Punch (98.1890)

Jakuabt 11, 1890.] punch, or the london charivari. 13

UNTILED; OR, THE MODERN ASMODEUS. SS^SS^^.tto&tSSi
" Tres volontiers," repartit le demon. "Yous aimez les tableaux changeans; jc veux vous contenter." And brisk irradiant rushes.

■jrYf Side-lights from all Society shift here

. .. . BMBiffliMiliTO *i Reflected in keen mot and jocund jeer,

Midnight s meridian is supposed to lllfllil^ I Wild jest, and waggish whimsey.

_ mark _ = nBBffT^^nii' ' J,i 1 i Stagedom disrobed and Statecraft in undress,

The bmind^ twixt toil and slumber.^- || ( f 11 > ||| Stars of the Art-world, pillars of the Tress,

Mete out the lives of mortals ee. . I If l,rjL ^ LbHDHH m ^ ^ i ' ^± v. ' ±J' ^ z

In happy alternation." said my guide. _^ K Mc\ lif A11 01088 and counter here; ^ lounSe and

"Six hours must fleet ere Phoebus .- iSE .7 1 OT!':^^^-/f''■TU 4. slip: 1 1 A A «, f ■

shall set wide ^ dflj^^ BBl^^^! ffiwaPa^**, ^flffi The fragrant smoke-cloud and the foaming

"The last loud halloo at the_ tevern- ^jjji jti^^ ^-fj What oare^Me^or^e dock!'whilst banter

Long since has driven the reckless and Bfiiilll 1 111 HiiBiliS^%'l Jfli^ ft 1 And dainty "macks " and toothsome herring-

From misery's only haven 9MHill 11 111 fflWKK&S&m' mi I . The distant cook dispenses ?

Forth on the chilling night. All out! ufflWI H III 1 un- j-ji j-iT.ii 1

All out!' [no doubt, lllitll.M 1 " How difierent these,'' my calm companion

Less sad would fall on bibulous souls, ,1|mW^^K F^^MWr \, ■ „ w aald' -, , , ™ L±or bed

The refrain of the Eaven. '• 1 % ~* few*]! L 'I rom the crowd yonder These yearn not

, , , / 7? """' ®-"£>'- -S^9Sa-0fC As rest irom leaden labour.

"London lies shuttered close. Law's JHMwM//ffllf/iff==: PpT--- ' I Jill The night may be far spent, the Sabbath

measured beat
Falls echoing down the shadow-

chequered street; \JH&
A distant cab-wheel clatters ;
The wastrel's drunken cry, the waif's low
moan,

Reach not the ear of tired Philistia, prone,
Dreaming of other matters."

The Shadow's Blow subacid speech, I knew,
Foreboded more than mirth. Downward we
drew,

Silent, and all un-noted,
O'er sleeping Shopdom. Sleeping ? Closer
quest

Might prove it one vast Valley of Unrest
O'er which we mutely floated.

"Post-midnight peace," I said, "must fall
like balm,

After the long day's turmoil, on this calm,

Close-clustering, lamp-lit city."
'' Peace P " sighed the Shadow. '' She of the

white dove
Is not less partial in her gifts than Love,
' Or Wealth, or Worldly Pity.

"See yon close-shuttered shop! Peace

broodeth there,
You deem perchance; but look within. A

lair

Of midnight smugglers, stirring
At the sea's signal, scarce seems more agog.
And yet each toiler's heart lies like a log,

Sleep each tired eye is blurring.

" Feet scuttle, fingers fleet, pens work apace;
A whipt-up zeal marks every pallid face;

One voice austere, sonorous,
Chides, threatens, sometimes curses. How
they flush,

Its victims silent, tame ! That voice would
hush

A seraph-choir in chorus.

" Strident, sardonic, stern; the harrying
sound

Lashes them like a flail the long hours round,

Till to strained nerves 'twere sweeter
To silence it with one fierce passionate grip,
Than into some bland Lotos Land to slip,
And moon out life to metre.

" From early morn till midnight these poor
slaves [craves
Have ' served the public;' now, when nature

Rest from the strain and scurry
Of Shopdom's servitude, they still must wake
Some weary hours, though hands with fever
shake

And nerves are racked with worry.

" Though the great streets are still, the

shutters up,
Gas flares within, and ere they sleep or sup
These serfs of Competition

Must clean, and sort and sum. There's much
to do

Behind those scenes set fair to public view
By hucksters of position.

" The shop-assistant's Sabbath has begun!
His sixteen hours long Saturday has run

Its wearing course and weary.
The last light's out, and many an aching head
A.t last, at last, seeks in a lonely bed

A dreamland dim and dreary.

"In roseate visions shall racked souls rejoice
Haunted by echoes of that harrying voice ?

Nay, friend, uncounted numbers
Of victims to commercial strain and stress,
Seek nought more sweet than dull forgetful-
ness

In the short night's scant slumbers."

" Too sombre Spirit, hath the opening year
No scenes of gayer nope and gentler cheer ?

Is all beneath night's curtain
In this vaBt city void of promise glad ?
Are all the guests of midnight spectres sad,

And suffering and uncertain ? "

So I addressed the Shadow. "Friend," he
smiled. ['untiled.'
"'Twas 'lurid London' that you wished

Most secret things are sinister.
Innocent mirth needs no Ithuriel spear
To make its inner entity appear.

Still, to your mood 1 '11 minister.

"Not long-drawn Labour only breaks the
rest

Of London's night. Society in quest
Of Gold's sole rival, Pleasure,

Makes little of the bounds of dark and day.

Night's hours lead on a dance as glad and gay
As the old Horaes' measure.

"Look!" Such a burst of laughter shook
the room

As might dispel a desert anchorite's gloom.

Flushed faces keen and clever
Contorted wildly; such mirth-moving shape
Was taken by that genial histrion's jape

As mobs are mute at never.

A long soft-lighted roonij the muffled beat
On carpets soft of watchful waiters' feet

In deft attendance gliding;
A table spread with toothsome morsels, fit
For the night-feast of genius, wealth and wit,

Of a skilled chef's providing.

Good fellowship, bonnes bouches, right pleasant
tales

Of bonnes fortunes.' Here a quaint cynic rails,

dawns,

But here no dull brain-palsied drowser yawns
At his half-nodding neighbour.

" With wit, and wealth, and wine, the hours
of night

In sombre Babylon may dispense delight.

These revellers, slumber-scorning,
Radiant and well-arrayed, will stop, and stop.
Till waiters drowse. But then, yon slaves of
Shop

Must meet a different morning."

(To be continued.)

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

An Unsatisfactort Chbistmas Present.
—We can well understand and sympathise
with you in your disappointment on discover-
ing that you had been deceived as to the
amount of intelligence possessed by the
Learned Pig that you had been induced
to purchase as a Christmas present for your
invalid Grandfather. It must have been very
annoying, after having imagined that you had
provided your aged relative with a nice long
winter's evening amusement resulting from
the creature's advertised powers of telling
fortunes and spelling sentences with a pack
of ordinary playing cards, to receive a letter
from the housekeeper bitterly complaining
of its performance, which seems merely to
have consisted of eating all the tea-cake, biting
a housemaid, getting between your Grand-
father's legs and upsetting him in his arm-
chair, and, finally, when pursued, trying to
obtain refuge in the grand piano. You cannot
be surprised after this experience, that it
has been intimated to you that if you do not
take the creature yourself away at once, it
will be forthwith handed over to the first
policeman that passes. Yes, spite the pig's
reputed intellectual gifts, we would advise
you to close with the pork-butcher's offer
you mention. When the creature has been
out up, send your Grandfather some of the
sausages. This may possibly appease the old
gentleman, and serve to allay the irritation
that your unfortunate Christmas gift appears
to have occasioned.

The North Walls.—The Sporting Cor-
respondent of the Sunday Times tells us that
Colonel Nohth is "having a new ball-room
built "—(he wouldn't have an old one built,
would he? But no matter)—"the walls of
which are composed of onyx." Of course, a
Billionaire pays all the workmen punctually
and regularly; therefore, "Owe-nix" walls
are an appropriate memorial. Si monumen-

There an enthusiast gushes. turn quteris, circumsjrice.

vol. xcvni.

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