IT is pleasant to make honourable mention, in _Mr. Punch's_ columns, of
anything bearing the name of JERROLD. The latest appearance of this name
is in conjunction with that of GUSTAVE DORE--a household word. Two
artists have been making a pilgrimage through London together, and each,
with his own implement, is recording his experiences, the result to be a
beautiful book, whereof an inviting specimen has appeared. _Mr. Punch_
is glad to welcome a new memorial of Augusta Trinobantum, especially as
that city is being so rapidly "improved," especially in the parts most
likely to attract the eye of M. DORE, that it will soon be all as
colourless as a Boulevard or Regent Street. If MR. JERROLD will show M.
DORE anything that shall call out the power lavished on the houses in
the pictures to a certain book of _Contes_, the two will do the good
deed of apprising posterity that London was the production of
architects, and not of excessively respectable contractors for building
purposes.
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=Royal Clemency.=
WE have heard, with gratification, that the remainder of the sentence on
JOHN POYNTZ SPENCER, who was sent to Ireland in 1868, and who has since
been immured in Dublin Castle, is likely to be remitted. His admirable
conduct during his exile has endeared him to all, and his return will
be warmly welcomed. It will be felt that he has amply expiated the
political offence of being a Whig Head-Centre, and we trust that an
honourable future is in store for him.
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=SANITARY SERMONS.=
[Illustration: M]OST of our contemporaries have lately improved an
alarming occasion with many monitory observations on typhoid fever. The
whole of these, however, reducible into a few words, may be pretty well
summed up in the caution,--Look to your drains. In addition, _Dr. Punch_
begs to offer a piece of advice _gratis_ to all persons in possession of
his universal remedy, price 3_d._, 4_d._ stamped, to counterfeit which
is piracy. Look to yourselves.
Pestiferous as is the atmosphere of sewers, not only do rats live, but
labourers work in it, the former wholly, the latter for most part with
impunity. The rodents get acclimatised, unless it be that instinct
impels them to take some sort of vegetable or other preventive of
zymotic and mephitic diseases. As for the working-men, they smoke
pipes of tobacco almost to a man, and as generally prescribe for and
administer to themselves alcohol in some one or other of its forms,
commonly that of something short, which, if asked to give it a name, we
will call gin, or euphemistically, Old Tom, not to say, dyslogistically,
blue ruin, for the useless sake of pleasing the United Kingdom Alliance;
those conspirators against the potatory liberty of the subject who hate
us youth, and specially abhor _Punch_. The gin-drinking, prevalent among
the population of the slums, comes of a sense which is medicinal, and
the medicine would, in effect, be altogether salutary but for the
tendency of people to take it in over-doses.
Everybody knows how continually medical men are exposed to all manner of
contagion, and how very seldom they catch any disease. They, it is true,
are not in the habit of asking particularly for gin on coming out of a
sick-room: but they are accustomed to take, or do, whatsoever may be
requisite to maintain the bodily conditions which resist or expel
poisonous or morbid effluvia.
Look to your drains, by all means; but look also to the natural gates
and alleys of the body--keep them clear, and permeable, and pervious.
By what means? Therein the patient may minister to himself if he can,
or else should inquire of his doctor, who will let him know. There is,
however, a popular panacea which he will find invariably efficacious.
The prophylactic as well as therapeutic virtues of _Punch_, of
_Punch's Pocket-Book_, and _Punch's Almanack_, are so universally
known and so deservedly celebrated that any recommendation beyond the
merest reference to those powerful tonic, stimulant, and antiseptic
publications would be superfluous puffery. How much caution soever the
Faculty may recommend in prescribing alcohol in whatsoever form, they
are of unanimous opinion that nobody need hesitate to give or take any
quantity of _Punch_.
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