiouably constituted mind will discern IN or eat—as we should have believed at scliool—

one insuperable objection. Who was Caspar ? Mr. Hamilton Bra- The croaking tenant of the marshy pool.

ham. Rodolpho? Mr. Arthur Locksley. Ottocar? Mr. Glan- At the Trots Freres we had not feasted then,

ville. Kuno? Mr. Hodges. Killian? Mr. Charles West. As we have since, and hope to do again.

Zamiel? Mr. Costello. Agnes? Miss (not Mdlle.) Lanza. Anne? This great event of course could not take place

Miss Dyer. Ttie Hermit's name was omitted in the playbill—it was Without fit prodigies for such a case;

probably Johnson. The brazen pig-tail of King George the Third

This brings us to our marrow-bone. All these ladies and gentlemen Thrice with a horizontal motion stirr'd,

were plain Misters and Misses. There was not one Herr, Monsieur, Then rose on end, and slood so all day long,

Signor, Madame, or Mademoiselle; in the whole cast. It is very true Amid the cheers of an admiring throng,

that the Chorus sang so well that it might have passed for German, and In every lawyer's office Eldon shed

that the Conductor would have been taken to be a modern Bomao, if, Prom plaster nose three heavy drops of red.

instead, of preserving the final y of his name he had denominated Each Statue, too, of Pitt turn'd up the point

himself Signor Tulli. But the marrow-bone remains. The artists Ot its proboscis—was that out of joint ?

above-named were so many examples of talent considerable indeed, Whilst Charles James Eon's grinn'd from ear to car,

but merely native. W7e cannot say that the Owl and Supernumerary And Peel's emitted frequent cries of "Hear!"

Imps did not come from La Scala,.or the Dresden or the Berlin Opera— ,
they hooted and danced well enough to warrant the pretence that they

did, but that was not alleged. The Opera was performed, too, after the Finis Coronet.

German manner; the whole of Weber's music retained, and the con-: Lord Campbell boasted in the House of Lords, on the last night of

densation done by cutting down Snooks s dialogue. | the session, that he had been a soldier in his time, and said he believed

Justice compels us to add, that the Drury Lane Operatic Company, that he could even now manage a Minie rifle. It is not improbable,

conscious ot the serious want of foreign names and a corresponding considering how well " plain John " has succeeded in an aim requiring

aceent, appreciate their own abilities accordingly, so that their prices some skill—that of lodging certain balls on the top of his own head.

lor admission are expressed by low figures, and anybody who simply___

wants to hear good music can get that article very cheap at then-
establishment. _ I haws abroad.

I A provincial society has been formed with a laudable object, that

tayittow aait» twd Tin? v of counteracting the sale, by hawkers, of objectionable books. It h;t-,

TAXATION A^D TORTURE. | howeverj a curfous title> 'befng called 'the Book-Hawking Society. To

On Tuesday morning last, while Mr. Timothy Brown, coal mer- an association with such a name, the first purchases that would occur

chant, was at breakfast with Mrs. Brown and his >ouug family, at their ; would, we suppose, be the Falcon Family, with the productions of

suburban residence, the Collector of the district, Mr. Screw Driver, ! Falconer's Mews, Hood's, Bell's, and Jesse's.

called and demanded two quarters' water-rates. Mr. Brown went out I _

to him, and represented that the second quarter was due that day only,
but that the former one should be paid in a day or two, but money was
rather short with him, in consequence of the War, and so many persons
having left town without paying their bills. Mr. Driver beckoned to
two men on the other side of the way, who came over, entered, and

Look Again.

The Irish papers, which publish Mr. Gavan Duffy's hope, that
LirRANDl and Todlebp.n may gain victories over the Allies, also com-
plain that no allusion is made to Ireland in the Queen's Prorogation
closed the door. The party, without saying anything, conducted the Speech. In terms, perhaps, there is none ; but is there not a con-
astonished Mr. Brown down-stairs to the kitchen, out of which they \ gratulation to Parliament on the passing the Criminal Justice Act ?