Punch (88.1885)

186

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[April 18, 1885.

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DEFEND YOURSELF FROM YOUR FRIENDS!

That kind-hearted Fellow, Looney, allows a little Picture (by a promising Young Friend of his abroad) to be exhibited

in his Studio, along with his own more Important Works.

“ONLY HIS PLAY!”

‘ ‘ Only his play! ’ What! Ihat murderous hug! ”
Cries the suffering Wolf, with an agonised shrug.

“ If the Lion accepts explanation so lame

As ‘ It’s only his play ! ’ and can’t see Bruin’s game;

Then, in spite of his roar and his warlike display,

I shall think my friend Lion is also at play.”

THE DAY AFTER TO-MORROW’S NEWS;

OR, WHAT NEXT?

(Very Newest Panic Style. N.B.—For farther Illustration see
Sensational Press of the hour.)

THE PRESENT CRISIS.

Recettion of the Intelligence in the Lobbies.

The reception of the intelligence in the Lobbies was, says the
Morning Steam-Roller, even to those intimately acquainted with
what may be termed the more family aspect of Parliamentary life,
quite startling in its intensity. For the first fire hours nobody
could be got to believe it; and though several Members who had just
seen the Prime Minister calling- wildly for smelling-salts, with
blanched cheeks and his hair standing on end, went raying towards
the waterside Terrace, with their teeth chattering in an agony of
terror, they were merely locked out by order of the Home Secre-
tary, who apparently not yet in the secret, imagined that some
excellent practical joke had been played upon a few distinguished
foreigners visiting the Strangers’ Gallery by a well-known high-
spirited Radical below the Gangway. Later, however, as the real
truth began to get known, the effect in every portion of the building
was electrical. Conservatives and Liberals alike, Members of the
Government and leaders of the Opposition, staggered towards the
tea-room, weeping like children, ana shaking each other’s hand in
silence. Perhaps the most striking, certainly the most characteristic

scene of all, was that supplied by a little picturesque crowd of
reporters standing mutely round the prostrate form of the Speaker,
who, having gone completely off his head, was quietly seated on the
pavement, holding his wig under his arm as he endeavoured, with
evident effort, but with an appealing smile, to whistle a portion of
the bass of “ Rule, Britannia ! ”

The Activity at the Admiralty.

As soon as the true position of affairs began to he fully realised
this morning at the Admiralty, not a moment was lost in taking
every possible step to hasten on some scheme for the consideration
of precautionary measures, without further delay. Orders were at
once sent to Portsmouth to refit the Victory, and purchase, and put
into immediate commission as many of the vessels of the Ryde
Steam Packet Company as could he regarded sea-worthy, and avail-
able for immediate active service against a powerful Iron-clad Fleet
in the North Pacific. Favourable reports were received later in the
day from Plymouth, where it is understood that, with the number
of extra hands now taken on for over-time work, the Cumbrous,
Glutton, Swamper, and Styx—all the bottoms of which had, owing
to some trifling defect in their construction, suddenly come out
during the progress of their respective trial-trips on the measured
mile—will be ready for sea in the course of the next nineteen
months. The patterns of the guns for these vessels, which are cal-
culated, when chased by an enemy, to be able to steam quite seven
knots an hour, are already attracting the attention of the Authorities
at Woolwich ; and it is confidently expected that, as soon as the
vessels are afloat, experiments will be made forthwith to test their
capabilities of carrying any at all.

The Feeling in America.

The excitement caused here by the news is tremendous, Wall Street
speculators literally tearing each other to pieces, on it being reported
this morning on good authority, that the entire fleet of passenger
ships on all the Atlantic lines, comprising in all seventeen companies,
had been purchased by the Russian Government, and paid for in
advance in coupons of a new 13 per cent, loan issued at 32. The
result of this announcement had a most exhilarating effect on all