Of all Mr. Punch's jokes it might be fair to say that none has ever
rivalled the popularity of "Advice to persons about to marry,--Don't!"
unless it be that of the Scotsman who had been no more than a few hours
in London, "when bang went saxpence!" Of the latter, more in its place;
here, we are immediately concerned with "Punch's advice." The most
preposterous stories are current among the uninformed as to the origin
of some of Mr. Punch's favourite jests. Only recently we heard a
gentleman telling a group of people in a hotel smoking-room that Mark
Twain got a hundred pounds from Punch for writing that famous line, "I
used your soap two years ago; since then I have used no other," familiar
to every one by Mr. Harry Furniss's drawing of a disreputable tramp who
is supposed to be writing the words quoted. As a matter of fact, the
idea came to Mr. Furniss from an anonymous correspondent. Stories
equally, if not more, absurd have been told as to the origin of "Punch's
advice," which, thanks to the researches of Mr. Spielmann, we now know
to have been the happy inspiration of Henry Mayhew, one of the founders
of _Punch_. It was sixty-one years ago that Mayhew wrote the line, and
how many millions of times it must have been quoted since one dare not
guess!
It may be said to have struck the keynote of Mr. Punch's matrimonial
policy, as an examination of his pages reveals him an incorrigible
pessimist on the subject of marriage. He is very hard on the
mother-in-law, but in all his life he has not made more than one or two
jokes about the young wife's pastry, though he has made a good deal of
fun about her general ignorance of domestic affairs. Nor has he spared
the bachelor or the old maid, and the designing widow has been an
especial butt for his shafts.
It might be a good thing to pass a law prohibiting young and
marriageable men from reading _Punch_, in order to save many of them
from being discouraged and frightened out of the thought of marriage,
and it would certainly be an incentive thereto--they would be tempted to
become Benedicts if only that they might qualify for the removal of the
prohibition!
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[Illustration: "DRIVEN TO DESPERATION"]
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