Punch (94.1888)

FOND AND FOOLISH.

Edwin (suddenly, after a long pause). "Darling !" Angelina. "Yes, Darling?"

Edwin. " Nothing, Darling. Only Darling, Darling ! " [Bilious Old Gentleman feels quite sick.

GERMANY.

March 9, 1888.

Stricken with, sorrows aa with dart on. dart,
"With folded pinions, but unfailing heart,
The Teuton Eagle sits, constrained to mark
That splendid sun sink in the deepening dark.
So glorious a course should have a close
As calmly gradual as the twilight rose
Of a long day of June that softly blends
With hastening night, and in hushed silence ends.
Not so the Fates ordained. Tempestuous clouds
Surround the sunset, lowering sorrow shrouds
Its latest gleamings, golden, yet, and grand.
It sinks, and sadness strikes across the land.
When Thule's king his golden goblet hurled
To the grey depths that wash around the world,
What thoughts possessed his Tassals as it sank
To lodge with shattered wrecks and sea-wrack dank P
"He drank no more," that monarch old and brave,
Worthy crown-wearer, "leal unto the grave."
An older, mightier King, as stout, as leal,
Meet as some tall pine, and tense as steel,
Has bowed to the last foeman, and at last
Ike well-won cup of conquest from him cast—
Whither ? A. world in wonder waits to see—
Waits with bent head and silent sympathy;

t i Ji?SWlld' from her i316 beyond the foam,
.Looks to that high but sorely stricken home,
mLiS* %Sl(& Preseiloe V^aes, with a prayer
That the White Dove of Peace may settle there,
As o er that sea where sinks the sun, where flits
Night s shadow, and that watchful Eagle sits.

" Sounds Like It. —If the Government's suspicions are con-
firmed by positive evidence, over some of the Navy Stores will have
to be written, " Knavey Stores."

GEORGE JOKIN GOSCHEN.

{Chez Lui.)

The great success of the Chancellor of the Exchequer as a
punster has been so marked that 85, Fleet Street has been absolutely
flooded with inquiries as to the ways and means adopted by the
Right Hon. Gentleman to produoe his brilliant effeots. The excel-
lent jew de mot about Mr. Windham being "on the Spree" * while
staying in Berlin (a pun whioh, it is said, has been translated into
every European language) appears to have been thrown off as a care-
fully prepared impromptu ; but the companion plaisanterie about the
Court Theatre being " no Criterion " t shows traces of greater elabora-
tion. It is, of course, against etiquette to answer the question
whether Mr. Goschen writes for the periodical in which these lines
appear, but it may be safely conjectured that nothing from his
accomplished pen has ever been published in these pages. We hope
on a future occasion to fully explain the manner in which the " Comio
Chancellor " concocts his amusing conceits, but at present (as our
scheme requires a great deal of tact and bribery) we must request our
readers to rest satisfied with the publication of the following quaint
cranks and oddities that have caused endless merriment during the
past week wherever they have been related.

The Chancrllor, the other evening, was witnessing the per-
formance of Miss Anderson in the Winter's Tale, at the Lyceum,
when he called his Private Secretary's attention to the fact that the
charming young actress appeared in two roles. "This makes me
believe," said the Right Hon. Gentleman, "that our delightful
American visitor must be very well bred ! " The Private Secretary
had to leave the box in convulsions of laughter. On reaching the
lobby, however, the young man gave a proof of his insincerity by
crying like a child.

Lord Halsburt, in conducting the Lunacy Acts Amendment
Bill through Committee, was heard to murmur to himself, "This
measure should have been introduced in Paris rather than in London.

* The Spree is the rirer on which the capital of Prussia is situated. To be
" on the Spree " implies that the person so described is in a cheerful frame
of mind.

t " The Criterion " is the name of Mr. Wtndham's London theatre.