Punch (98.1890)

Februabt 15, 1890.] PUNCH, OE THE LONDON CHAEIVAK1.

UNTILED; OR, THE MODERN ASMODEUS.

'Tres volontiers," repartit le demon. " Vous aimez les tableaux changeans : ^^^°^^enter""

XX.

Sweet odours, radiant co-
lours, glittering light!
How swift a change from

O&SSatl ^^t&^M7J^^f¥fMl ^""^lof^Iow freely.

Titania here might revel as Ml^l^&'WP-^^Hillf AW* 0h> blan^ ^Bam f°ithe wT\^ tt stare

at home- WS^m^mm ' JLrTlPltfy^frl)-- ^Wr8, Whose pleasuree are the snigger and the stare

Fair forms are floating soft 't^^^W^^^i^^^Bi^^^W^ Chill snub, and eye-glance steely 1

as Paphian foam, "; 1 ^Wiltffe^»iU " Prigdom's Philistia, though a polished State,

Bright as an iceberg- F^||£1§SP^ Has not yet learned quite how to recreate.

"Concourse, not intercourse,is what you see:
To mix, and sympathise, and to he free,

Is the true sociality.
These meet, like marbles mingled in a bag,
And the net outcome, friend, is friction, fag,

Boredom, and sheer banality.
"The strongest symptom of quick life crops
out

In watchful mutual mockery. Gibe and flout

lianTs^oubtless vet their ^^^^^^^^^ttBKt^ '"'^ISl AskeloK^tW^omW Sut Utdejoy
frost holds fire ; ^ B™g c'ly f ^

And these are snowy,
verily.

As hUnched-andJbare-as tt]|ffM'',|«! f F I, ^^WSttia^ AU REVOIR!

Ligh^Srafcoopof ' ' M^^^m^' -= M,P™^Mr.J.L.TooI,,^,:om,fZ

dancing Greeks. I i 'i'^ll'jv'vvy - .^M^^Sssam-^= smoking a last cigar.
Waltz - measures ripple
merrily.

Merrily ? Yes; the music

FeetSn Wtoit^yet what strange dearth I " Languidly circumvolving, lounging lank,

1 In scuffling circle or in mural rank,
Of misery mechanic
Theylookthe wooden symbols; nought to show

O'f glee midst all these graces !
The quickening fire of spirit, passion, will,
Seems scarce to move these dancing forms or
thrill

These irresponsive faces.

The Shadow smiled. " True, yet not true,"
he said. [half dead,

" Good Form demands that men should look

And women semi-frozen.
Yet Nature lives beneath these modish masks
Somewhere, sometimes, with energy that tasks

Caste's rigid rule to cozen.

That even well-starched linen's sheeny snow
Veils impulses volcanic.

" That straight-limb'd son of Anak circling
there Lcare
Much like a whirling semaphore, strange

His boyish forehead wrinkling ?
The season's catch! His sire,is great in Soap,
His partner's mother yonder sits ; with hope

Her watchful eyes are twinkling.

"Pygmalion's prayer breathed life into the
stone,

But see yon graceful girl, with straitened zone

And statuesque still bearing.
You'd say in her the marble must invade
The flesh, in so much loveliness arrayed,

Such radiant raiment wearing.
" "Whirled in the waltz's formal maze by one
Who might be a broad-cloth'd automaton,

For any show of pleasure,
She moves with drooping lids, and lips apart,
And scarce a flush to show that a young heart

Throbs to the pulsing measure."
" Men meet to moon, and women whirl to wed,
The cynic says. _ Is joy in life quite dead,

Gladness in concourse banished
From the parades of fashionable youth ?
Have maiden tenderness and manly truth

From Vanity Fair quite vanished ?"
'' Soft!" sneered the Shadow. '' Questionings
like these [freeze
Sound gauche and gushing. Better far to

To the right social zero,
Than stoop to zeal and frank display of zest,
Notes of the vulgar glories that invest

The housemaid-novel's hero.
" Nothing more useful than the surface-ice
Of stiff stolidity. Vigour, aye, and vice,

Therein find ready covert.
Wickedness here may lurk, or even wit,
Not to name happiness; but naught of it
Is obvious and overt.

" How bored they look, the slim stiff-collared
boys!

Energy that is eager and enjoys

They may anon make Bhow of
In some less honest haunt; here as m pain
They creak and crawl, devoid of that sons gene
That virtue seems sworn foe of.

' The twirling twain are silent. Silence sits
Lord of the revel, incubus of wits

Arch palsier of prattle [sweet,
Yet many a girl here mute's a chatterer
And many a youth in circles less discrete
Is an ' agreeable rattle.'

Respectability's austere restraint
Rules them relentlessly; smiles forced and
And joyless facial spasms [faint
Their meetings and their mutterings attend.
Jerky approximations quickly end

In void unvocal chasms.
' Yet still they circle, and yet still they loll.
A marionette wooing a wooden doll

Would look more animated
Than yonder pair, revolving interlaced,
Exchanging commonplaces leaden-paced,
Or repartees belated "

Mr. P. And so, my dear Johnnie, you
are leaving us at once ?

Mr. J. L. T. Yes, Sir, but I hope soon to
be back again. I am looking forward to the
voyage as an excellent digestive to all the
luncheons, dinners, and suppers I have been
taking for the last five or six weeks.

Mr. P. I have no doubt they have been a
little trying—eh, Johnnie ?

Mr. J. L. T. And yet, as I have observed
in the Tipper Crust, "they were very
welcome." But, Sir, how did I get through
my oratory ? Did you notice my speeches at
the Garrick and the Savage ? Which did
you prefer ?

Mr. P. I heard the first, and read a report
of the second, and can conscientiously declare
they were equally good.

Mr. J. L. T. I am glad to hear you say so,
Sir. I confess I didn't think there was
much to choose between them. And now {with
deep emotion), will you excuse my glove ?

Mr. P. No; I won't say good-bye; for
wherever you may roam, my dear Johnnie,
you will have this consolation—you will find
me there before you!

" Mammon by day and maundering at night
Oh, Shade ! " I cried, " can furnish scant
delight,
The Race for Wealth is rapid.
How can the feverish rush find true relief
In heartless intercourse, as bald as brief,

Amusement vain as vapid ? "
'' Amusement ? i Intercourse ?. They scarce
exist."

The Shadow answered. " Some Boeotian mist

Society blinds and muddles.
True recreation in this joyless round ?
The sea's bright changefulness as soon were
found

In Pedlington's rain-puddles.
'' The cliques and coteries know n ot how to mix.
A barrier more impassable than Styx

Is Philistine stupidity.
Were mutual amusement meeting's aim,
Mind must move maidenhood inert and tame,

Melt masculine rigidity.

"There is now"a ^.^f^^Jm
Money Market has at last tided over tne peuoa
of tightness."-I>««Z/ News, I eb. 4. _

voi. xcvm,