Punch (99.1890)

102 PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVAEI. [August 30, 1890.

A SEVERE SABBATARIAN.

Mr. Bung {Landlord oj " Ye Pyggc and Whistle"). "Sunday League, indeed! I'd Sunday League 'em, if I'd a chance I—

Breakin' the Lord'sd'y, and hinterfekin' with my Tryde I"

"SHADOWED!"

Shadowed ! Ay, even in the holiday season,
The Statesman, in his hard-earned hour of

ease,

Is haunted by forebodings, and with reason.
"What is that spectre the tired slumberer
sees ?

The foul familiar lineaments affright him ;

Its pose of menace and its pointing hand
To caution urge, to providence invite him,

To foil this scourge of the Distressful Land.

Who does not fear to speak of Forty-Seven,
When that same Shadow darkened all the
isle ?

Is it abroad once more ? Avert it, Heaven!

On Order's lips it chills the dawning smile ;
Awakener of hushed fears and hatreds dying,

Blighter of more than Nature's genial
growth,

Herald of hungering lips, of children crying,
To hold thee imminent all hearts are loth.

Vain holiday nepenthe, sport's unbending,
The Statesman's burdened brain may not
forget.

His cares are ceaseless and his toils unending,
Memories embarrass and forebodings fret.

The gun, the golf-club, and the rod avail not
In his tired heart to make full holiday ;

E'en amidst pastime he must watch, and fail
not,

Approaching ills, the shadows on the way.

Shadowed! And not by common gloom, poor
Minister! [course.

The passing shades that chequer every
This spectral presence is as stern and sinister

As atra cura on the rider's horse.

Before, the vision of the helpless peasant!
Behind, the famine phantom black and
grim! [sant,

How should the holiday-hour, to all so plea-
Bring gladness true or genuine rest to him ?

Wake! There is need for provident pre-
vision,

For watchful eye, and for most wary hand.
In mellow Autumn's interlude Elysian
The old grim Snadow strikes across the
land. [terror,
May Heaven arrest its course, avert its
And keep the Statesman who this foe must
fight [error,
From careless blindness and from blundering
Such as of old lent aid to the Black Blight.

"Jack Sheppard Reversed."

This is the title of an amusing article in
last week's Saturday Review. It is not the
story of Jack Sheppabd once more done into
rhyme. The title so happily selected is
thoroughly justified by the doings of an
ecoentric and original burglar, who, broke
into a prison! This certainly was Jack
Sheppabd reversed with a vengeance 1 The
hero of the escapade is said to be a tinted
native of Barbadoes—his portrait should be
published as a companion to the "penny
plain" of his prototype as "twopence
coloured."

Cardinal Manning's Precedence.
It does not need heraldic lore

The Cardinal's plaoe to find.
Of course he '11 always come before

The ones who are behind.

THE PHAGOCYTE.

(The Story of a Blood Feud.)

[A microscopist has found an organism calli d
the Phagocyte in the blood, which pursues aid
devours the Bacilli.]

Strange the tale that Science tells.
Here are some devouring cells,: J
Ever watchful night and day,,
They the vile Bacillus slay;
Wot we well he fears the bite
Of the guardian Phagocyte.

Hour by hour the fight goes on,
Till the silent battle's won;
Vainly do Bacilli shirk
When their deadly foe's at work ;
Every microbe faints with fright
At the fearsome Phagocyte.

Should the Phagocyte not keep
Faithful ward, but go to sleep ;
Then Bacillus, in high glee,
"Works his will on you and me;
Danger would be ours to-night,
But for that same Phagocyte.

Such a tale of Science seems
Like the offspring of wild dreams ;
Fiction surely, in good sooth,
Can invent no tale like touth.
Stranger story none could write
Than this of the Phagocyte.

The Astronomer descries
Worlds on worlds beyond our ayes;
'Neath the microscope weird things
Erst unseen whirl round in rings;
Hence it is that we indite
Stanzas to the Phagocyte.