Punch (62.1872)

WOMAN'S RIGHTS.

Mrs. Duffcott writes to Mr. Punch for his Judgment on a most Important Question. Mr. D. is not now in Parlia-
ment, or she would not trouble M.r. P. the point is, whether her cook or L*.DY'S-MaID takes precedence among the

Servants in her Establishment. The unseemly Scowling, not to say Scuffling, that takes place when they come in to
Prayers, is quite Shocking !

VATICINATIONS OF THE VATICAN.

(Pius p?-ophesies.)

From Germany again . . . this little cloud
No bigger than a man's hand ... a man's head . . .

Yon dreaming Dollinger's . . . spreads to a shroud,
For souls with plague of heresy struck dead,

Who wear it for a marriage-garment, proud
As men who new life, not old death, have wed.

Yes, the plague spreads and spreads—and I sit still,
And cannot light the fires that Popes of old

Lighted, such pestilential schism to kill,
And with their wholesome warming to uphold

Blind Reverence and fair Faith against the ehill
Of Free Thought, and Lay Reason's deadly cold !

No Leo I,—no Lion-Lord of Rome,
This lesser Luther tooth and nail to rend !

Within the shadow of St. Peter's Dome

St. Peter's shrunken realm must 'gin and end:

" Urbi at orbi," of the Church's home
Was measure once; " in urbe " now 'tis penned !

No Leo I—what if a Luther he,

Munich Basilica's Byzantine Gate
Another door of Wittenberg to he,

Defying Papal fixes and Papal hate ?
What if my own encyclicon I see,

Of Leo's indulgentia share the fate ?

Has the thing bred the thought, the thought the thing ?

But as I gaze, methinks, out of this cloud,
From Munich, blown by blast of Satan's wing,

I see the Erfurt monk's broad forehead bowed—

Above that brow a star, that light doth bring,
From hell, not heaven—Hence, Lucifer avowed!

" For light—more light! "—the heretic may pray:
But 'twas in clouds and darkness Sinai's Lord

Spake when he bade his chosen race obey ;
In cloud he walked to point their conquering sword;

The Holy place of Holies hid away
In veils his presence, while Priests spoke his Word.

Give Faith its darkness—leave the light for Schism-
Light that shows many paths, but cannot show

Which leads from, which leads to, the black abysm,
Whose depths all heretics are doomed to know :

Fools of that reason, whose dissolving prism
Breaks up white Truth to Error's iris-bow.

Beef from Botany Bay.

Sixpence preserved Australian meat per pound !

If good, in preference one would always buy it;
But done to rags, as 'tis too often found,

What is it more than vegetable diet ?

Strike Among Suds.

According to a contemporary, a fashion for some time prevalent
amongst the industrious classes has been adopted by some of a class
remarkable for industry:—

" Washerwomen on Strike.—A. good deal of amusement was caused at
Teignmouth, on Monday, by the town-crier announcing a Btrike of the washer-
women and laundresses, and declaring their resolution not to work for less
than Is. 6d. per day."

This strike will very likely succeed. The washerwomen of Teign-
mouth, no doubt, took good care to strike while the iron was hot.