Punch (34.1858)

April 10, 1858.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

143

OPTICAL PHENOMENA OBSERVED DURING THE ECLIPSE.

E understand that, by
observers in Middle-
sex alone, among the
Optical Phenomena
attending the Eclipse,
upwards of twelve
hundred black eyes
were discovered; be-
ing a full average of
nine black eyes per
cent, among the ama-
teur astronomers who
were engaged in ta-
king sights at the
moon during her pas-
sage. These pheno-
mena were nearly all
of them occasioned
through the injudi-
cious handling of the
pieces of smoked glass,
with which the said as-
tronomers made then-
observations. As many
as eleven hundred
and eleven of the eyes
are said to have been
blackened before 10
o'clock, a.m. ; i.e., at
least an hour and a
half before the moon's

first contact; and it appears t hat nearly niuetv blackenings occurred when the clouding of
the sun had rendered smoked glass needless. We understand that the phenomena were not
a bit more lasting than might have been expected, and that the simple application of the end
of a wet towel proved sufficient to remove even the greatest obscuration.

To carry out Professor Airy's fourth
" Suggestion," that persons who were " ele-
vated " should " remark the changes of appear-
ance of surrounding objects," Mr. Swipey
took a course of bitter beer at breakfast, suc-
ceeded by Scotch Ale and bottled Guinness
after it, which, by the time when the Eclipse
was at its height, duly brought him, as he
thought, to the needful state of elevation.
The observations which he made were some-
what indistinct; but he noted, that, among
the optical phenomena produced by the Eclipse,
it made all the objects what surrounded him
look double.

The Editor of one of the surviving Paris
newspapers, hoped that under cover of the dark-
ness he might print a little news without the
Government detecting it. The obscurity how-
ever proved too slight to be of service. Al-
though the paragraph was printed in the very
smallest type, no fewer than three hundred and
eleven spies detected it; and the Editor was
warned that he would find himself " suspended "
the next time he forgot himself, and printed
anything that anyhow might be considered
news, or prove of any interest to any of his
readers.

A novel optical phenomenon was observed to
be produced upon a gentleman at Peckham,
who, acting on Professor Airy's third j
" Suggestion " to " hold a lighted candle nearly
between the sun and your eye," in order to!
" observe at what distance the flame could be
seen," contrived while making the experiment
to singe off rather more than half of his right
eyebrow, the effect of which, we hear, is even
now distinctly visible without the aid of any
instrument.

labours of a welsh hercules.

A Welsh Editor, who has transferred his services from one pub-
lication to another, and has, as he conceives, been insulted by the
proprietor of the first, who has called him a Reporter, publishes, in
order to prove what a multifarious responsibility he underwent, a sort
of analysis of his duties. It is in itself a Curiosity of Literature,
and it is really due to Country Editors in general to show how very
hard they work for the benefit of the localities blessed with their
presence.

Our friend's first duty was "To arrange the foreign and parlia-
mentary intelligence of the week from the daily papers." The man
who can do this fairly and carefully, in two days, is a smart fellow.

Next " To select and cull" (we don't know what culling is, or
how it differs from selection, but propose to write and ask Sir
Culling Eardley) " miscellaneous paragraphs from the same source."
This is a troublesome job, especially as the daily papers select (and
cull) from the country papers, and you may be reprinting your own
articles or a rival's.

Third. " To arrange a columu of literary matter (no magazine or book
being afforded me but the London Journal, which by the bye was at last
stopped)." Arrange means extract, and if the gentleman had to invent
a column of extracts, and could do it, his genius ought not to have been
left to languish in an obscure Welsh town. We are sorry the London
Journal was stopped, as it is a most instructive publication; but as the
loss could have been made good for a penny, we pass to duty number

Eour. "To report all meetings within the town and the district,
and sometimes at a distance." Rebecca and her children do not now
meet in Wales. But there are plenty of meetings of guardians, over-
seers, vestries, magistrates, Odd-fellows, and the like, and woe to the
editor whose reporter has omitted a single pearl that falls from the lips
of a local orator. As, if anybody hisses at a theatre, the manager
always says that the wretch has been " sent in," and that it is part of
" a conspiracy," and looks under the seat of his carriage for bomb-
shells when he goes away, a provincial orator, shortened in report,
instantly writes to impute the abbreviation to the most diabolical and
underhand plot ting on the part of somebody not a hundred miles from
somewhere. This work was enough for one individual. But

Fifthly. " To ascertain every incident within the town, and convert
it into a paragraph." Surely "this is one man's work, and good work.
How is a gentleman to be arranging the news of the world, selecting
(and culling) paragraphs, inventing literature, and reporting meeting.-*,
while he is patrolling the pebbly streets to see what remarkably fine
little boys fall into the fire, what new arrangement, has been made in
bhe mckles in friend Jobley's window, and how the water-spout was

torn down from the stable of Mrs. Miggles, the respected hostess of
the Blue Moon, by some fiend in human form, at whom our admired
and acute policeman, Starch, has, we hear, a shrewd guess? Our
Hercules was ubiquitous, however, and then

Sixthly. " To write occasional letters on local subjects supposed to
be interesting to the inhabitants, not in my own name, but from a cor-
respondent." Oh, for shame! What? Then "Vigilans," who
sneered at the parson, and "Argus," who scoffed at the Mayor's want
of politeness, and "Little Bo-Peep," who wished to know who paid
for the champagne at a certain dinner, or indeed if mine host were paid
at all, were not real people. Oh, fie ! We never have anything of this
kind in a London paper—never. But the next is worse.

Seventhly. "To praise, directly and by inuendo, certain personal
friends of the publisher, and to write down a certain solicitor, his staff,
and everything that was his."

Here we must pause. This is too shocking. We were not prepared
for such revelations. They come upon us like a shower-bath, and may
hereafter brace us for action, but at the instant they simply overwhelm
and make us shudder. We cannot pursue the painful subject. The
complainant does. He adds that he had—•

" To cut out every paragraph from the Courant (not a week old), relating to the
Principality, and to insert it in the paper he edited ; to re-write everything
interesting to the neighbourhood from the columns of a certain contemporary, ditto
from a certain other contemporary in the towu, should the information not have
been obtained before ; to write leading articles upon local, district, and general
subjects, two or three per week, as the case might be, with sometimes a summary
(this i did, with but one exception, for three years and a half); to hunt up adver-
tisements, and write and remodel them ; to read the proofs and revise them ; and,
in short, to make up and write the whole paper, including the revision of illegible
manuscripts, and questionable compositions."

It may be so. It sounds a good deal. But, after previous revelations,
nothing would surprise us. The American youth eat a rhinoceros for
dinner, and then grumbled that tea wasn't ready. We have eaten the
Welsh rhinoceros, and can wait for tea. But, 0 gentle readers, when
you take up a country paper, and as you probably and naturally do, two
minutes later, throw it down again, think of the duties of an Editor,
as described by this Cambrian Hercules.

In Re Pelissier.

Lord John Russell, the boldness of whose Britannic French is
well known, has been pleased to enliven the Easter week with the
following bon-mot. Referring to the appointment of the Duke op
Malakoef, his Lordship said: "Louis Napoleon has conquered,
after all. He has obtained our consent to introduce his Police-here."
Woburn Abbey was illuminated that night.