DOI Heft:
November 28, 1857
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16620#0227
November 28, 1857.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
217
OMN1BUSTERS.
HE occasional rides
we have taken in the
vehicles of that
remarkable institu-
tion, the General
Omnibus Company,
had not led us to
suppose it within the
compass of proba-
bility that an accu-
sation of fast tra-
velling would ever
be brought against
them. Anybody who
will get into one
of the Company's
Westminster Omni-
buses (out of hu-
manity to the con-
ductor we do not
recommend the pro-
cess to any irascible
gentleman with a
good stick for prod-
ding), and will en-
dure the progress
fromWarwick Street
to the A bbey, will have at once a good notion of the speed of the caterpillar and
of the Company. For no amount of money would we incur the guilt of causing the
execrations which burst forth from the insides (when there are any) during that
alternation of crawling and baiting. The Association is a foreign one, and
foreigners have seldom any real idea of the value of time. But it seems that the
Company's drivers can " wake up " sometimes, as befits the servants of a society
that by creating a monopoly was to reform a system. Twice, last week, the
Company was brought under the notice of the Courts of Law, and in each case
it was heavily mulcted. In the first case, had it not been that a poor horse was
injured, our sympathies would not have been with the
plaintiffs,, for the vehicle assailed was one of those abomi-
nable nuisances, the Yans, which the other abominable
nuisance, the Corporation, permits to block up the traffic,
and round which Mr. Punch and the world in general
dance a frantic dance of triumph whenever the monstrous
and over-loaded piles come to grief. But as the Company's
omnibus so wounded a horse that he had to be killed, the
jury's love of justice triumphed over its hatred of Vans,
and a verdict was given against the Company for Fifty-six
pounds.
But the Second Case was more amusing. The Company
have proclaimed, in a published document, that ifc is deter-
mined to promote its interests by the usual means—or
some such words. The usual means would appear to be
what is called "nursing" any omnibus that presumes to
carry passengers on the Company's line of road. " Nursing "
means the driving one vehicle close before, and another
close behind, the objectionable omnibus, so as to prevent
its getting custom, or, should it have secured a rider, to
present to his alighting the mild obstacle of a pole and a
couple of horses. But matrons tell us there is such a thing
as over-nursing,_and in one case the efforts of the Company
to drive opposition off the road seem to have been some-
thing of that kind. In fact, if the rival was nursed, the
Company has been brought up by hand, and brought up
pretty sharply—the hand being that of a conductor of the
opposition omnibus. The nursing experiment having
crushed and maimed his hand, a jury was again appealed
to, and a verdict was given against the Company for One
Hundred Pounds.
Let us hope that the apparently misplaced energy of
the Company will henceforth be exerted in a way more
advantageous to the public and to the Society. Let the
omnibuses run fast and run fairly, and the rest may be
left to the public. Omnibuses that require such Pulling-
Up as backs them into a Court of Law, can hardly be
remunerative in the long run.
A HERO AND A HUMBUG.
Life assurance does not prosper in Prance, owing to the priests,
who have a well-grounded objection to a man's arranging his money
affairs except when he is upon a sick-bed. But there is another kind
of Assurance which is proverbially French, and of which our diverting
friend Monsieur Jullien has brought over an exceedingly large
supply. We had indeed no notion, until a recent Thursday, how
much of the article the musical Hebrew possessed. Upon that occa-
sion—and upon occasion of his producing at the Promenade Concert
a piece of blatant quackery called a Delhi Quadrille—Monsieur
Jullien certainly developed an audacity to which, were we writing of
anybody not a mountebank, we should apply a harder name.
If he had only taken the most serious subject of the day as a theme
for fiddles and fifes, and for the delectation of his patrons the gents,
Mr. Punch would scarcely have noticed it. Such topics have been
selected so often, that such dodges have almost become legitimate
devices 'for folks of the Jullien order. To be sure, at the very
moment that M. Jullien's trumpets were braying or piccolos squeaking
in imitation of the sounds of battle, the real thing might have been
going on, and his audience's fellow-countrymen might have been
slaying aud being slain, with all the ghastly accompaniments of the
battle-field. But we agree to forget these things. A quadrille is named
from Delhi, because everybody is thinking about Delhi, no matter in
what connection, and we are really grateful to M. Jullien, or to the
ingenious writer who supplies his literature and advertisements, for
taking as his theme the terrors of Delhi instead of the horrors of
Cawnpore. This piece of delicacy, this concession to English feelings
could hardly have been expected. We should have repaid his forbear-
ance by silence, but for his subsequent proceeding.
The wife and daughters of the noble soldier who has been fighting a
battle every other day, and, under Providence, saving India to us, had
received a box for the concert, and had occupied it. At the close of
the quadrille a noble idea struck M. Jullien—unless, indeed, he had all
along planned his coup, and had entrapped Lady Havelock in order to
execute it. He, the great Monsieur Jullien, conductor of the fiddles,
He would be the man to present to the public the wife of the victorious
English General. He would do her that honour—it was a great one,
doubtless, from a Frenchman and a musician—but He would not be
proud. So, waving his arms as gracefully as adiposity permitted,
he pointed out Lady Havelock to the crowd, and graciously com-
manded that they should give her some token of their appreciation of
her husband's valour. And there was no escape, the lady was dragged
forward, aud the first public recognition of Sir Henry Havelock's
heroic was actually performed in England at the bidding of the
French conductor of a Shilling Concert ! 0! bravo, M. Jullien,
and again bravo!
Perhaps to the lady whose name has been brought into his comment
Mr. Punch's apologies are due for his having commemorated such an
exploit of unmatched effrontery. Perhaps, too, he should add—though
it is almost needless to do so—that though he treats the simial feats
and frisks of a Jullien with good-nature, there is but one feeling
among Mr. Punch's readers, that is to say, English society, touching
the impertinence that made a Lady its victim for the sake of giving
eclat to a piece of musical quackery.
Mr. Punch to Mons. Jul—en. "Look here, Moms., too 're a Clever Fellcw in
your way, but let the british LlO^ alo^e—He isn't a poodle i "
217
OMN1BUSTERS.
HE occasional rides
we have taken in the
vehicles of that
remarkable institu-
tion, the General
Omnibus Company,
had not led us to
suppose it within the
compass of proba-
bility that an accu-
sation of fast tra-
velling would ever
be brought against
them. Anybody who
will get into one
of the Company's
Westminster Omni-
buses (out of hu-
manity to the con-
ductor we do not
recommend the pro-
cess to any irascible
gentleman with a
good stick for prod-
ding), and will en-
dure the progress
fromWarwick Street
to the A bbey, will have at once a good notion of the speed of the caterpillar and
of the Company. For no amount of money would we incur the guilt of causing the
execrations which burst forth from the insides (when there are any) during that
alternation of crawling and baiting. The Association is a foreign one, and
foreigners have seldom any real idea of the value of time. But it seems that the
Company's drivers can " wake up " sometimes, as befits the servants of a society
that by creating a monopoly was to reform a system. Twice, last week, the
Company was brought under the notice of the Courts of Law, and in each case
it was heavily mulcted. In the first case, had it not been that a poor horse was
injured, our sympathies would not have been with the
plaintiffs,, for the vehicle assailed was one of those abomi-
nable nuisances, the Yans, which the other abominable
nuisance, the Corporation, permits to block up the traffic,
and round which Mr. Punch and the world in general
dance a frantic dance of triumph whenever the monstrous
and over-loaded piles come to grief. But as the Company's
omnibus so wounded a horse that he had to be killed, the
jury's love of justice triumphed over its hatred of Vans,
and a verdict was given against the Company for Fifty-six
pounds.
But the Second Case was more amusing. The Company
have proclaimed, in a published document, that ifc is deter-
mined to promote its interests by the usual means—or
some such words. The usual means would appear to be
what is called "nursing" any omnibus that presumes to
carry passengers on the Company's line of road. " Nursing "
means the driving one vehicle close before, and another
close behind, the objectionable omnibus, so as to prevent
its getting custom, or, should it have secured a rider, to
present to his alighting the mild obstacle of a pole and a
couple of horses. But matrons tell us there is such a thing
as over-nursing,_and in one case the efforts of the Company
to drive opposition off the road seem to have been some-
thing of that kind. In fact, if the rival was nursed, the
Company has been brought up by hand, and brought up
pretty sharply—the hand being that of a conductor of the
opposition omnibus. The nursing experiment having
crushed and maimed his hand, a jury was again appealed
to, and a verdict was given against the Company for One
Hundred Pounds.
Let us hope that the apparently misplaced energy of
the Company will henceforth be exerted in a way more
advantageous to the public and to the Society. Let the
omnibuses run fast and run fairly, and the rest may be
left to the public. Omnibuses that require such Pulling-
Up as backs them into a Court of Law, can hardly be
remunerative in the long run.
A HERO AND A HUMBUG.
Life assurance does not prosper in Prance, owing to the priests,
who have a well-grounded objection to a man's arranging his money
affairs except when he is upon a sick-bed. But there is another kind
of Assurance which is proverbially French, and of which our diverting
friend Monsieur Jullien has brought over an exceedingly large
supply. We had indeed no notion, until a recent Thursday, how
much of the article the musical Hebrew possessed. Upon that occa-
sion—and upon occasion of his producing at the Promenade Concert
a piece of blatant quackery called a Delhi Quadrille—Monsieur
Jullien certainly developed an audacity to which, were we writing of
anybody not a mountebank, we should apply a harder name.
If he had only taken the most serious subject of the day as a theme
for fiddles and fifes, and for the delectation of his patrons the gents,
Mr. Punch would scarcely have noticed it. Such topics have been
selected so often, that such dodges have almost become legitimate
devices 'for folks of the Jullien order. To be sure, at the very
moment that M. Jullien's trumpets were braying or piccolos squeaking
in imitation of the sounds of battle, the real thing might have been
going on, and his audience's fellow-countrymen might have been
slaying aud being slain, with all the ghastly accompaniments of the
battle-field. But we agree to forget these things. A quadrille is named
from Delhi, because everybody is thinking about Delhi, no matter in
what connection, and we are really grateful to M. Jullien, or to the
ingenious writer who supplies his literature and advertisements, for
taking as his theme the terrors of Delhi instead of the horrors of
Cawnpore. This piece of delicacy, this concession to English feelings
could hardly have been expected. We should have repaid his forbear-
ance by silence, but for his subsequent proceeding.
The wife and daughters of the noble soldier who has been fighting a
battle every other day, and, under Providence, saving India to us, had
received a box for the concert, and had occupied it. At the close of
the quadrille a noble idea struck M. Jullien—unless, indeed, he had all
along planned his coup, and had entrapped Lady Havelock in order to
execute it. He, the great Monsieur Jullien, conductor of the fiddles,
He would be the man to present to the public the wife of the victorious
English General. He would do her that honour—it was a great one,
doubtless, from a Frenchman and a musician—but He would not be
proud. So, waving his arms as gracefully as adiposity permitted,
he pointed out Lady Havelock to the crowd, and graciously com-
manded that they should give her some token of their appreciation of
her husband's valour. And there was no escape, the lady was dragged
forward, aud the first public recognition of Sir Henry Havelock's
heroic was actually performed in England at the bidding of the
French conductor of a Shilling Concert ! 0! bravo, M. Jullien,
and again bravo!
Perhaps to the lady whose name has been brought into his comment
Mr. Punch's apologies are due for his having commemorated such an
exploit of unmatched effrontery. Perhaps, too, he should add—though
it is almost needless to do so—that though he treats the simial feats
and frisks of a Jullien with good-nature, there is but one feeling
among Mr. Punch's readers, that is to say, English society, touching
the impertinence that made a Lady its victim for the sake of giving
eclat to a piece of musical quackery.
Mr. Punch to Mons. Jul—en. "Look here, Moms., too 're a Clever Fellcw in
your way, but let the british LlO^ alo^e—He isn't a poodle i "