Punch: Punch (75.1878)

LA VENDETTA.

Scene on Saffron Hill. Fad.)

Infuriated Foreigner {armed with hatchet). "Ah, Cakaglia ! Tam you ! You shall never play tat Tam 'Nancy Lee1 no
more ! " [Bangs away with his hatchet.

The Crowd. "Hooray! Hooray!" Old Gentleman. " What's the Row, Policeman?"

Policeman. "Italian Organ-grinder, Sir. Just been left a Legacy! And the very first thing as ever he does with
his Money he buys his Organ on purpose to smash it all to bits ! "

Old Gentleman. " You don't say so ! Hooray ! Hooray ! ! Hooray ! ! ! "

THE EDISON EIGHT, AND THE SIELY BIRDS.

Light versus Darkness ? Why no—not quite,

"lis rather a question of Light versus Light.

Yet these fluttered creatures—a foolish flight,—

Are blind and noisy as birds of night,

Owls, gulls, and noddies, who; scared at the sight

Of the kindly glare from the lighthouse height,

Dash themselves dead in reason's despite.

Mr. Punch would gladly some words indite

To allay the fluster and bletherumskite

Too often aroused by occasion slight;

To sober counsels would fain invite

Each prematurely despondent wight,

Who sees but ruin about to alight

On Gas Share, and Profit, and Company-right;

Who woful wails to the papers indite, •

About empty coffers, and markets tight;

To prove quite clear that foresight is fright,

That Gas Shares must come down like a stove-in kite,

That light is darkness, and black is white.

Cease, tools, your brainless heads to smite

Against an improvement of too much might

To be stayed by fear of your hopeless fight.

There's room for all; and this Edison Light,

With its lightning flash bringing day into night,

Will prove a blessing, and not a blight.

The shoe may pinch, as shoes will, when tight,

But Panic is madness,—'tis true, as trite ;

A Hundred Millions is a sight

Too much to be gulped in a Stock-Exchange bite :

Then cease bewailing your piteous plight,

Hold to your Gas Shares tough and tight,

And you'll find that things will work themselves right,

Nor knock out your brains on the Edison Light.

ALMIGHTIES AT ODDS.

Lord Dufferin proposes that the Canadian and United States
Governments should join to rid Niagara of all its shoppy and shabby
appendages, and to set it apart for the world's enjoyment of its
grandeur, as an International Park, free, gratis, for nothing, and
thus get rid of the present perpetual reminder in the neighbourhood
of the mighty Fall, of a motive power greater than its own—that of
the Almighty Dollar.

At the same moment we read of a Company being formed to utilise
this "almighty water-power " for the compression of air to be trans-
mitted by pipes to Buffalo, in unlimited quantities and at merely
nominal cost. We are about to see a match, in fact, between the
Almighty Cataract and the Almighty Dollar. Who will back the
Cataract ?

Keep Your Heads.

A Hundred Millions, it is said, is invested in Gas Shares. > No
wonder their holders are beginning to ask, if the Electric Light
takes the shine out of Gas, where will their money go to ? The
more reason they should not throw away their shares in a panic,
as they are doing, sacrificing their money, as the wretched Colosseum
audience at Liverpool sacrificed their lives, in the "rush to get
out."