DOI issue:
August 31, 1867
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16880#0102
90
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
I August 31, 1867,
DOMESTIC ECONOMY.
MRS, TODDLES, HAVING BOUGHT A SEWING MACHINE, “MAKES UP” FOR HER HUSBAND A NEAT SUIT FOR THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER.
MISADVENTURE CALLED MANSLAUGHTER.
A Talk between Two Fellows.
1st Fel/'ow. How dry the papers are !
2nd Fellow. So they oughr, to be. So is the season.
1st F. Yes, but it does lighten now and then, and rain cats and dogs.
2nd F. Which the journals report.
1st F. At the greatest possible length. There is little else in them
than accounts of provincial concerts and accidents and offences.
2nd F. There was an accident and offence in one reported the other
day in The Times, the poisouiug by laudanum sold in mistake for tinc-
ture of rhubarb at Leicester.
F. Ah, yes, and the coroner’s jury returned a verdict of man-
slaughter against, the shopkeeper who made the blunder.
2nd F. Quite right; and I hope he ’ll be convicted, and get penal
servitude.
1st F. Well ; but a blunder is not a crime.
2nd F. It is worse, as you must know. People who make fatal
mistakes ought to be hanged, to encourage others to take more care.
1st F. And then they would in the first place take care of themselves.
Is not this just what happened in the case at Leicester ? YVhen the
tradesman discovered that he had sold laudanum by mistake, what did
he do ? Did he send for a doctor F
2nd F. No, the brute. As the report says, “Instead of promptly
calling in medical aid, he resorted to his own skill in medicine, and
suggested the propriety of giving the child a powder and a little
antimony wine.”
1st F. Exactly so; and why F He knew that in cases of death
occurring through the inadvertent sale of poison, coroner’s juries
usually return.a verdict of manslaughter against the vendor. He knew
that it the child died without the knowledge of a medical man, the
cause of its death might escape discovery. This was a strong tempta-
tion not to send for one. it is a temptation which every chemist and
druggist, or any other man who by defect of sight, failure of memory,
or involuntary absence of mind, has made a slip endangering life, is
placed under by the fear that, if it is found out, he will be sent to take
nis trial for felony.
2nd F. What a selfish beast any one must be who could yield to such
a temptation!
F. Is not Society just as selfish in enforcing responsibility for its
own mere safety, with a view to precaution alone, and irrespectively of
right or wrong F Society, as represented by coroners’ juries, with the
concurrence of others who ought to know better, seems to have adopted
the truly cynical plan of punishing men as dogs are punished with
regard to mere acts, and regardless of motives. When responsibility
is shirked and people are suffered to die, by the self-preservativeness to
which retribution void of justice solely appeals, does not the vindictive
selfishness of Society defeat its own end F
2nd F. There may be something in that.
WANTS EXPLANATION.
Mr. Punch,
In the course of the entertaining Debate on Science and Art
that cheered the last hours of the House, the mysterious expression*
“ Democratic Jewellery ” was used, I believe, as a quotation. What
does it mean F Are we going to secure Beales’s rings and Dickson’s-
studs (we have heard of his chargers) and enshrine them, neatly
labelled, in a glass case in the new People’s Museum at Bethnal
Green F Or do Ministers intend to select from the Paris Exhibition,
with the assistance of Mr. Layard and a Committee of Experts, the
most exquisite gems that money can procure, and present them, with a
complimentary address beautifully engrossed on vellum, in the name
of the nation, to the leading members of the League, their wives, and
daughters F I write in some agitation, and shall be relieved if you can
assure me that I am wrong in both my interpretations of this obscure
phrase “ Democratic Jewellery.” Your obedient Servant,
A Blue Coat and Bofe YVaistcoat Man.
ECHO FROM SHEFFIELD.
Beales and Co. are getting up a dinner to “ the chiefs who led the
i Van.” What about those who ought to be in it F
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
I August 31, 1867,
DOMESTIC ECONOMY.
MRS, TODDLES, HAVING BOUGHT A SEWING MACHINE, “MAKES UP” FOR HER HUSBAND A NEAT SUIT FOR THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER.
MISADVENTURE CALLED MANSLAUGHTER.
A Talk between Two Fellows.
1st Fel/'ow. How dry the papers are !
2nd Fellow. So they oughr, to be. So is the season.
1st F. Yes, but it does lighten now and then, and rain cats and dogs.
2nd F. Which the journals report.
1st F. At the greatest possible length. There is little else in them
than accounts of provincial concerts and accidents and offences.
2nd F. There was an accident and offence in one reported the other
day in The Times, the poisouiug by laudanum sold in mistake for tinc-
ture of rhubarb at Leicester.
F. Ah, yes, and the coroner’s jury returned a verdict of man-
slaughter against, the shopkeeper who made the blunder.
2nd F. Quite right; and I hope he ’ll be convicted, and get penal
servitude.
1st F. Well ; but a blunder is not a crime.
2nd F. It is worse, as you must know. People who make fatal
mistakes ought to be hanged, to encourage others to take more care.
1st F. And then they would in the first place take care of themselves.
Is not this just what happened in the case at Leicester ? YVhen the
tradesman discovered that he had sold laudanum by mistake, what did
he do ? Did he send for a doctor F
2nd F. No, the brute. As the report says, “Instead of promptly
calling in medical aid, he resorted to his own skill in medicine, and
suggested the propriety of giving the child a powder and a little
antimony wine.”
1st F. Exactly so; and why F He knew that in cases of death
occurring through the inadvertent sale of poison, coroner’s juries
usually return.a verdict of manslaughter against the vendor. He knew
that it the child died without the knowledge of a medical man, the
cause of its death might escape discovery. This was a strong tempta-
tion not to send for one. it is a temptation which every chemist and
druggist, or any other man who by defect of sight, failure of memory,
or involuntary absence of mind, has made a slip endangering life, is
placed under by the fear that, if it is found out, he will be sent to take
nis trial for felony.
2nd F. What a selfish beast any one must be who could yield to such
a temptation!
F. Is not Society just as selfish in enforcing responsibility for its
own mere safety, with a view to precaution alone, and irrespectively of
right or wrong F Society, as represented by coroners’ juries, with the
concurrence of others who ought to know better, seems to have adopted
the truly cynical plan of punishing men as dogs are punished with
regard to mere acts, and regardless of motives. When responsibility
is shirked and people are suffered to die, by the self-preservativeness to
which retribution void of justice solely appeals, does not the vindictive
selfishness of Society defeat its own end F
2nd F. There may be something in that.
WANTS EXPLANATION.
Mr. Punch,
In the course of the entertaining Debate on Science and Art
that cheered the last hours of the House, the mysterious expression*
“ Democratic Jewellery ” was used, I believe, as a quotation. What
does it mean F Are we going to secure Beales’s rings and Dickson’s-
studs (we have heard of his chargers) and enshrine them, neatly
labelled, in a glass case in the new People’s Museum at Bethnal
Green F Or do Ministers intend to select from the Paris Exhibition,
with the assistance of Mr. Layard and a Committee of Experts, the
most exquisite gems that money can procure, and present them, with a
complimentary address beautifully engrossed on vellum, in the name
of the nation, to the leading members of the League, their wives, and
daughters F I write in some agitation, and shall be relieved if you can
assure me that I am wrong in both my interpretations of this obscure
phrase “ Democratic Jewellery.” Your obedient Servant,
A Blue Coat and Bofe YVaistcoat Man.
ECHO FROM SHEFFIELD.
Beales and Co. are getting up a dinner to “ the chiefs who led the
i Van.” What about those who ought to be in it F