Punch (49.1865)

162 PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [October 21, 1865.

“ FOLLOW MY LEADER ! ”

Captain Babble (East Suffolkshire R,. V.) going to Drill, has occasion to Pass a certain Window for Reasons best

KNOWN TO HIMSELF. A VAGUE IDEA POSSESSES HIM THAT SOMETHING IS WRONG SOMEHOW, OR WHAT SHOULD CREATE SUCH AMUSEMENT

on this Occasion!

THE NEW STOLBERG LOZENGE.

“ A few days ago, says the Berlin Correspondent of the Times, Count Stolberg,
a Major in the Prussian Life Guards, and Brother to the President of the Prussian
House of Lords, at the Palazzo Famese, in solemn audience, presented to the King,
Francis the Second, a costly silver shield, the result of a subscription among his
political friends, an exquisite piece of embossed workmanship, representing the
ex-King in the act of slaying numerous revolutionary demons. The Count delivered
the following address on the occasion :—

“ Sire,—Four years ago your Majesty, and her Majesty the Queen, graciously
condescended to accept from the hands of Prince Sayn Wittgenstein an address
bearing the signatures of some hundreds of German noblemen. In it we begged to
present to your Majesties the tribute of our profound respect, availing ourselves of ;
that opportunity to declare in the face of the world that, unless restrained by the
allegiance we owe to our own Sovereigns, we should have all hastened hither, sword
in hand, to take part in the defence of GaSta, and to die on its walls for the principle :
of Legitimacy. In the same address we begged permission of your Majesties to [
present you a shield commemorating the defence of Gaeta. I have now been charged ;
by Prince Sayn Wittgenstein, Prince Purstenberg, Count Erbach, Count ;
Leiningen, and Count Stolberg, who drew up that address, to place this shield at
the feet of your Majesty.”

Of famed Stolberg’s lozenge we’ve all of us heard,

And some may have swallowed the same ;

But let THE Stolberg lozenge henceforth be preferred
To a region of loftier fame.

’Twas Count Stolberg, a Major of Prussia’s Life Guard,

Who the shield to Bombino conveyed,

Eor which Prussia’s bold junkers had clubbed, to reward
The pluck at Gaeta displayed.

The ground-work was silver, whereon was embossed
Bombino in act to destroy

Revolution’s fell demons, all abjectly tossed
At the feet of the bright, Bourbon boy.

Why heed ribald scoffs by the Lib’rals outpoured,

_ When they call this a pleasantry grim ;

Since, in fact, ’twas not Francis the demons who floored,

But the demons who, somehow, floored him.

Since instead of a King’s and a soldier’s defence
Bombalino, Gaeta’s siege through.

Lay perdu in a bomb-proof, in terror intense—

A case of the funk that’s called blue ?

Pruss Junkerdom’s right is to strain out the dregs
That make Truth's bitter waters so strong;

To lift fallen tyranny up on its legs,

And torture facts right when they’re wrong.

Brave Junkers ! They seize on this chance to declare,

In the face of an awe-stricken world,

That but for an if— which bad somehow got there—

At Gaeta their flag they’d unfurled.

But somehow they didn’t—so words stand for blows,

And donors with donee are in cue:

Eor just such devotion as Junkerdom shows
To such heroes as Francis is due.

Since Vox et prceterea nihil’s the yield
Of Junkerdom’s loud loyal call,

When measured by deeds, e’en the great Stolberg shield
But a voice-lozenge proves, after all.

Conventionally Speaking-.

It seems that the Pope draws a large part of his pontifical income
from the drawing of weekly lotteries. We wonder if he will find the
occupation, or evacuation, of Rome by the french troops as profitable a
speculation, because the uncertainty about that event seems to be at
present the greatest lottery, in which the Holy Eather holds the greatest
interest, and is naturally anxious to retain as many numbers as possible.

Marriage Extra-ordinary.—Between a Dumb-waiter and a Still-
room Maid.