Punch (58.1870)

Jone 25, 1870.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

251

PERSONAL.

Cabby (to Perspiring Swell). " "Would you Like to Get under the Shadow of my

Whip, Sir ? "

had yet to be bora—Marcellus, for one-
might possibly have foreseen the spirit of the
inventor named in a letter from Paris, an-
nouncing that:—

" Count Gkegoire Koucheleff, one of our
immensely rich Russians, has lately died. Rus-
sian millionnaires are said to beat even English-
men in their whims and fancies. One day, our
Count gave a petit souper to a select party of eight,
and fed them, after the fashion of the old Roman
Emperors, with parrots' tongues stewed with
truffles."

For, doubtless, the conception of the dish
above-named is original. The Roman Em-
perors had their mushrooms, whereof the best
were Boleti, a name now given to toad-
stools, of which some only are good to eat;
but it is very questionable if either Helio-
gabalus or Vitellius, whom we may call
Wittles for short, were ever blessed with a
truffle. We may doubt whether, in any Im-
perial menu or cibariorum tabella, there was
ever included such an entrSe as Lingua
psittacorum concocta cum tuberibus astivis.

Ancient epicures, indeed, are said to have
eaten nightingales' tongues now and then for
a freak, but they were probably too wise, and
eat simply the nightingale. Ail the warblers
are good to eat that are big enough to be
worth cooking, cockrobin inclusive; does
not Buffon recommend him with bread-
crumbs? As to a parrot, however, though
one would, in one's ignorance, as soon have
thought of eating a piece of magpie, the
tongue of it may be a nice morsel, especially
with the savoury addition of truffles. The
genius which invented this dish, rather too
expensive for mankind at large, has probably
made a variety of culinary discoveries wlrcSi
are boons to his species, and within the reach
of the "general," to whom it is quite pos-
sible that parrots' tongues would, even 1 hough
stewed with truffles, be as caviare. Trust we
that Count Koucheleff was a scientific
gastronomer; not a modern heathen, one of
those quorum deus venter est: and that, he has
gone to the happy hunting-grounds, where he
sups with St. Alexander Newski and
M. Soyer.

A RUSSIAN APICIUS.

A SUBSTITUTE FOR SIMONY.

Nothing can be more obvious than that
the sale of a Church living differs toto coclo from
that of a public appointment, which is a merely
terrestrial transaction. No man of this world
' can doubt that the former is as proper as the
■ latter is wrong; yet, variety is charming, and
therefore the exceptional agency of the elective
principle in deciding ecclesiastical preferment
may perhaps be borne with. Thereon was the
Rev. C. Badger, M.A., elected, the other
day, to fill the vacant Chaplaincy of St. John's
Church, Deritend, Birmingham. Election to
this office is based on household suffrage ;
which may, perhaps, be considered a method
not unsuitable to a household of faith. The
newspaper paragraph announcing this extra-
ordinary, but rather agreeable, item of cleri-
cal news, concludes with the statement, that
Mr. Badger's views are evangelical. At
any rate, they are better than they would be
if they were mercenary. Let us hope those

You know that when the pious jEneas, under the guidance of the Sibyl, explored the spiritual \ views will not so excite the animosity of High

world of ancient mythology, he found certain true Trojans and trumps in the pleasanter part
of it. Among these, you recollect, are specified bands of heroes of a class now represented by
Chelsea pensioners with wooden legs: heroes considerably better pensioned than their repre-
sentatives. Poets, too, are mentioned, such as John Milton, and also Dr. Watts ; and those
who said things worthy of Punch. Elysium was the meed of deservers who had distinguished
themselves by patriotism and bterary genius :—

" Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes : "

James Watt, for instance, as well as Isaac Watts, Isaac Nekton, Humphry Davy,
Michael Faraday, besides Galileo and a few other illustrious foreigners. Among these last,
jEneas, being so gifted with clairvoyance as to be enabled to see the spirits of people who

Church zealots that Badger will get baited
by them ; for they would be guilty of worse
than cruelty to animals if they drew that
Badger.

A Lame Conclusion.

A Member of the Junior Swellton has
likened the Reform Club to the Orthopfeftio
Hospital, on the ground that it is chiefly
open to reform club feet.