Among the characteristics which are essentially British, is the tendency
to receive almost any innovation, be it a new style of dress or a new
method of locomotion, with some degree of distrust which shows itself in
satirical criticism; to be followed soon after by the acceptance of the
accomplished fact and complete approval. In this trait of our national
character, as in all others, MR. PUNCH proves himself a true born
Britisher. When the bicycle was first coming into popularity, he seemed
rather to resent the innovation, and was more ready to see the less
attractive side of cycling than its pleasures and its practical
advantages. So, too, with the automobile. Only recently has MR. PUNCH
shown some tendency to become himself an enthusiast of the whirling
wheel.
This diffidence in joining the ranks of the cyclists or the motorists is
due entirely to MR. PUNCH'S goodness of heart and his genuine British
love of liberty. The cycling scorcher and the motoring road-hog are two
abominations which he most naturally holds in the greatest contempt.
Against them he is never tired of directing his most scathing satire;
but while this is entirely praiseworthy it tends a little to give a
false impression of his attitude towards two of the most delightful
sports which modern ingenuity has invented. After all, the scorcher and
the road-hog are the least representative followers of the sports which
their conduct brings into question, and it is very easy to over-estimate
their importance.
For that reason, in the compiling of the present volume the editor has
endeavoured to make a selection which will show MR. PUNCH in his real
attitude towards motoring and cycling, in which, of course, it is but
natural and all to our delight that he should see chiefly their humours,
so largely the result of misadventure. But as he has long since ceased
to jibe at the lady who cycles or to regard male cyclists as "cads on
castors,"--in the phrase of Edmund Yates,--and ceased also to view the
motor car as an ingenious device for public slaughter, his adverse views
have not in the present volume been unduly emphasised.
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