Punch: Punch (78.1880)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI

[January 24, 1880.


x 'O'^. \_

“ PEGGING AWAY.”

But a Hard Husk to Get Through.

SIR ROWLAND HILL AND HIS MEMORIAL.

Dear Mr. Punch,

I am so fond of opening an envelope that I hail a receipt
with joy, and almost prefer a bill to the absence of the postman’s
knock. Under these circumstances what do I not owe to the great
Sir Rowland ! But I am waiting to lay my postage-stamp on his
grave, till I hear what is to he done with the Fund. If it is to be
spent according to time-honoured British custom, nearly 40 per cent,
will he taken up with managing the remainder. The residue will he
spent partly on a big house wherein the widows of post-office officials
shall lead weary, if genteel, lives apart from their relations, and
under sundry restrictions, probably rather trying to those who have
been used to their own wav ; and the rest of the money will go to
support another big establishment to which orphan children will be
sent.

Now, dear Mr. Punch, I cannot feel certain that it is always a

comfort to a woman who has lost her husband to part with her chil-
dren also, and if you could persuade the official managers of the
fund to avoid bricks and mortar, and to spend it on pensions to
widows, allowing them to keep their children at home and educate
them as they like, it would, I think, commend itself to more givers.

Yours, dear Mr. Punch, most respectfully,

An Admirer of Sir Rowland Hill.

[Punch quite’agrees with his correspondent. He has received
several letters asking how the payment of a stamp-a-piece is to be
made. At every Post-office let a box be put up for the purpose, into
which stamps may be paid ; let the box be cleared once a week, and
the amount remitted to the Lord Mayor.]

From the Gazette (New Appointment).—Common Sense v. War
Correspondents’ Rules superseded.