DOI issue:
January 24, 1880
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17763#0044
36
PUNCH, OP THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
[January 24, 1880.
do much for the principle, it at least adds to the interest—of
Money.
But perhaps the best sign of all is that there are more Theatres
open now than ever there were, receiving better support than ever
they did—more careful performance all round than ever there was ;
and, with all these advantages, that the state of the Drama is much
about the same as ever it was, while there are just about the same
number of folks to thrust themselves forward, and talk loudly about
what they don’t understand, the real practical professional men
remaining silent, as deeming it a wiser course to let well alone, and
allow the Stage, which is “a self-educating profession,” to educate
itself. Ecce Signal _
ARCTIC AtRONAUTSOS.
“ The Proposed New Arctic Expedition.—A Deputation from the
London Central Arctic Committee lias had an interview with the Lord
Mayor, with the view of laying before him the scheme of a proposed
new Expedition to the North Pole. Mr. Puleston, M.P., introduced
the Deputation; and amongst the other members of it were Captain Bedford
Pim, It.N., Commander Cheyne, It.N., Mr. Charley, M.P., Mr. H. Cox-
well, the aeronaut, and Mr. Annand, the Canadian Government Agent.”—
Daily News.
“ It must be done; and England shall do it,” says the old Pilot
in Mr. Millais’s Picture—meaning that the Union Jack must be
hoisted on the North Pole, and that Jack’s the lad to hoist it.
According to the new scheme, the speech should have come, not from
a Pilot, but a Pilot Balloon. Mr. Millais’s Picture was painted
before the failure of the last Arctic attempt of the Alert and Dis-
covery. Jack Bull may be the lad to do it, but hardly the Loud
Mayor, even with the aid of Mr. Coxwell, Commander Cheyne,
Captain Bedford Pim:, and Dr. Kinns, particularly when their
plan of Polar attack is literally en I’air, being principally based on
ballooning, while their sinews of war are to be contributions to be
raised throughout the English Counties by Local Arctic Committees.
If these Polar promoters succeed in raising the wind by such means,
Punch is prepared to allow that they may not only reach, but carry
off, the North Pole in a Balloon.
Punch hates to throw cold water on anything that aims at serving
science, and finds a field for pluck, and cold water seems the last
thing to fling on a North Polar adventure; but the line must be
drawn ^ somewhere. There are limits to Quixotism, even of the
scientific or heroic kind; and if they are fixed at latitude 82° north,
Punch does not see who would be the worse for such fixing.
A chain is only as strong as its weakest point, and a Cheyne is no
stronger.
. The employment of balloons to give the discoverers a bird’s-eye
view of the Pole deserves at least the credit of originality. But will
it wash ? Though Mr. Coxwell is, naturally, most at home in the
air, and thinks that as he has gone up at 43° below freezing-point here
there can’t be much difficulty in starting at the same temperature in
the Arctic, Punch must protest against these preparations for a
costly performance of Balloonacy in the theatre of everlasting ice and
eternal snow.
Considering that balloons defy steerage, and that every hundred
yards they go up the temperature goes down, while there will be no
hard hauling and continuous movement, as with sledging-parties,
to keep the blood in circulation, we don’t envy the Arctic aeronauts.
Mr. Coxwell thinks a Captive Balloon had better be tried first,
“ to get a view of the icebergs ahead.” Punch entirely agrees with
him, though he can see icebergs enough ahead without any balloons.
At any rate, if a Captive Balloon is to be used, don’t let it be
anchored by a Cheyne. Iron, we know, is apt to snap under sudden
changes of temperature, and is always dangerous to handle in high
latitudes.
The Lord Mayor was very polite, and full of good wishes. Of
course he knew nothing about the Arctic, and nothing about balloon-
ing, but he was always glad to receive deputations of eminent and
scientific men, and he would be delighted to lend the Mansion House
for a public meeting. “ No one could object to the project being
thoroughly threshed out.” No one—except Captain Cheyne, who
wants the project “ warmly taken up ”—not thoroughly “ thrashed
out,” as we fancy it is pretty certain to be by any jury of scientific
citizens.
“No doubt,” added the Lord Mayor, “if Commander Cheyne’s
plans met with approval, he would soon receive the means of carry-
in" them out.” “ Great virtue in an ‘if,’ ” says Touchstone. The
only way in which Punch could wish to see this wild scheme “ car-
ried out,” for the sake of Commander Cheyne himself, and all who
may be supposed capable of linking on to him, would be by its being,
once for all, carried out of the pale of serious discussion, and.
decently buried among other fantastic projects, in the Limbo-land
of Laputa.
That is its ultimate destiny. Better it should be reached without
previous loss of valuable life and waste of valuable money.
Learning and Letters.
“ X. Y. Z.” tells the Times, in a letter,
How spelling might simplified be :
Yery good, but perhaps it were better
On that point to consult A. B. C.
-urned t’other Way (by a Tory).
“Great and sacred .words that symbolise noble and illustrious thoughts,
but no man living has done so much as the Author of the quotation to turn
them both topsy-turvy.”—Sir W. ITarcourt at Oxford.
Imperium et Libertas.—“ Office and the Liberal Party.”
Ejaculation of an Old Toper.
{In one of Dr. Cameron’s Retreats.)
“ Water, water every where,
But not ‘ a drop to drink.' ”
MANNERS MAKE THE MAN.
{On the recent appointment of Lord J. M.’s Drother-m-Law to the Registrar
Generalship.)
“ Let Hygiene, Vital Statistics die,
But leave us still our old job-o-cracy ! ”
A BASE, BRUTAL, AND BLOODY-MINDED SAXON’S REASON.
Why are outside Jaunting Cars peculiar to the Irish ?
Because you cannot put the members of a family face to face, even
going to Church, without a Row.
THE PRESS AND THE “PALLADIUM OF LIBERTY.”
For libel when a Blackguard’s action ’s tried,
Juries lean mostly to the Plaintiff’s side.
PUNCH, OP THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
[January 24, 1880.
do much for the principle, it at least adds to the interest—of
Money.
But perhaps the best sign of all is that there are more Theatres
open now than ever there were, receiving better support than ever
they did—more careful performance all round than ever there was ;
and, with all these advantages, that the state of the Drama is much
about the same as ever it was, while there are just about the same
number of folks to thrust themselves forward, and talk loudly about
what they don’t understand, the real practical professional men
remaining silent, as deeming it a wiser course to let well alone, and
allow the Stage, which is “a self-educating profession,” to educate
itself. Ecce Signal _
ARCTIC AtRONAUTSOS.
“ The Proposed New Arctic Expedition.—A Deputation from the
London Central Arctic Committee lias had an interview with the Lord
Mayor, with the view of laying before him the scheme of a proposed
new Expedition to the North Pole. Mr. Puleston, M.P., introduced
the Deputation; and amongst the other members of it were Captain Bedford
Pim, It.N., Commander Cheyne, It.N., Mr. Charley, M.P., Mr. H. Cox-
well, the aeronaut, and Mr. Annand, the Canadian Government Agent.”—
Daily News.
“ It must be done; and England shall do it,” says the old Pilot
in Mr. Millais’s Picture—meaning that the Union Jack must be
hoisted on the North Pole, and that Jack’s the lad to hoist it.
According to the new scheme, the speech should have come, not from
a Pilot, but a Pilot Balloon. Mr. Millais’s Picture was painted
before the failure of the last Arctic attempt of the Alert and Dis-
covery. Jack Bull may be the lad to do it, but hardly the Loud
Mayor, even with the aid of Mr. Coxwell, Commander Cheyne,
Captain Bedford Pim:, and Dr. Kinns, particularly when their
plan of Polar attack is literally en I’air, being principally based on
ballooning, while their sinews of war are to be contributions to be
raised throughout the English Counties by Local Arctic Committees.
If these Polar promoters succeed in raising the wind by such means,
Punch is prepared to allow that they may not only reach, but carry
off, the North Pole in a Balloon.
Punch hates to throw cold water on anything that aims at serving
science, and finds a field for pluck, and cold water seems the last
thing to fling on a North Polar adventure; but the line must be
drawn ^ somewhere. There are limits to Quixotism, even of the
scientific or heroic kind; and if they are fixed at latitude 82° north,
Punch does not see who would be the worse for such fixing.
A chain is only as strong as its weakest point, and a Cheyne is no
stronger.
. The employment of balloons to give the discoverers a bird’s-eye
view of the Pole deserves at least the credit of originality. But will
it wash ? Though Mr. Coxwell is, naturally, most at home in the
air, and thinks that as he has gone up at 43° below freezing-point here
there can’t be much difficulty in starting at the same temperature in
the Arctic, Punch must protest against these preparations for a
costly performance of Balloonacy in the theatre of everlasting ice and
eternal snow.
Considering that balloons defy steerage, and that every hundred
yards they go up the temperature goes down, while there will be no
hard hauling and continuous movement, as with sledging-parties,
to keep the blood in circulation, we don’t envy the Arctic aeronauts.
Mr. Coxwell thinks a Captive Balloon had better be tried first,
“ to get a view of the icebergs ahead.” Punch entirely agrees with
him, though he can see icebergs enough ahead without any balloons.
At any rate, if a Captive Balloon is to be used, don’t let it be
anchored by a Cheyne. Iron, we know, is apt to snap under sudden
changes of temperature, and is always dangerous to handle in high
latitudes.
The Lord Mayor was very polite, and full of good wishes. Of
course he knew nothing about the Arctic, and nothing about balloon-
ing, but he was always glad to receive deputations of eminent and
scientific men, and he would be delighted to lend the Mansion House
for a public meeting. “ No one could object to the project being
thoroughly threshed out.” No one—except Captain Cheyne, who
wants the project “ warmly taken up ”—not thoroughly “ thrashed
out,” as we fancy it is pretty certain to be by any jury of scientific
citizens.
“No doubt,” added the Lord Mayor, “if Commander Cheyne’s
plans met with approval, he would soon receive the means of carry-
in" them out.” “ Great virtue in an ‘if,’ ” says Touchstone. The
only way in which Punch could wish to see this wild scheme “ car-
ried out,” for the sake of Commander Cheyne himself, and all who
may be supposed capable of linking on to him, would be by its being,
once for all, carried out of the pale of serious discussion, and.
decently buried among other fantastic projects, in the Limbo-land
of Laputa.
That is its ultimate destiny. Better it should be reached without
previous loss of valuable life and waste of valuable money.
Learning and Letters.
“ X. Y. Z.” tells the Times, in a letter,
How spelling might simplified be :
Yery good, but perhaps it were better
On that point to consult A. B. C.
-urned t’other Way (by a Tory).
“Great and sacred .words that symbolise noble and illustrious thoughts,
but no man living has done so much as the Author of the quotation to turn
them both topsy-turvy.”—Sir W. ITarcourt at Oxford.
Imperium et Libertas.—“ Office and the Liberal Party.”
Ejaculation of an Old Toper.
{In one of Dr. Cameron’s Retreats.)
“ Water, water every where,
But not ‘ a drop to drink.' ”
MANNERS MAKE THE MAN.
{On the recent appointment of Lord J. M.’s Drother-m-Law to the Registrar
Generalship.)
“ Let Hygiene, Vital Statistics die,
But leave us still our old job-o-cracy ! ”
A BASE, BRUTAL, AND BLOODY-MINDED SAXON’S REASON.
Why are outside Jaunting Cars peculiar to the Irish ?
Because you cannot put the members of a family face to face, even
going to Church, without a Row.
THE PRESS AND THE “PALLADIUM OF LIBERTY.”
For libel when a Blackguard’s action ’s tried,
Juries lean mostly to the Plaintiff’s side.