Punch (34.1858)

January 16, 1858.] PUNCH, Oft THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 27

TIGER-SLAYING IN KAMSCHATKA.

he Athenaeum says, "Mr. Gor-
don Cummins, has found his
match in Mr. William Rice,"
who has recently published an
account of his tiger-slaying
tours in India. The following
exciting narrative, from the
pen of an American gentle-
many shows that Mr. Rice
has also been beaten hollow,
or to speak more correctly,
has been pounded into ground
rice. We may mention that
the author of the narrative is
the father of the celebrated
baby whom Mr. A.rrowsmith
saw murdered in the railway
train, and of which he gave
such a thrilling account under
the title of " Railways and
Revolvers in Georgia." It is
needless therefore to assure
the reader of the perfect
authenticity of the following
story:—

" it is singular that many
otherwise well-informed per-
sons should labour under the
delusion that no tigers are to
be found in Kamschatka. The very name of one of the chief towns ' Tyhil-skaia,' (which
may be translated tiger's cave) should at once convince every one of the absurdity of this
opinion. I shall not stay to advance farther proof, but shall proceed at once to my narrative.

" On the 5th of June, 185—, accompanied by my friend Captain C. of the Horse Marines,
and Dr. W. a Bishop of the English Church, having his see not a hundred miles from a certain
great University, I found myself in the woods between Itchenskor and Coniano. My com-
panions were armed with a gun apiece. The Bishop constantly wore his mitre to protect his

reverend head from the piercing rays of the sun,
and really looked like one of the mediaeval
bishops accompanying an army to battle. For
myself, relying upon my skill as a marksman (I
have often hit an apple, as* Washington is
said to have done from the head of his youthful
son), I preferred to carry simply a bow and
arrows.

_ "Presently we came upon the footsteps of a
tigress, and following them up, soon arrived at
her den. Immediately, with a terrific growl, she
sprang out of some brushwood near, and stood
within a few yards of us. Hereupon the Bishop
quickly ascended a large specimen of the Prickly
Pig Tree, which grew near. The rapidity of his
ascent caused his mitre to effect a divorce from
his sacred cranium, and to fall to the ground.
The tigress fortunately stopped to smell at the
episcopal emblem, which gave us time to take a
good aim; The Captain first fired, and his baL
hit the tigress in the lower jaw, carrying away
three teeth. This rough dentistry enraged the
animal to such a degree that she gave a yell, and
sprang forwards, throwing me down, and putting
my left arm out of joint. Despair, however,
gave me almost superhuman strength; so
bending my bow with my left leg, I took aim,
and hit the savage beast in the eye. She fell
dead instantly.

" In this conflict I received a severe wound
in the shoulder, besides the dislocation of my
arm already referred to. I am at present laid
up from the effects of these injuries, but as soon
as 1 recover, I intend again to sally forth into
the woods."

* Our American correspondent here tells the often told
story of William Tell. The application of the anecdote
to Washington may be pardoned in an ardent patriot.

RAGGED PEOPLE EOR RAGGED SERVICES.

It appears that the crowds of people who throng to hear Bishops
and Deans discourse in the Nave of Westminster Abbey and else-
where, are, for the most part, not by any means composed of those
classes for whose edification Special Services and Sermons are in-
tended. If the congregations who attend these devotions continue to
consist of respectable persons, the very reverend and right reverend
preachers will hold forth comparatively in vaiu. Pools who come to
stare remain to gape. No difficulty, however, seems to be experienced
in securing the attendance of the poorer orders alone at the Bagged
Churches. This consideration suggests an obvious expedient _ for
providing that those who attend Special Services shall be the right
sort of people. It consists in the inverse application of that rule by
the enforcement of which security is taken that none but proper people
shall be admitted elsewhere.

Nobody can be allowed to enter the pit of the Opera unless attired
in correct evening costume. In like manner, on the other hand, every-
body might be turned back from the door of Westminster Abbey, on
these special occasions, who did not present himself in costume deci-
dedly incorrect. Everybody might be required to be at least out at
elbows, and nobody permitted to enter with a clean shirt, or without a
shocking bad hat. It would be necessary to deny admission to all
comers in airy description of vehicle above a donkey-cart. The prin-
ciple of exclusiveness might thus be practised on behalf of the inferior
classes, so as to protect them from the intrusion of genteel persons.
It would no doubt procure the result desired for the former as
effectually as it answers the intentions of the latter ; and the shabbily
dressed or half-dressed worshipper would not be annoyed by the
proximity of a party of fashionable exterior. If any individual of the
higher ranks should, now and then, smuggle himself in, the case would
be simply that of the occasional snob at the Opera—an exception
proving the rule. But this is not likely ; for though a gent may some-
times slip into Her Majesty's Theatre in a suit of black Moses, it is
not very likely that any adventurous swell would, except for a very
high wager, attire himself as a costermonger, in order to go to West-
minster Abbey and hear the Dean preach to the populace.

The mention of costermonger recalls the idea of a peculiar con-
veyance above alluded to as a vehicle allowable to special service-
goers. If the Clergy prove as successful as they seem to be zealous in
their attempt to attract the humbler classes, there is no reason why
the doors of cathedral naves and Bagged Churches should not be as
closely crowded with donkey-carts as fashionable places of worship are
with superior equipages.

SERIOUS READING.

"My dear Mr. Punch,

" Some very painful letters have lately appeared in the Times,
in censure of the general style of Clergymen's reading and delivery.
The writers are evidently unsanctified persons, who dislike and deride
a truly devotional tone. There is a pathetic moaning, an earnest
groaning, a long-drawn rise and fall of the voice, a peculiarly affecting
intonation, in which alone the lessons, the prayers, and the seimons
are read by truly pious ministers. It is that blessed kind of reading
which cairnot even be mimicked, as it frequently is by scoffers, without
causing an almost involuntary raising of the eye-balls. It expresses a
sweetness, and a sadness, and a yearning; but the scorner calleth it a
drawl. It corresponds to the music of parochial psalmody—the only
music truly sacred; and when heard at a distance it is a kind of
music without words—at least without articulate words—by which
however, the nature of what the utterer is reading may always be
recognised. Yea, even an unsanctified party in passing by a house
wherein a Scripture Reader is labouring in his vocation, is at once
apprised of the character of what is being read. He knoweth it is not
a leading article, or a money article in the Times. Oh! Mr. Punch,
never let our preachers abandon that mode of reading which the
reporters of the marriages in high life so truly term 'impressive.'
What were our most popular preachers without it, and without it
what were their sermons ? Lacking carnal argument, deficient in
worldly wisdom, replete only with a heaving and gushing affection, the
moaning, and the groaning, yea, and, if the wicked like, the snuffling
and the belching and the howling of the preacher, inspire them with a
meaning which they would not otherwise possess, and more than
supply an absence of unnecessary sense by the more edifying eloquence
of sound.

" I am, my dear Mr. Punch,
" Your own and the Record's constant reaaer,

"Jeremiah Maudlin."

" Drivelbrook Parsonage, Jan., 1858."

A Card.

The Celebrated Ministry called All the Talents is well-nigh forgotten.
The present Cabinet does not aspire to such a title, but will be known
—since Clanricarde has joined—as All the Trumps.

A New Saw for an Old One.—The Leviathan was not launched
in a day.