DOI Heft:
May 2, 1857
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16619#0179
Mat 2, 1857.]
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVAJU.
171
An amusing correspondent of the Times, under the signature of
" Habitans in Sicco " has been lately complaining of the average
quality of sermons. Habitans in Sicco is not content to dwell in
the dry pastures to which most flocks are limited by most pastors.
But he mistakes, or does not consider, the orthodox end and object of
sermons intended for intelligent people. The chief merit of such
sermons actually consists in their dryness. Herein they resemble the
favourite vinous beverage of so many of those who write, or at least
deliver them. If a sermon had not that merit, no enlightened indi-
vidual would have any in hearing it. Most persons of common
ability and education know nearly all that a clergyman has to tell
them. To them the use of a sermon is simply disciplinary. There
would be no moral effort in listening to a sermon which interested
their understanding or excited their feelings. For them, what is
called an " awakening " sermon is a mistake. The sermon ought, ou
the contrary, to have a somniferous influence, to be resisted by them
as an act of duty. Then it exercises them in patience and long-
suffering : the greater the bore the better the sermon in regard to
them.
If the above view of sermons is not correct, it ought to be, accord-
ing to existing arrangements. A sermon to be good, in the sense of
being eloquent, impressive, and instructive, requires perhaps rather
more ability on the part of the author than a good serial: and how can
■ authorship, with oratory to boot, be expected from the ordinary run
" Fixing a flexible tube to, and Smoking Cavendish out of your Mother's \ ?f reverend gents ? Nothing can be reasonably expected from them
best Silver Tea-Pot is excess." I beyond the platitudes which you get — uttered with a peculiar intonation
for which those clergymen are chiefly remarkable who intone their
sermons only, and which may be described as a melancholy moaning,
recognised at any distance, at which it is barely audible, as the noise
of preaching.
THE SMOKE CONTROVERSY.
certainly; at present they evince but little proof of this. We cannot
think: it in good taste to show more love for finery than affection for a
family: nor can we regard it as becoming in a wife to so far forget her
nature, and distort her duties, as to ruin her husband by the richness
of her dresses, and in the blindness of idolatry to even sacrifice her
children to the Juggernaut of Fashion.
PROSE OP THE PULPIT.
Vide " Lancet," April, 1857.
CRINOLINE VIEWED AS A DEPOPULATING
INFLUENCE.
Among the causes which are cited to account for the decreasing
rate of increase of the French population, it is thought that the spread
of the Crinoline contagion is proving most injurious in its effects upon
the census. The mode now prevailing is one of such extravagance
that it is continually demanding fresh sacrifices, and ladies have to
choose between a fine dress and a family, for no income but a Roths-
child's can provide for both. The result is, for the most part, as we
learn by the Examiner that—
"Where you would see with English habits half a dozen healthy boys and girls
walking with their parents, you see instead, in the Bois de Boulogne, a fine lady in
a handsome open carriage."
To take a broad view of the subject, we must look at the wide petti-
coats, and the many " widths " of silk which are consumed in covering
them ; and we shall see at once a proof that the declining census has
greatly owed its decrease to this Crinolineal influence. Of course, the
wider grow the dresses the longer grow the bdls which ladies have to
pay for them, and the narrower in consequence become their means of
living. So much swelling when they are out necessitates their
pinching somewhat closely when at home ; and whatever can be done
without is given up at once as not to be afforded. Children are not
in the fashion, and may therefore be dispensed with; so that as the
petticoats expand, the population dwindles, and a love of a new dress
supplants that of a family.
If the census fail to bring the nation to its senses, it is obvious that
Government will have to interfere, and devise the means to check this
forced march of extravagance, which is proving a dead march to the
non-rising generation. We would suggest, were we consulted, that a
Censor of Crinoline should forthwith be appointed, and that the shops
of all the milliners should be under his inspection ; so that no dress be
permitted of extravagant circumference, or of such a richness of
material as might impoverish a family. It would, doubtless, much
conduce to the prosperity of Paris, were cradles brought in fashion
and were Crinoline kicked out of it; and we should be rejoiced to hear
that coral bells and baby-jumpers were becoming there a merchandise
in more demand than air-jupons. All true friends of France would
rather see a houseful there of children than of petticoats and flounces,
and at present only in the mansion of a millionnaire would there be
room enough for both.
It has been said that Frenchwomen display, universally, the best of
taste in dressing, and are, by nature, gifted with extraordinary apti-
tude for learning and avoiding what is unbecoming to them. But
MANNERS
he annexed ad-
vertisement has
puzzled us to un-
derstand.
T<0 ADULTS
-1 who have never
learnt to dance,
—a lady of celebrity
receives daily, and un-
dertakes to teach,
ladies and gentlemen,
in 12 private lessons,
to go through ail
the fashionable Bail
Room Dances with
ease of manner and
grace of deportment,
including the neces-
sary manner of enter-
ing and leaving a
room, curtsey, <&c.
What is the
necessary manner
of entering and
leaving a room ? For anybody but a zany in a pantomime, who may
crawl into or out of an apartment on all fours, we should think that
the simple method of progression on two legs was the only one which
there could be any necessity, or, indeed, reason, for adopting. It is
difficult to conceive what there can be to teach in respect of entering
a room or leaving it. That there may be something to unteach is
intelligible enough, for some people on entering, or leaving a room,
pull up their collars, others throw their coats off their chests, others
rub their hands as if they were washing them : and these are unneces-
sary manners of entering a room, to be unlearned by all gents who
aspire to ease of manner and grace of deportment
Russian Railways and Piety.
It is said that the Russian Railways remaining very dead in the
market, the Emperor Alexander has received a very handsome mer-
cantile offer from the late Manager of the British Bank, proposing to
attempt to give the stock a lift, as the British Bank was opened, by
means of prayer!
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVAJU.
171
An amusing correspondent of the Times, under the signature of
" Habitans in Sicco " has been lately complaining of the average
quality of sermons. Habitans in Sicco is not content to dwell in
the dry pastures to which most flocks are limited by most pastors.
But he mistakes, or does not consider, the orthodox end and object of
sermons intended for intelligent people. The chief merit of such
sermons actually consists in their dryness. Herein they resemble the
favourite vinous beverage of so many of those who write, or at least
deliver them. If a sermon had not that merit, no enlightened indi-
vidual would have any in hearing it. Most persons of common
ability and education know nearly all that a clergyman has to tell
them. To them the use of a sermon is simply disciplinary. There
would be no moral effort in listening to a sermon which interested
their understanding or excited their feelings. For them, what is
called an " awakening " sermon is a mistake. The sermon ought, ou
the contrary, to have a somniferous influence, to be resisted by them
as an act of duty. Then it exercises them in patience and long-
suffering : the greater the bore the better the sermon in regard to
them.
If the above view of sermons is not correct, it ought to be, accord-
ing to existing arrangements. A sermon to be good, in the sense of
being eloquent, impressive, and instructive, requires perhaps rather
more ability on the part of the author than a good serial: and how can
■ authorship, with oratory to boot, be expected from the ordinary run
" Fixing a flexible tube to, and Smoking Cavendish out of your Mother's \ ?f reverend gents ? Nothing can be reasonably expected from them
best Silver Tea-Pot is excess." I beyond the platitudes which you get — uttered with a peculiar intonation
for which those clergymen are chiefly remarkable who intone their
sermons only, and which may be described as a melancholy moaning,
recognised at any distance, at which it is barely audible, as the noise
of preaching.
THE SMOKE CONTROVERSY.
certainly; at present they evince but little proof of this. We cannot
think: it in good taste to show more love for finery than affection for a
family: nor can we regard it as becoming in a wife to so far forget her
nature, and distort her duties, as to ruin her husband by the richness
of her dresses, and in the blindness of idolatry to even sacrifice her
children to the Juggernaut of Fashion.
PROSE OP THE PULPIT.
Vide " Lancet," April, 1857.
CRINOLINE VIEWED AS A DEPOPULATING
INFLUENCE.
Among the causes which are cited to account for the decreasing
rate of increase of the French population, it is thought that the spread
of the Crinoline contagion is proving most injurious in its effects upon
the census. The mode now prevailing is one of such extravagance
that it is continually demanding fresh sacrifices, and ladies have to
choose between a fine dress and a family, for no income but a Roths-
child's can provide for both. The result is, for the most part, as we
learn by the Examiner that—
"Where you would see with English habits half a dozen healthy boys and girls
walking with their parents, you see instead, in the Bois de Boulogne, a fine lady in
a handsome open carriage."
To take a broad view of the subject, we must look at the wide petti-
coats, and the many " widths " of silk which are consumed in covering
them ; and we shall see at once a proof that the declining census has
greatly owed its decrease to this Crinolineal influence. Of course, the
wider grow the dresses the longer grow the bdls which ladies have to
pay for them, and the narrower in consequence become their means of
living. So much swelling when they are out necessitates their
pinching somewhat closely when at home ; and whatever can be done
without is given up at once as not to be afforded. Children are not
in the fashion, and may therefore be dispensed with; so that as the
petticoats expand, the population dwindles, and a love of a new dress
supplants that of a family.
If the census fail to bring the nation to its senses, it is obvious that
Government will have to interfere, and devise the means to check this
forced march of extravagance, which is proving a dead march to the
non-rising generation. We would suggest, were we consulted, that a
Censor of Crinoline should forthwith be appointed, and that the shops
of all the milliners should be under his inspection ; so that no dress be
permitted of extravagant circumference, or of such a richness of
material as might impoverish a family. It would, doubtless, much
conduce to the prosperity of Paris, were cradles brought in fashion
and were Crinoline kicked out of it; and we should be rejoiced to hear
that coral bells and baby-jumpers were becoming there a merchandise
in more demand than air-jupons. All true friends of France would
rather see a houseful there of children than of petticoats and flounces,
and at present only in the mansion of a millionnaire would there be
room enough for both.
It has been said that Frenchwomen display, universally, the best of
taste in dressing, and are, by nature, gifted with extraordinary apti-
tude for learning and avoiding what is unbecoming to them. But
MANNERS
he annexed ad-
vertisement has
puzzled us to un-
derstand.
T<0 ADULTS
-1 who have never
learnt to dance,
—a lady of celebrity
receives daily, and un-
dertakes to teach,
ladies and gentlemen,
in 12 private lessons,
to go through ail
the fashionable Bail
Room Dances with
ease of manner and
grace of deportment,
including the neces-
sary manner of enter-
ing and leaving a
room, curtsey, <&c.
What is the
necessary manner
of entering and
leaving a room ? For anybody but a zany in a pantomime, who may
crawl into or out of an apartment on all fours, we should think that
the simple method of progression on two legs was the only one which
there could be any necessity, or, indeed, reason, for adopting. It is
difficult to conceive what there can be to teach in respect of entering
a room or leaving it. That there may be something to unteach is
intelligible enough, for some people on entering, or leaving a room,
pull up their collars, others throw their coats off their chests, others
rub their hands as if they were washing them : and these are unneces-
sary manners of entering a room, to be unlearned by all gents who
aspire to ease of manner and grace of deportment
Russian Railways and Piety.
It is said that the Russian Railways remaining very dead in the
market, the Emperor Alexander has received a very handsome mer-
cantile offer from the late Manager of the British Bank, proposing to
attempt to give the stock a lift, as the British Bank was opened, by
means of prayer!