DOI issue:
October 13, 1855
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16616#0164
152
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHAIUVAIU.
[October 13, 1S55.
Ben. " I say, Jack!—Give us a lift down with these here blood-stained ruins from Sebasterpool!"
[" Sebastopol is only a heap of blood-stained ruins."—Gortschakoff to Ms Imperial Master.
THE PLAYGROUND IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE.
We do not know which is a greater nuisance, the playing of the
fountaiiis or the playing of the boys, in Trafalgar Square. This locality
is daily the scene of a variety of games in. which, the passengers reluc-1
lantly find themselves implicated; for every moment they are liable to
become involved in the popular diversion of Cat:, or the still more
exciting sport of Rounders. Now and then, a quiet pedestrian becomes
1 be centre of a game at Leap-frog before he is aware of it, and it will
occasionally happen that he is made to serve as "a back." by a string
of promiscuous young blackguards, who in the enthusiasm of the
moment, are going "over" everything that falls in their way. The
appearance of a Policeman only serves to add variety to the daily sports ;
for directly he comes in sight, he acts as a sort of signal for the com-
mencement of a race of the most exciting character, when the whole of
the assembled gamins rush off at a tremendous pace, tumbling over the
parapets, and executing a kind of steeple-chase over old gentlemen and
apple-stalls, ladies and children, anything and everything, in the
direction of St. Martin's Church.
Since it seems that Trafalgar Square is to be converted into a play-
ground for all the tag-raggery of the Metropolis, we can only call upon
the authorities to appoint a Master of the Revels, that there may be
something like order in the conduct of the games. If one of the basins
were to be cleared out, and a Clown to the ring appointed, his facetiae
would be useful in filling up any gap in the entertainments which the
Trafalgar Square juveniles are in the habit of finding for themselves.
England's Political A.B.C.
About the only Education that the State gives its children are the
letters of the Alphabet on the Collars of the Police. Government
doubtlessly imagines lhat a boy who has gradually worked his way to
the Old Bailey through the letters of the Alphabet is sure in after-life
to mind his letters. Thus, the State shirks its parental duly of Educa-
tion, and the consequence of this neglect is, that so many of the bojs
in large towns are " brought up" by the Police !
IMMACULATE CANNON.
It is said that the Emperor of the Erench has lately called that
very naughty old boy the PoPE«to task; and that Pio Nono, far from
continuing to feel the obligation of Erench bayonets, has answered in
full pontificqlibus. We yet live in hope—we have seen such twirls of
the political teetotum—to see Louis Napoleon a very moral imperial
schoolmaster. He has snubbed the Pope, and may yet birch the King
of the Stick himself. In the meanwhile let us live in hope.
If, however, anything could add to the possible ingratitude of a Pope
—if the deepest scarlet could still be dyed a fiercer tint—it is the fact
patent against his Holiness, that the clergy of Paris,—good, obedient
sons!—have taken the Pope's last manufacture of the Immaculate
Conception as joyfully, as huggingly, as your own little girl—parental
reader—would embrace and fondle a doll. Why, it is not generally
known, that Sebastopol has finally succumbed, not to the bombs of the
Allies, but to the flams of the Vatican. Sebastopol has gone down;
hut it was the wrath of the immaculate Virgin that blew away the
Malakhoff, even as she might have blown away a thistledown in Galilf e.
To be sure, she was induced—we may not say bribed—to the act, by
the promise of a handsome present. The Univers, in its triumphant
piety, testifies to the fact:—
" Scarcely had one of our Bishops obtained an assurance that the bronze of the
cannon taken from the enemy should be employed to raise a colossal statue to Notre
Dame de Frai.ce, when two days after, 4,000 guns feil into our possession."
The assurance of a few more statues mighf, haply, leave Russia
without a single gun. It is the more kind of the immaculate Virgin to
have brought about this victory, seeing that so many heretical allies
were fighting for it. But this may have been vouchsafed as a
merciful inducement. Hence—who knows ?—a single piece of brass
ordnance, delivered to us from Russia, may bring over more of
Belgravia to Rome than twenty Wisemans !
A Kindly Critic.—One who gives you a hand at an awkwa-d pass
to help you over the Style. crites, humbugs, and fools to the Press for showing them up.
amendment of johnson.
Ribald. An abusive epithet applied by turncoa's, quacks, hypo-
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHAIUVAIU.
[October 13, 1S55.
Ben. " I say, Jack!—Give us a lift down with these here blood-stained ruins from Sebasterpool!"
[" Sebastopol is only a heap of blood-stained ruins."—Gortschakoff to Ms Imperial Master.
THE PLAYGROUND IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE.
We do not know which is a greater nuisance, the playing of the
fountaiiis or the playing of the boys, in Trafalgar Square. This locality
is daily the scene of a variety of games in. which, the passengers reluc-1
lantly find themselves implicated; for every moment they are liable to
become involved in the popular diversion of Cat:, or the still more
exciting sport of Rounders. Now and then, a quiet pedestrian becomes
1 be centre of a game at Leap-frog before he is aware of it, and it will
occasionally happen that he is made to serve as "a back." by a string
of promiscuous young blackguards, who in the enthusiasm of the
moment, are going "over" everything that falls in their way. The
appearance of a Policeman only serves to add variety to the daily sports ;
for directly he comes in sight, he acts as a sort of signal for the com-
mencement of a race of the most exciting character, when the whole of
the assembled gamins rush off at a tremendous pace, tumbling over the
parapets, and executing a kind of steeple-chase over old gentlemen and
apple-stalls, ladies and children, anything and everything, in the
direction of St. Martin's Church.
Since it seems that Trafalgar Square is to be converted into a play-
ground for all the tag-raggery of the Metropolis, we can only call upon
the authorities to appoint a Master of the Revels, that there may be
something like order in the conduct of the games. If one of the basins
were to be cleared out, and a Clown to the ring appointed, his facetiae
would be useful in filling up any gap in the entertainments which the
Trafalgar Square juveniles are in the habit of finding for themselves.
England's Political A.B.C.
About the only Education that the State gives its children are the
letters of the Alphabet on the Collars of the Police. Government
doubtlessly imagines lhat a boy who has gradually worked his way to
the Old Bailey through the letters of the Alphabet is sure in after-life
to mind his letters. Thus, the State shirks its parental duly of Educa-
tion, and the consequence of this neglect is, that so many of the bojs
in large towns are " brought up" by the Police !
IMMACULATE CANNON.
It is said that the Emperor of the Erench has lately called that
very naughty old boy the PoPE«to task; and that Pio Nono, far from
continuing to feel the obligation of Erench bayonets, has answered in
full pontificqlibus. We yet live in hope—we have seen such twirls of
the political teetotum—to see Louis Napoleon a very moral imperial
schoolmaster. He has snubbed the Pope, and may yet birch the King
of the Stick himself. In the meanwhile let us live in hope.
If, however, anything could add to the possible ingratitude of a Pope
—if the deepest scarlet could still be dyed a fiercer tint—it is the fact
patent against his Holiness, that the clergy of Paris,—good, obedient
sons!—have taken the Pope's last manufacture of the Immaculate
Conception as joyfully, as huggingly, as your own little girl—parental
reader—would embrace and fondle a doll. Why, it is not generally
known, that Sebastopol has finally succumbed, not to the bombs of the
Allies, but to the flams of the Vatican. Sebastopol has gone down;
hut it was the wrath of the immaculate Virgin that blew away the
Malakhoff, even as she might have blown away a thistledown in Galilf e.
To be sure, she was induced—we may not say bribed—to the act, by
the promise of a handsome present. The Univers, in its triumphant
piety, testifies to the fact:—
" Scarcely had one of our Bishops obtained an assurance that the bronze of the
cannon taken from the enemy should be employed to raise a colossal statue to Notre
Dame de Frai.ce, when two days after, 4,000 guns feil into our possession."
The assurance of a few more statues mighf, haply, leave Russia
without a single gun. It is the more kind of the immaculate Virgin to
have brought about this victory, seeing that so many heretical allies
were fighting for it. But this may have been vouchsafed as a
merciful inducement. Hence—who knows ?—a single piece of brass
ordnance, delivered to us from Russia, may bring over more of
Belgravia to Rome than twenty Wisemans !
A Kindly Critic.—One who gives you a hand at an awkwa-d pass
to help you over the Style. crites, humbugs, and fools to the Press for showing them up.
amendment of johnson.
Ribald. An abusive epithet applied by turncoa's, quacks, hypo-