Punch (99.1890)

Octobfr 18, 1890.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

183

THE VICTIMS OF HIGH SPEED.

The Dream of an Anxious Captain after Tearing across the Fishing Grounds of Newfoundland.

THE SHIELD AND THE SHADOW.

[" Bbfore the 'silent millions' who make up the
rank and file of Hindoos discard the cruelties of
their marriage sjstem, their opinions, prejudices,
and habits of thought must change. Nothing is
more c-rtain than thatttiey will change slowly;
but we hold to the belief that judicious legislation
will hasten the process more powerfully than any-
thing else."—The " Times" on Child-Marriage
and Enforced Widovjhood in India ]

Yes, compassion is due to thee, India's young
daughter; [despair
The sound of thy sorrow, thy plaint of
Have reached English ears o'er the wide
westward water, [there.
And sympathy stirred, seldom slumbering

Child-Wife, or Child-Widow, in agony
kneeling

And clasping the skirts of the armed Island
Queen, _ [ing;

Her heart is not cold to thine urgent appeal-
Considerate care in her glances is seen.

Not hot as the urgings of zealotry heady
The action of her who's protectriee and
guide.

Her stroke must be measured, her sympathy
Bteady, [wide.
Whose burden's as great as her power is

She stands, iEgis-armed, looked forth calm,
reflective,

Across the wide stretches of old Hindostan.
The plains now subdued to her power pro-
tective,

Saw politic Aebar and sage Shah Jehan.

If Akbae was pitiful, Islam's great
sworder,

Shall she of the iEgis be less so than he ?
The marriage of widows he sanctionfd, his
order [Suttee.
Three centuries since laid the ban on

And she, his successor, has rescued already
The widow from fire, and the child from
the flood;

For mercy's her impulse, her policy steady _
Opposes the creed-thralls whose chrism is
blood.

And now the appeal of the Child-Widow
reaches

The ears ever open to misery's plaint.
She thinks—for the sway of long centuries
teaches [not faint.

That zeal should not hasten, and patience

The child kneeling there at her skirts is the
creature

Of tyrannous ages of creed and of caste ;
She bears, helpless prey of the priest, on
each feature,
The pitiful brand of a pitiless past.

Long-wrought, closely knit, subtly swaying,
deep-rooted, [child ;

The system whose shadow is over the
By grey superstition debased and imbruted,

By craft's callous cruelty deeply defiled.

But long-swaying custom hath far-reaching
issues, [haste.
The hand that assails it doth ill to show
The knife that would search poor humanity's
tissues,

Hath hfaling for object, not ravage or
waste.

Not coldness, but coolness, sourd policy pleads
for, [yearn
But, subject to that, human sympathies

To aid the child-victim the woman's heart
bleeds for, [must burn.

For whom a man's breast with compassion

Poor ohild! The dark shadow that closely
pursues her
Means menacing Terror; she sues for a
shield,

And how shall the strong iE^is-bearer refuse
her ? [yield.
The bondage of caste to calm justice must

We dare not he deaf to the voice of the
pleader

For freedom and purity, nature and right;
Let Wisdom, high-throned as controller and
leader, _ [might!

Meet cruelty's steel with the shield of calm

MY MOTH Ell BIDS ME DYE MY HAIR.

[Auburn is Baid to be the present fashionable
colour in hair.]

My Mother bids me dye my hair
A lovely auburn hue,

. - She says I ought
A i, to be aware
ftjffl It's quite the

If thiD*t0d0-

"Why sit," she
cries," without
a smile,

Whilst others
dance i n-
stead?"
Alas! no partners
ask me while
My tresses are
not red.

When no one else
at all is near,
And I am quite
The Hazard of the Dye. alone

I sadly shed a bitter tear
To think the Season's gone.

But when the time again draws nigh,
The time when maidens wed,

I'm quite resolved to "do and dye"—
My tresses shall be red!