Punch: Punch (82.1882)

50

PUNCH, OPv THE LONDON CHAEIYAEI. [February 4, 1882.

“ATTITUDE OF M. GAMBETTA.”

“ "’WALE W1T! JJ

“ Yesterday morning, while I was reading the English papers in one of the
leading cafes, two detectives entered, and requested that all copies of Punch
should be handed over to them immediately. Much to my regret, they left
with them in their pockets. Just imagine the progress which the German
bureaucrats have made! They now actually understand English jokes
written in the English language ! ”—Baily News Correspondent at Berlin.

“ Si un Allemandpeut avoir de I'esprit ” is an old crux,

And it would not seem that Wit has yet contrived

O’er the Tenton’s mental chaos to send forth tiiaXfiat lux !

Which stnpidity has never long survived.

How one pities these poor Prussians, high or low, all humour-hlind,
Whom stern duty makes assayers, watchers, testers

Of that Jack o’ Lantern, Wit! Who is mnch snrprised to find
That the Philistines are down on Jews and Jesters ?

Geist well drilled is well enough, if it doesn’t take to mocking
Great Panjandrums when they play the fool—’tis often ;

But the nous that satirises—or sneceeds—is simply shocking—

An oifence that neither race nor grace may soften.

The alien who prospers, or who pleasantly pokes fnn,

Has committed the unpardonable sin,

To which the sole rejoinder of each Great official Gun
Is the Dogherry ultimatum, “ Bun him in ! ”

Pruss v. Proteus ? ’Twill not do. Leave the Jester and the Jew,
Both too suhtle for all bonds mere force can forge.

What can Iron do ’gainst Irony, or Blood against the True,
Though its fancy-winged defiance raise your gorge ?

There ’s a strength that ’s more enduring than the brawny might
of Edom,

Brute oppression pales at last before its star,

In the old eternal conflict, still renewed, ’twixt Force and Freedom,
Truth and Wit are ever contraband of War !

Proyekb for Pool.—A ball in hand ’s worth two in baulk.