Punch (55.1868)

September 26, 1868.]

127

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

RITUALISTIC. (A FACT.)

Cousin Emily. “Yes, Charlie, the Heathen say their Prayers to Idols
like that.”

Little Protestant (shocked). “ Oh, dear, they must be very, very High
Church to do that ! ”

HOMAGE TO LORD BUTE.

(In ichose honour a parody on the National Anthem was
sung at Cardiff.)

Hooray for young Lord Bute,

Good luck to ricli Lord Bute,

Long live Lord Bute.

N ot like inglorious
Nobles, notorious,

Safe from censorious

Tongue be Lord Bute.

May lie turn out more wise
Than some that prey, like flies,

To spiders fall;

Choose work or politics,

Flee turfites’ knavish tricks,

Tree from the mud that sticks
To such men all.

Sound common sense in store
Keep him, for evermore,

Krom yielding loot
To knaves with hungry maws,

Deep heads, and stealthy paws,

Mayst thou escape their claws,

Marquis oe Bute.

PENANCE EOR THE EBENCH PBESS.

Owing to a printers’ strike, the journals of Marseilles
were reduced the other day to publish nothing but blank
sheets. What a precedent to be followed by the rest of
the French press ! Considering how very little news or
useful information they are suffered to impart, it would be
surely all the better if French newspapers in general were,
ninety-nine days in a hundred, to appear en blanc, instead
of coming out in their now usual black and white. Faute
de news, their corners not uncommonly are filled with
such indecencies as certainly no English editor would
suffer to appear. These would clearly be prevented by
the course which the Marseilles J ournals have recently
pursued. For their delinquencies in this way, the majority
of Paris papers should do penance once a week, to say
the least, in a white sheet. Beally a French journal
would be readable throughout, if there were nothing to
be read in it excepting just the title and the date ot publi-
cation. Gagged as their Press is, our “lively neighbours”
now-a-days produce the dullest newspapers ; and to make
their journals fit to lie on English tables, nine in ten of
them at least should be issued in blank sheets.

A NEED IN THE NURSERY.

Wanted by the generality of ladies, being mothers of families, and
ranking amongst the richer classes, a nursery directress, who would
“undertake the supervision of the baby, or babies it may be, to see
that their tiny clothing be well aired, kept in repair, even replenished
by the help of her fingers, to arrange that they have their proper hours
of rest, airing, suitable amusements to prevent fretful weariness—in
short, to perform all the duties actually above a low menial’s work.”
The words above quoted are taken from a letter in the Times signed
j “ Mary Heath, Lady Superintendent, Home and Foreign Governesses’
Institution, 148, Brompton Boad.” This lady says that there are
hundreds of women, who, “ though hardly fitted for teaching,” “ would
vet be treasures in the house” if engaged to attend to the needs of
babies, such as she specifies. “ With such a person,” she observes.
“ the mother might depend on having in the nursery one who would
not, as is too often the case, be giving mere eye-service, and whose
own superior position would be sufficient security to her employers,
that in their absence there would be no lengthy flirtations with the
butler or coachman, no lounging for hours in the kitchen to the neglect
mid often pain of the poor little helpless ones in the nursery above.”
The nursery directress, in short, is wanted in the place of a parent, and
m the stead of a servant-gal. Mothers who have duties to do in the
drawing-room cannot perform them in the nursery, and the question is
whether in their absence, their children shall have the benefit of
“ lady-like manners and gentle firmness ” on the part of their attendant,
or be at the mercy of “ vulgar coarseness and want of judgment in an
ill-trained mind.” Of these two alternatives the latter is the case at

present in the great majority of instances. And it is not a case of
Hobson’s choice.

What is the difficulty that can possibly deter children from being
ruled and guided with ladylike manners and gentle firmness? Finan-
cial ? Not so. “A home and small salary,” we are told, would be a
consideration sufficient to secure those advantages. The one thing
needful is not pecuniary. “ The position of nursery-directress would j
be a boon ” to the numerous ladies qualified to take it, “ could they |
but accept such without lowering themselves as ladies.” That is all.

“ This could be arranged by mothers placing such a member of their
household in so relative a position to themselves that none of good
birth and gentle breeding need hesitate to accept.” There is nothing j
to prevent this on the part of mothers but that stuckupishness in
which there is really as much vulgar coarseness and want of judgment
as any that the commonest nursemaid exhibits in her way. It is,
indeed, as much servantgalism in a mistress, as the corresponding dis-
position in a master is flunkeyism. Courtesy costs nothing ; aud it is
lor ladies to consider whether that is too great a price to pay for a
nursery-directress. If they will not choose to afford it, they must be
content to leave their children in the hands of a sort of person who is
called a bonne, but would more correctly be termed a mauvaise.

Queer Taste.

Wiiat strange ways foreigners have! A Congress (the latest variety)
has just been held at Amsterdam, of “ Low German authors ” ! Only
one writer is mentioned by name as having had the Conscience to be
present.