Punch (74.1878)

M»n.:.i 23 1-7 8.) PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 131

fyrJfl*! isa

ACCOMMODATING.

Customer. " Yes, I like the Bonnet ; but I do not want the Cap in it."
Show-Woman. " Oh, you can have it without, if you like. With the Cap it's a
Bonnet, you know, and without it it's an 'At !"

SACRIFICES TO SLANG.

Among British Interests one which may
be considered of no small importance is the
interest oi the English language. In that
interest really an answer is due to the ques-
tion put as follows in a letter to the Editor
of the Times :—

" Sir,—I do not know how it may have struck
your readers, but Mr. Foebes's proposal to call
his reconnoitring force 'scouts' rather grates
upon my feelings. The proposal itself is excel-
lent; but why not adopt the word 'guides' ? —
I am yours obediently, H. A."

Consult your Johnson, H. A., and you
will find the words " scout" and " guide "
respectively defined as follows :—

" Scout, n. s. (escout, Fr., from escouter). One
who is sent privily to observe the motions of the
enemy.

" Ouide, n. s. {guide, Fr , from the verb).
1. One who directs another in his way. 2. One
who directs another in his conduct. 3. Director,
regulator."

And you will find this further definition
relative to the word " scout " : —

"To Scout, v. n. (from the noun). Togo out
in order to observe the motions of an enemy
privately."

Hence you may discern that " scout" is
exactly the proper appellation for a soldier
on reconnoitring service, and that " guide "
is not. You say that " scout " grates upon
your feelings. Why ? Perhaps because
you have heard it used in a dyslogistic
sense as synonymous with " scamp," which
it may have become from being, in Oxford
slang, a name for a usually knavish attend-
ant = " Gyp " at the other University. In
somewhat the same sense an absurd or im-
proper proposal is commonly said to be

scouted "—meaning reprobated with con-
tempt. But why give in to these modern
perversions of words ?

Let no sewage soak into the well of Her
Most Gracious Majesty's English undefiled.
Nolurnus voces Anglice mutari.

New Title for Irish Members of Par-
liament.—The Not-at-Home-as-a-Rulers.

" Peste, mon cher ! " the young Yicomte had said, " on ne pense
pas anx additions, c'est une affaire de la cour de la province,n

The old Duke of Wokingham courteously offered seats in his
coach. He was taking a party to his place at Gravesend. Sir
Skelliton and Lord Muzberry accepted the offer. Fitz-Hurse
had his own conveyance; and, being an old man, it was rather an
undertaking for him. The younger ones did not like to refuse the
Duke, but his coach, on which he plumed himself considerably, was
too slow and solemn an affair for them, and they excused themselves
as best they could. Sweetie stopped for a moment to look out for
his brother, little Alf Pinto, whom he expected to see in company
with the Do-Do and the Loo-Loo.

Strapmore walked slowly as far as his stables, where he stood
for some minutes, regarding himself in one of the numerous cheval
glasses with which the stalls were ornamented. He threw open his
coat, and placing his hands behind him, with a powerful effort,
drew the waistcoat buckle one inch tighter.

" Those who take me," he muttered to himself, "must take me
at my own figure. More waist, worse speed. Now, en route for
Dodgerville, and," he added, in an under-tone, as a dangerous light
shot from his eyes, " the Lady Regula."

In a few minutes more the road was alive with every sort of
vehicle, from the Serpentine Drag to the fashionable machine aux
baigneurs, from the Stage Coach, with its fair bevy of Dramatic
pupils, to the open Vampire Trap, with its Lu-Lu like occupant,
dreaming only of conquest, all were tooling and teaming on the way
to Dodgerville.

(To be continued?)

How to Reproduce'the Hieroglyphs on Cleopatra's Needle.
-By Monolithography.

[antes Pain JfrisMI.

James Hain Friswell, a graceful and various writer as an essayist,
novelist, and journalist, a genial, kindly, and blameless man, and
a strenuous labourer, both in bis literary work and his life, for the
advancement of all good causes, and the help of all that needed
helping, has died, as such workers usually do die, in harness,
after a lingering illness, the result of the rupture of a blood-vessel
nearly two years ago.

He was, inter alia, the Author of the "Answers to Correspondents"
in the Family Herald. It is easy to laugh such a function to scorn,
but those who know to what hosts of humble homes that Herald sends
its messages, and how much of good or bad influence hangs on the
spirit in which those message are spoken, will understand that Hain
Friswell's work was not of the kind that it is seemly or sensible to
pass by slightingly.

While other fruit of his labours—in particular the collection of
Essays entitled The Gentle Life— has been as well-known as widely
circulated in connection with his name, this, his Family Herald
work, however wide-spread, was nameless. Considering the gentle
and right-minded spirit in which this work was done, Hain Fris-
well deserves to be recorded as the Author of it, by Punch, fellow-
labourer in the same field and, he is glad to think, the same spirit.

The Printer's D- at the Vatican.

The Ultramontanes (with an " Ave /")
Prayed, " May Liberals cry ' Peccavi." "
Choice of new Pope leaves them tetchy.
Dele " a, v"—remanet Pecci !