Punch (59.1870)

260

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[December 17, 1870.

POLICE TYRANNY.

Policeman (to obtrusive Tramp). " Now then, what d'ye mean by Shoving yourself in before these Poor People out o' your
Tubn ? You Stand back, or—(thinking deeply)—you shall have such a Wash//"

POOE LOOK-OUT FOR PUDDING.

An alarming decree the Tours Government utter,
British Lion at food-time 'twill cause thee to roar;

They forbid exportation of salt, eggs, and butter—
We 're beginning to find that the War is a bore.

England's housekeepers cry, with anxiety brooding
On provision for Christmas at hand and in view,

" Badly off we shall be for mince-pie and plum-pudding,
For without eggs and butter, O what can we do ? "

Well, there's one consolation for Paterfamilias
And Mater, which ought to make fond parents smile;

Christmas fare, if less rich, will make children less bilious,
Give their elders, too, less indigestion and bile.

WOMEN'S NATURAL BIGHTS.

Tee question of Married Women's Property has not yet reached a
settlement. On the evening of Monday week a meeting of the Victoria
.Discussion Society was held in the Cavendish Booms to discuss it.
Opinions were expressed by ladies and gentlemen in a succession of
speeches which led to no conclusion; but Sir Erskine Perry, who
occupied the Chair, made a significant remark :—

" The Chairman observed that the subject about to be discussed was one of
great importance to every household. It affected both heads of families and
their children, and affected them in the most serious and important manner."

No doubt. The subject of Married Women's Property is one about
whicfj a husband and wife may differ, so as to quarrel and rave. Thus
it may affect the heads of families very seriously. And, as affections
of the head are often hereditary, it may indirectly affect their children
likewise. These considerations must make prudent men think, not
twice only, but three or four times, or more, before they marry, unless

they propose to marry a girl without any but naturally personal pro-
perty ; oftentimes the cheapest as well as the most generous marriage.

There was something also in what was said by another of the
speakers:—

"Me. Hoskyns . . . contended that the married women of England had
hitherto been very unfairly treated with regard to property. He, Mb.
Hoskyns, contended that husbands should treat their wives as equal human
beings. He did not consider that they had been so treated hitherto."

Very true, Hoskyns, in a measure. On the whole, perhaps, women
have not been treated like equal human beings. However, they are
always helped first at dinner, and men usually stop at a door, and let
their female companions enter first. And this is right. Persons of
the ruder sex, meaning to be rude, often make a remark: which is truer
than they imagine, lor them at least. "Woman," they say, "is the
inferior animal." " Yes," may be the replv, " but she is the superior
human being." Let every husband, therefore, duly resign to his wife
the liver-wing of a fowl, unless she prefers the gizzard, and let him at
least give her the refusal of the pheasant's leg.

Incomplete Charade.

Gortschakopf ! What imports
This Statesman's nomination?

With " my two last" it sorts
To shake off obligation.

Educational Colours.

The Post, in a leader on the subject of education, has the following
remark relative to " street Arabs " and " gutter-children" who will be
educated in the new national schools :—

" But the colourless religion which will be part of their mental pabulum
will be better than their present no-religion."

Ought not religion, pure and simple, to be colourless ? Light is of
no colour until it is decomposed.