Punch (36.1859)

May 28, 1859.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

219

A MIRACLE ON THE CARDS AT NAPLES.

he good King
Bomba, by the
time that these
words are printed,
may have hid the
world good night,
and gone finally to
bed. But Bomba,
the other day, was
reported better
again, inasmuch as
. to have been able
to sit up in a chair
for twenty mi-
nutes. A few days
before, we had
been told that the
head of Bomba
was all of him that
remained alive—
body all senseless,
motionless—an in-
ert trunk. It may,
indeed, be said of
Bomba :—

" Affliction sore
long time he bore,"

if Bomba has really been suffering under that complication of disorders
which he is said to have been afflicted with. It appears, also, that his
state was at one time so desperate as to be considered beyond medical
aid ; wherefore, in the belief that

" Physicians were in vain,"

the royal sufferer had the blood of St. Januarius placed in his room,
that its liquefaction might perhaps effectually supersede the doctors.
Already, Punch has expressed the suspicion that Bomba has been
shamming. If he has, mark what will follow. Bomba will come out
some fine morning as well as ever, and as fresh as a daisy, declaring
that, after having been given over, he had been restored to health by
means of the blood of St. Januarius. Then there will be a festival
to commemorate his marvellous recovery: Bomba will go in procession
through the streets of Naples, and the priests will institute a flare-up.
Now then, stupid; if these things should come to pass, please to
remembor how many contradictory statements—therelore, how many
falsehoods—have been circulated as to Bomba's ailments; and con-
sider whether the story of his supernatural cure ought not to be
concluded to be onlv one lie more.

A VERY POPULAR PRINCE.

On the close of the Prussian Diet, the Prince Regent of Prussia
concluded a speech, which, if somewhat, hastily minacious, was, unlike
the utterances of most Continental potentates, not altogether bom-
bastic, with the following request to his audience of legislators :—
" Join me in the shout ' Long Live the King ! "

Fancy the Lord Chanxellor, in proroguing Parliament on behalf
of Her Majesty, calling upon the Lords and Commons to shout
" Long Live the Queen." It was all very well for the counsel of
Mr. Sickles to tell the mob to " Go it!" but it does seem a little
below that dignity which we associate with the function of Sovereignty
for a Prince Regent to address a similar invitation to his Chambers.

LABOUR IN VAIN.

The Augsburg Gazette calls on the German ladies to give up pur-
chasing any French articles of millinery -.—

"We must not," it says, "let German money pass from our pockets into those
ot the French, and enable them to make war on us."

Don't the Augsburg Gazette wish it may get it !J The same absurd
German organ wishes to extend the Anti-Gallican crusade to Crinoline.
The womanhood of Germany defy him from behind their entrenchments
of flounce and furbelow. So long as French steel is confined to petti-
coat-hoops, it will still be welcomed by every true German Frau and
Fraulein. The more of it used in that manufacture, the less will be
left for swords and bavonets.

JUMPING JEMMY.

My name it is Jumping Jemmy—

The original Jem surnamed Crow—
Famed for leaping and turning about,

And for going right round—just so ! (Pirouettes.)
But don't call me fickle, good people,

Any charge of the kind I deny:
The weathercock up on your steeple,

To its pole sticks not faster than I.

Chorus.

With my wheel-about, turn-about, right-about-face ;
I may change my hue, but I stick to my place !

You don't call your weathercock fickle

For telling each change of the wind—
Then why try get me in a pickle,

'Cause I'm given to changing my mind ?
A weatheLCOck, all know, is useful,

All the more, the more lightly it veers;
Of a pilot who'd e'er be abuseful,

For heeding the wind as he steers ?

Chorus.

With my wheel-about, turn-about, right-about-face ;
I may change my line, but I stick to my place!

And how's man alone to stand steady,

When all around man's on the change P
In Life's whirl, all to whirl must be ready;

Mine's only a very long range,
And I've still been consistent all through,

To make inconsistency pay ;
Just as nimble my acts to undo,

As I'm nimble my words to unsay.

Chorus.

With my wheel-about, turn-about, right-about-face:
I may change my line, but I'll stick to my place !

'Tis but to save strain in my motions,

For an easier leap to prepare,
That I'm always extreme in my notions,

Since extremes often meet, you're aware.
'Twixt two stools some men boggle and bother,

And between them come, bang, to the ground,
I leap clean from one stool to the other—

And safe in my seat still am found 1
Chorus.

With my wheel-about, turn-about, right-about-face;
I may change my line, but I stick to my place !

Horatian Maxim for a Grumbleh.—Carpe diem—he carps every
day.

THE RIGHT PERSON IN THE RIGHT PLACE.

Sir John Pakington wants some one in the House who has a
knowledge of nautical matters, and who can talk for him. Why
doesn't he get the Talking Fish to stand for some place ? The creature
knows the sea thoroughly, can tell a ship when he sees one, and is not
likely to commit himself by any act of indiscretion, since he is not
acquainted at present with more than two words, but then you can
hear each of them most distinctly. What Lord of the Admiralty can
say as much ? Can you give us the name of any one Lord, who can
speak two words intelligibly ? Therefore, we recommend Sir John to
get the Talking Fish into Parliament without any provoking delay.
His presence may somewhat compensate us, only on a less brilliant
scale, for the absence of that other odd fish, Bernal Osborne.

Ad Arabellam.

A Fact, long known to him, kind Punch may be
Allowed to gratulate his rara avis on :

Joy to the Lady of the Keys ! From G.

The music of her life's transposed to D,
And Arabella Goddard's Mrs. Davison.

The Parchment In erest.

The Law Titus* gives a list of Attorneys m the House of Commons,
and adds the observation, that the solicitors can boast of a large acees
sion of strength by this election. This being the case warrants the
confident expectation of the speedy enactment of the Registration of
Titles to Landed Estates Bill, contemplated in order to the simplifi-
cation of the forms and reduction of the expenses of conveyancing.
The constituents of the parliamentary solicitors will be enabled to
judge of them by their deeds.