Punch: Punch (83.1882)

82

PUNCH, OK. THE LONDON CHAKIVAK1. [August 19, 1882

HOME AND FOREIGN
PIGEON-SHOOTING.

Perhaps the notice of the
Home Secretary, in reading
the foreign news, may have
been attracted by a telegram
from Amsterdam, stating that
the Minister of Justice has
issued an order prohibiting
the pigeon-shooting matches
which were to have been held
the other day on the Rusten-
burg estate. Why cannot Sir
William Harcourt likewise
issue an order prohibiting the
pigeon-shooting matches which
are held at Hurlingham ?
This is no fool’s question;
for the Home Secretary has
power to withhold permission
to perform experiments on
living animals from scientific
men, and it has been stated,
as yet without contradiction,
that he has actually refused
vivisection certificates to seve-
ral eminent physiologists.
How inscrutable is the wisdom
of the law which empowers
him to hinder investigators
from wounding rabbits or
guinea-pigs, even for the
advancement of medicine and
surgery, but not to forbid
idlers from shooting, crip-
pling, maiming, and mangling
doves, of which the pigeon-
shooter stands charged at the
bar of public opinion with
causing the eyes to be gouged
out previously, for fun! This
consistency must be conspicu-
ous to everybody outside of
Earlswood, but qualified by
quantity of reflective faculties
to be an object at least as eli-
gible for admission to that
asylum as anyone in it.

Muddle Lodging-Houses.
—The Peabody Buildings.

PUNCH’S FANCY PORTRAITS.-No. 97.

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, M.P., F.R.S.

How doth the Banking Busy Bee
Improve his shining Hours
By studying on Bank Holidays
Strange Insects and Wild Flowers !

SHAKSPEARE AND SHOP.

Me. Punch,

Are you quite sure,
Sir, that Mr. Dutton Cook is
exact in saying that “in
Shakspeare’s time the Actors
knew nothing of Benefits ? ”
How goes the song in As You
Like It f—

“ Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,

Thou dost not bite so nigh
As Benefits forgot.”

From the above showing,
would it not rather seem that
the Actors, whom Shakspeare
represented in the way of
business, did indeed know
something of Benefits, but
something too little, and much-
less than they wished to know.
Perhaps Shakspeare, who-
speaks so touchingly of “ be-
nefitsforgot,” wished to signify
that he would like to have
them remembered by the pa-
trons of the Drama; thus-
delicately inviting them to
“remember the poor Player.”
Doesn’t this conjecture sug-
gest an association of ideas-
rather opportune just now
d propos of Egyptian and
Turkish requirements—Bene-
fits and Backsheesh ?

Yours truly,

Commentator.

EROM THE WELSH HARP.

The Grand Old Minstrel
Boy will not (it is feared)
preside with harp and voice
at the Eisteddfod. But if
the Harpists want an ex-
tra Lyre — and a good big
’un too —here’s a chance for
the ex-War Correspondent of
a certain, or recently uncer-
tain Daily Paper!

in the way of “paper.” The storm is short and partial, and not
sufficiently severe to account for the absolutely deserted appear-
ance of Piccadilly and Regent Street between eleven and half-past
twelve at night. The Middlesex Magistrates will be delighted, and
the “ C” Division despondent. The second and concluding Tableau
is the conventional fire, with its accompanying smoke and confusion.
As well as could be made out through the haze, before the Curtain
finally fell, all the bad people had killed one another, and the hero
and heroine had made arrangements for immediate marriage.

_ Fun on the Bristol at the Olympic. What this exactly is, it is
difficult to say. Suppose an entertainment written by Mr. Dick
(David Copperfield's '‘ Mr. Dick”) ior the Colney Hatch Christy
Minstrels, and supposing further that Mr. Dick had carefully
studied all previous Ethiopian serenader literature, the libretti of the
entertainment of Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook, and the dialogues
of Ventriloquists with the man up the gas-pipe, or with the drunken
person in the cellar, and suppose a struggle on Mr. Dick's part to
keep some sort of a story in it, and to introduce “illustrations”
of the oldest German - Reed - Entertainment type,—well imagine
these being mixed all together anyhow, and some faint notion may
he obtained of what this three-act “ Oddity ” is like.

There is a broad Comedian there, however, one Mr. Sheridan,
with a strong facial resemblance to the late Mr. George Honey,
who, if he can do anything out of Irish brogue parts, ought to be an
acquisition to any company; and, if his line is entirely Irish, he
could revive the old style of farce formerly associated with the name
of Power and Hudson. His make-up as the vulgar middle-aged
Irish-American Widow, with a great dpal to say and do, and his
make-up as the Old Jew, with nothing to say and hardly anything
to do, were both good.—the latter especially so.

The Foreign season being over, the Farren season has recommenced
at the Gaiety.

While none of ’em are bad in
This version of Aladdin.

As the plaudits of the house evince,

Terry, Koyce, Kate Vaughan away,

"We all of us must .-ay,

“ It hasn't been the same piece since.”

Miss Farren’s Wretched Little Arab song is still to our mind the
hit of the piece.

Our Drawn Sword in “Egyptian Preference.” — Several
sharp-eyed.Correspondents have written to us to complain that one
of our inimitable Artists, “ C. K.,” in his recent picture representing
a British Trooper and a Fair Egyptian, has “ drawn the sword on
the right side.” Heavens ! Surely they wouldn’t have our Chival-
rous Artist draw his sword on the wrong side ! The weapon that he
has represented is symbolical of England’s Sword, which should
ever be drawn on the Right side. Heaven defend the Right! Magna
est Veritas !

“ Nebuchadnezzar R-edivivus.”—The following is a cutting from
the Field, which results in what a cutting from any field probably
would, i.e.—

RASS.—A Gentleman having more Grass than he can feed off, is
willing to take Horses or Cattle to turn out.

This Gentleman must literally he “ in clover.”