PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
VOL. 107.
August 11, 1894.
LORD ORMONT'S MATE AND MATEY'S AMINTA.
BY G***GE M*R*D*TH.
VOLUME III.
And now the climax comes not with tongue-lolling sheep-fleece wolves,
ears on top remorselessly pricked for slaughter of the bleating imitated
lamb, here a fang pointing to nethermost pit not of stomach but of
Acheron, tail waving in derision of wool-bearers whom the double-rowed
desiring mouth soon shall grip, food for mamma-wolf and baby-wolf,
papa-wolf looking on, licking chaps expectant of what shall remain; and
up goes the clamour of flocks over the country-side, and up goes howling
of shepherds shamefully tricked by Æsop-fable artifice or doggish
dereliction of primary duty; for a watch has been set through which the
wolf-enemy broke paws on the prowl; and the King feels this, and the
Government, a slab-faced jubber-mubber of contending punies,
party-voters to the front, conscience lagging how far behind no man can
tell, and the country forgotten, a lout dragging his chaw-bacon hobnails
like a flask-fed snail housed safely, he thinks, in unbreakable shell
soon to be broken, and no man's fault, while the slow country sinks to
the enemy, ships bursting, guns jammed, and a dull shadow of defeat on a
war-office drifting to the tide-way of unimagined back-stops on a lumpy
cricket-field of national interests. But this was a climax revealed to
the world. The Earl was deaf to it. Lady CHARLOTTE dumbed it
surprisingly. Change the spelling, put a for u and n for b in the
dumbed, and you have the way MORSFIELD mouthed it, and MATEY swimming
with BROWNY full in the Harwich tide; head under heels up down they go
in Old Ocean, a glutton of such embraces, lapping softly on a pair of
white ducks tar-stained that very morning and no mistake.
"I have you fast!" cried MATEY.
"Two and two's four," said BROWNY. She slipped. "_Are_ four," corrected
he, a tutor at all times, boys and girls taken in and done for, and no
change given at the turnstiles.
"Catch as catch can," was her next word. Plop went a wave full in the
rosy mouth. "Where's the catch of this?" stuttered the man.
"A pun, a pun!" bellowed the lady. "But not by four-in-hand from
London."
She had him there. He smiled a blue acquiescence. So they landed, and
the die was cast, ducks changed, and the goose-pair braving it in dry
clothes by the kitchen fire. There was nothing else to be done; for the
answer confessed to a dislike of immersions two at a time, and the hair
clammy with salt like cottage-bacon on a breakfast-table.
Lord ORMONT sat with the jewels seized from the debating, unbeaten
sister's grasp.
"She is at Marlow," he opined.
"Was," put in Lady CHARLOTTE.
The answer blew him for memory.
"MORSFIELD's dead," his lordship ventured; "jobbed by a foil with button
off."
"And a good job too."
Lady CHARLOTTE was ever on the crest-wave of the moment's humour. He
snicked a back-stroke to the limits, shaking the sparse hair of
repentance to the wind of her jest. But the unabashed one continued.
"I'll not call on her."
"You shall," said he.
"Shan't," was her lightning-parry.
"You shall," he persisted.
"Never. Her head is a water-flower that speaks at ease in the open sea.
How call on a woman with a head like that?"
The shock struck him fair and square.
"We wait," he said, and the conflict closed with advantage to the
petticoat.
A footman bore a letter. His step was of the footman order, calves
stuffed to a longed-for bulbousness, food for donkeys if any such should
chance: he presented it.
"I wait," he murmured.
"Whence and whither comes it?"
"Postmark may tell."
"Best open it," said the cavalry general, ever on the dash for open
country where squadrons may deploy right shoulders up, serre-files in
rear, and a hideous clatter of serjeant-majors spread over all. He
opened it. It was AMINTA's letter. She announced a French leave-taking.
The footman still stood. Lord ORMONT broke the silence.
"Go and be----" the words quivered into completion, supply the blank who
will.
But her punishment was certain. For it must be thus. Never a lady left
her wedded husband, but she must needs find herself weighted with charge
of his grand-nephew. Cuckoo-tutor sits in General's nest, General's wife
to bear him company, and lo! the General brings a grand-nephew to the
supplanter, convinced of nobility beyond petty conventions of
divorce-court rigmarole. So the world wags wilful to the offshoot,
lawn-mowers grating, grass flying, and perspiring gardener slow in his
shirt-sleeves primed with hope of beer that shall line his lean ribs at
supper-time, nine o'clock is it, or eight--parishes vary, and a wife at
home has rules. A year later he wrote--
"SIR,--Another novel is on hand. Likely you will purchase. Readers gape
for it. Better than acrostics, they say, fit for fifty puzzle-pages.
What price?
"G***GE M*R*D*TH."
THE END.
* * * * *
[Illustration: NO END TO HIS INIQUITIES.
(_From a Yorkshire Moor._)
_Sportsman (awaiting the morrow, and meeting Keeper as he strolls
round)._ "WELL, RODGERS, THINGS LOOK FAIRLY HOPEFUL FOR TOMORROW, EH?"
_Rodgers (strong Tory)._ "WELL, SIR, MIDLIN', PRETTY MIDLIN'. BUT, OH
DEAR, IT'S AWK'ARD THIS 'ERE TWELFTH BEIN' FIXED OF A SUNDAY!" (_With
much wisdom._) "NOW, MIGHT MR. GLADSTONE HA' HAD HANYTHING TO DO WI'
THAT ARRANGEMENT, SIR?" ]
* * * * *
THE MARCH OF CIVILISATION.
(_From a Record in the Far East._)
_Step One._--The nation takes to learning the English language.
_Step Two._--Having learned the English language, the nation begins to
read British newspapers.
_Step Three._--Having mastered the meaning of the leaders, the nation
start a Parliament.
_Step Four._--Having got a Parliament, the nation establishes school
boards, railways, stockbrokers, and penny ices.
_Step Five._--Having become fairly civilised, the nation takes up art
and commerce.
_Step Six._--Having realised considerable wealth, the nation purchases
any amount of ironclads, heavy ordnance, and ammunition.
_Step Seven._--Having the means within reach, the nation indulges in a
terrific war.
_Step Eight and Last._--Having lost everything, the nation returns with
a sigh of relief to old-fashioned barbarism.
[Illustration: THE TRIUMPH OF CIVILISATION!]
* * * * *
[Illustration: A HINT TO THE POSTAL AUTHORITIES.
THE EMPLOYMENT OF GOOD-LOOKING AND ATTRACTIVE YOUNG MEN IN CLEARING THE
LETTER-BOXES UNDOUBTEDLY RESULTS IN FREQUENT DETENTION OF THE MAILS.]
* * * * *
EASTWARD HO!
"Oh East is East, and West is West," says strenuous RUDYARD KIPLING,
And what has the West taught to the East,
save the science of war, and tippling?
To ram, and to torpedo, and to drain Drink's poisoned flagons?
And Civilisation sees her work in--armour-plated Dragons!
The saurians of primeval slime they fought with tooth and claw,
And SHO-KI'S dragon, though possessed of wondrous powers of jaw,
And MIOCHIN'S scaly monster, whereat SHO-KI'S pluck might melt,
And the dragon speared by stout St. George in the bold cartoons
of SKELT,--
These were but simple monsters, like the giants slain by JACK,
But your dragon cased in armour-plate with turrets on his back,
And a charged torpedo twisted in his huge and horrid tail.
Is a thing to stagger Science, and to make poor Peace turn pale!
Yes, East is East, and West is West; but the West looks on the East,
And sees the bold Jap summoning to War's wild raven-feast
The saffron-faced Celestial; and the game they're going to play
(With a touch of Eastern goriness) in the wicked Western way.
For the yellow-man has borrowed from the white-man all that's bad,
From shoddy and fire-water, to the costly Ironclad.
He will not have our Bibles, but he welcomes our Big Guns,
And he blends with the wild savagery of Vandals, Goths or Huns,
The scientific slaughter of the Blood-and-Iron Teuton!--
A sight that Civilisation would right willingly be mute on.
But these armour-plated dragons that infest the Yellow Sea
Are worse than the Norse "Dragons" whose black raven flag flew free
O'er fiord and ocean-furrow in the valorous Viking days.
Heathen Chinee and Pagan Jap have learned our Western ways
Of multitudinous bloodshed; every slaughtering appliance,
Devices of death-dealing skill, and deviltries of Science
Strengthen the stealthy Mongol and the sanguinary Turk;
And Civilisation stands, and stares, and cries,
"Is this _my_ work?"
* * * * *
Mem. by a Muddled One.
"Poems in Prose" seem all the go.
_They_'re bad enough, but worse
The dreary hotch-potch we all know
Too sadly;--prose in verse!
* * * * *
OLD THREE-VOL.
There rose two Book-Kings in the West,
Two Kings both great and high;
And they have sworn a solemn oath
Good old Three-Vol. shall die.
They took a pen and wrote him down,
Piled sins upon his head;
And they have sworn a solemn oath
Good old Three-Vol. is dead.
But when "the Season" comes once more,
And folks for fiction call,
Old Three-Vol. _may_ rise up again,
And sore surprise them all!
* * * * *
REMNANTS.
(_A Pindaric Fragment._)
In the young season's prime
Yon remnant felt its major portion reft,
And waited for the surplus time
Ingloriously left.
For it no glories of the lawn,
No whirling in the valse that greets the dawn,
No record in the fleeting roll of fame
That gives the wearer's name,
And tells a waiting world what gown she wore;
While that which went before
No cheaply-sober destiny has found
But graced fair Fashion's ground,
Where Pleasure, gaily deck'd,
Within the fancied circle of select,
Watches the Polo cavalry at war,
The victim pigeons tumbled in their gore,
The rival Blues at Lord's, the racing steeds
On Ascot's piney meads,
Or where luxuriant Goodwood's massy trees
Murmur to no common breeze,
And see afar the glint of England's summer seas.
Impute no fault, ye proud, nor grandeur mock,
If frugal Elegance, discreet and fair,
The aftermath of lavish Fashion reap,
And, having waited long with nought to wear,
Get the same goods, though late, and get them cheap.
Next year the daintiest gowns by lawn and lock
May haply be the fruit of surplus summer stock.
* * * * *
POPE FOR THE EMANCIPATED SEX.--"The understudy of mankind is woman."
* * * * *
LYRE AND LANCET.
(_A Story in Scenes._)
PART VI.--ROUND PEGS IN SQUARE HOLES.