Punch (95.1888)

Novembub 3, 1888.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 213

Monopoly was not content very long

With sharing its millions in narrow community
Between the mere few who were clever and strong,

Its natural issue was Absolute Unity.
The One at the top, and the Many below !—

That must be the Monster's ideal, the goal of it.
To get the World's trade in one " Ring " at a blow,

With one bloated Moloch of cash in control of it,
That, that was the notion, and that was the aim ;

But just as that " Trust" comprehensive, colossal,
Was reared, Mammon's victims grew tired of his game,

And Demos with Dives played mad pitch-and-toss all.

A dream ! Ah, perhaps ; but some visions unveil

A meaning from wide-awake vigilance hidden.
The Day of Big Things means a scourge and a flail

For the myriad small ones to Life's banquet bidden.
The Epoch of Monsters once more to revive,

In Creation or Commerce, is sheer retrogression.
The Thunderer would rule, and the Titans would strive,

But freedom and peace are poor man's best possession,
" These Little Ones " also have places and claims.

The many-armed Monster, Monopoly;, subtle
Of motion as greedy of maw, has the aims

Of the cruel, all-grabbing, all-palsying Cuttle.
Beware of it, Trade ! 'Tis a creature to dread,

To fight to the death, as St. George did the dragon.
Call Law to your aid—let her strike at its head—

And the menacing Monster will drop dead as Dagon!

GOOD DAY'S WORK.

Dear Mr. Punch.—It is stated that "in view of the
serious dangers that attend upon even a temporary stop-
page of a great artery of traffic in London, the Corporation
are considering the expediency of carrying on the forth-
coming repairs of Blackfriars Bridge, not only night and
day, but on Sunday, as well as week day." As yet, how-
ever, they have not therefore been charged, by agitators
for the enforcement of the observance of Sunday as a
Judaic Sabbath, with proposing to employ me as an
instrument wherewithal to deprive the working classes
of their day of rest. Now then, I suppose, it will no
longer be pretended that I am designed to serve that
purpose in the hands of good people allied to promote the
opening of Museums and Picture Galleries on Sundays,
and consequently, in time past, accused of trying to insert
the thin end of your ancient friend The Wedge.

SO ENGLISH, YOU KNOW!".

Anatolc. " Tiens ! Bonjour, Ikidor ! You spick Engleesh ? Bien ! I go

to play at ze football-tennis-oricketts ? come you ? "

Isidor. "Not at present. But I vill go to find you ven I shall 'av

parsed at ze bureau to pay my incomestaxes ! "

AN ARM FROM THE ARMADA.

(Fragment from a Romance of 15 + 18 + 88.)

It matters not how I came to be living three hundred years after
the great fight off Plymouth Hoe. That is my affair, and no one
else's. Suffice it to say that I came up by a train, and took an
omnibus to Catherine Street, and entered the National Theatre,
where I found Mr. Augustus Harris, surrounded by a number of
articles I immediately recognised as relics of the battle in which I
had taken part in 1588. I remember the day perfectly. Sir Francis
Drake, Sir Martin Frobisher, Lord Howard of Effingham, a few
others, and myself, were aboard the Capitana—no, we took that
during the action, so I think it must have been the Lively Polly.
Yes, now I call it to mind, it ivas the Lively Polly. And yet, on
referring to a Catalogue furnished by the courteous Lessee of Drury
Lane, I am not at all sure but it was the Ark Raleigh, or the Ark
Royal. I have all the greater confidence in the latter suggestion, as
I see that that capital vessel was the flag-ship of the British Fleet.

" Have a pinch of snuff, Tommy p " said Deake (he always called
me Tommy, although my real name was Maemaduke)—" have a
pinch of snuff ?"

And then good old Franco — (I always called Sir Francis
" Franco," because we had been at school together)—produced a
Horn Tobacco Box.

I mentioned this to'one of the erudite assistants of the joint-author
of The Armada.

"We have the very identical box here," replied the assistant. " It
is No. 247 in the Catalogue, and bears the name and arms of Sir
Francis Drake."

And to be sure there it was! Then I came upon a chair which I
immediately recognised as one that used to stand in the study of
Sir Waiter Raleigh. He used to invite me to occupy it while
reading his History of the World to me.

"What is No. 318 ? " I asked, with some curiosity.

" That," returned my courteous informant, "is a Spanish torture

chair. You will observe here is a steel waistband for fixing the
octagonal stake with various screws. Here is a double manacle with
triangular xiadlock. Yonder a gag with rack action for opening
mouth, grasping and drawing out tongue. There a steel dilator for
lower part of body. Here-"

"Oh! yes," I interrupted; "I know the whole bag of tricks.
Dear old Wally used to say that he was obliged to apply them all to
keep me from falling asleep."

"It is, we fancy, nearly a hundred years later than the date of
the Armada," continued my guide; "but it shows, to quote the
Catalogue, ' what would have occurred in nearly every English town
if the Armada had been successful.' "

" There," I replied, "I think you are wrong. My friend, Sir
Walter Raleigh, told me that it was given to him by a Spaniard—
lie was called Don Ouay—in return for a pouch of tobacco. But still
it is a most interesting relic."

Then 1 saw a large number of helmets, swords, pictures, seals, and
engravings that I quite remember noticing during the pauses of the
glorious combat. I was particularly struck with an etching repro-
duction of "the Armada in sight," by Seymour Lucas, R.A?

'' Most lifelike," I observed. '' I recognise Fenton, and St. Leger,
Southwell and Mannington, Geoege Jennee, Cook, and, of course,
dear old Dick Hawkins."

'' Were you there ? " asked a bystander.

"Was I there!" I exclaimed, indignantly. "Of course I was,
and got a seat for Mr. Seymour Lucas, who was painting it. The
original was sent, shortly afterwards, to Australia."

At this moment a theatre-loving descendant of my dear old friend,
Sir Martin Frobisher, seized me by the arm, and with him I hurried
off to see the admirable spectacular Drama that through the kindness
of Messrs. Hamilton and Harris, had been provided for our
delectation. And thus, seated in the Stalls, I fought my battle over
again. {Signed) A Survivor op the Spanish Armada.

Translation of " Equinox."—A Night-Mare.