Punch (59.1870)

130

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[September 24, 1870.

MASTER OF THE SITUATION.

Hullo ! The Prince Imperial ? No, only a Telegraphic Despatch-Boy in the Vicinity of a Newspaper Office. The

Politeness of the Newspaper Rowdies is Unbounded !

A WORD TO THE WiSE.

Homer again ! Who forgets the glorious conclusion of the Odyssey ?
Ulysses, aged, wise, valiant, and suoported by his son, the brave and
good Telemachus, is driven to make war upon those who in his
absence, had invaded his home. His arms are blessed with conquest,
and the chiefs who were his enemies have fallen. But their followers
maintain the strife, instead of submitting, and the old King and the
young Prince resolve on further vengeance. All goes down before
them, and

" Before the Father and the conquering Son

Heaps rush on heaps, they fight, they drop, they run.
Now by the sword, and now the javelin, fall
The hostile race, and death had swallowed all—"

But a, higher agency interposes to prevent a needless carnage, and
Wisdom, in the person of her Goddess Minerva, comes down to check
the victors, and to prevent their abasing their triumph.

" Descended from the Gods ! Ulysses, cease:
Offend not Jove : obey, and Give the Peace."

The hero of Divine Right, the Wise King, is too pious not to listen
to such a warning, and having taken guarantee that his household shall
not again be disturbed, he grants the peace.

Does Poetry as well as History repeat itself ? Behold the Cartoon !

A Word of the Past.

Rouher said, when he shouted " Never ! "
A thing with plaudits hailed as clever.
Italy goes to Home, however.

Experientia Docet.

Parisian journalists continue to talk about " the gravity of these
events," and the " gravity of the situation." Pity that experience j
should have been necessary to convince people of the gravity of a
situation and events that have resulted from the mistake of regarding
war, which has caused them, with levity.

GEMS EROM A FRENCH JOURNAL.

Among the multitude of extracts quoted from the Erench papers by
our own, here is at last a passage which evinces human reason. It
occurs in Le Figaro:—

"The Figaro was the first, or at least among the first, to tackle resolutely
this double question—Is peace necessary ? Is peace possible ? To which we
replied, yes. It shows no cowardice, but rather courage, to break away from
the longing for vengeance and the heroic resolution to hold out which cause
the heart of Prance to throb. The time of florid phraseology to the sound of
the trumpet and the drum has ceased."

" O bravo, Figaro, bravo bravissiaio !"
The reasoning Figaro adds:—

" Paris and the departments are no longer willing to intoxicate themselves
with words, shouts, and trumpets."

It is very greatly to be hoped that this statement is as true as the
observations preceding it are rational. And let us trust that, if Erance
atid Paris (especially Paris) have in truth been brought to their senses
by military disasters incurred through vainglorious frivolity, the wisdom '
which they will have purchased by experience will not desert them when
experience has discontinued its teaching. As soon as they are restored
to prosperity—and the sooner the better—let them set to at dancing
again with all their soul, and toe and heel, and teach Europe to dance
as heretofore, that is to say, formerly, and not of late ; for they latterly
taught people to dance the cancan, and have been violently carried j
away from grace in the character of dancing-masters. But may we find J
that they have finally left off talking about la gloire, and will never j
again be heard shouting "A Berlin!" or "A" anywhere else, or j
singing " Salopian ! " Having thoroughly realised the consequences
of breaking the peace, may they show that they have grown wiser than
wantonly to break it again, and then be as merry as they have become
wise ; that is to say, much merrier than ever.

European Police Question.--The French want peace; but into
what sureties will they enter to keep it ?