Punch: Punch (82.1882)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

fJuLT 1, 1882.

“ Oh, certainly not; only don’c make an exhibition—of yourself, my dear Mancini,” remarked the World’s Mentor,
mildly. “ There are ‘ lesser lights,’ you know,—eh, Sagasta?”

“ Precisely,” interposed the Austrian Exhihitor, with conviction. “ Now, my duplex system, as I ’ll explam-”

“ Never explain anything,” interrupted Bismakck, brusquely, the big boot landing heavily on the Austrian’s smartly-
shod toe.

“ Exactly,” said Mb. Punch, drily. “ An Oraele who goes about explaining himself will soon lose prestige.”

“ That,” said De Freycinet, “is Obscurantism, and we are all Illuminati here.”

“ Ob, are you?” quoth the Sage, sardonically. “ What do you think, Toby?”

Toby gave an intelligent snap, sharp and keen as an electric spark, and “ poinFd ” in the direction of his Master’s as
yet hidden “ exhibit,” his nose steady as the Three per Cents, and his tail as rigid as a ramrod.

“ Gentlemen,” said the Sage, calmly, “ you are not Illuminat.i—yet, but you shall be, presently. Bless your beniohted
souls, you don’t know what Light is, till you ’ve seen—what you shall s^e, annn. Don’t scowl, Bismakck ; and, Gkanville,
)/ou needn’t chuckle. I ’ve a Light bere that’ll take the shine out of the Jot of you. Prince, your Incandescent Lamp is
m expensive sputterer that gives out more heat than light; and your Arctic Arc, my dear De Gieks, if cool, is dim and
uncertain. But here you have realised the supreme desideratum—Brilliancy witbout Heat! ! !—portable, inexpensive, and
ontirely devoid of danger—save to duffers and rascals. Bacon’s lumen siccum blent with the Bard’s

‘ Light that never was on sea or shore,’

till Punch, the Modern Prometheus, produced it. An Electric Spark. to illuminate the World. Fiat lux ! Behold ! !"

And as the Sage drew aside the veil, there burst fortb a dazzling blaze of soft yet searching radiance, before wlhch
the rival <-xhibitors blinked owlishly, and the competitive lesser lights paled their ineffectual fires. Toby, with eyes eagle-
wide, yelped the yelp of ecstatic triumph, and his Mirific Master, a'most eDctrified by the sudden outpour of his own stored
ffulgence, veiled an eye archly with one lffted band, as he pointed with the other to where, midmost of the mighty glow,
bumed the mystic words—

U

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