PUNCH,
OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
Vol. 62.
January 13, 1872.
A STRAIGHTFORWARD VIEW.
High Church Curate. "And what do you Think, Mr. Simpson, about aClergyman's Turning to the East?"
Literal Churchwarden. "Well, Sir, my Opinion is, that if the Clergymanis Goodlookin', he don't want to Turn his Back to the Congregation!"
POKES IN PANTOMIMES.
Non omnia possumus omnes; we are not all Popes, norshould we be omnipotent even if we were infallible. TheDaily News is a journal of ability; but there is a certaininconsistency, the cause of which it declares itself unableto fathom:—
"That all personal allusions to the private lives of individualsshould be eschewed on the stage, we readily admit. Indeed,we sympathise with Dr. Johnson, who, on hearing that Foote,the actor, intended to imitate his mien and gestures, inquiredthe price of a good thick stick; but why, in the name ofcommon sense, when caricatures of Mr. Gladstone and Mr.Lowe weekly appear in humorous journals, and when scarcely aday passes without these gentlemen being attacked in print onaccount of one or other of their public acts, every harmless jokeupon their official doings should be expunged from the pantomimes,surpasses comprehension."
Our excellent contemporary forgets that there is intheatres a place called the Gallery. This place is occupiedby a peculiar description of audience and spectators.In the theatre, by physical position, they constitutethe higher orders, but in common talk arecontrariwise named. Of old, bloated aristocrats werewont ironically to style them "the Gods." EnlightenedStatesmen, however, with a just appreciation of theirvalue as British voters, use to call them the People. Nowthe People of the Gallery are not accustomed to readhumorous journals in which caricatures of the People'sWilliam, and the People's Robert, appear weekly. Ifthey were, it would be necessary for the humorousjournals to be very careful in caricaturing those popularMinisters, lest caricatures should endanger their popularity.The People of the Gallery are our flesh andblood, but they are as yet uneducated, and apt to takejokes too seriously. If the Clown in a Pantomime wereto tread upon a match-box, and get blown up sky-high,or if, assisted by the Pantaloon, he presented a workingman in an arsenal with a sack, these performances, to theoccupants of the boxes indeed, would be harmless jokes,but the effect produced by them in the electoral waywould probably be mischievous, in a gallery filled withfriends and relations of match-venders and dockyardlabourers.
The Best Tonic.
The Doctors disapprove of alcohol, but they are asalive as ever to the cheering effect of "good spirits" ontheir patients.
PROBABLE INTELLIGENCE.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, being thoroughly convincedof the injustice of the Income-tax, is maturing a measure for itstotal abolition. To prove that he is perfectly sincere in the task heundertakes, he has resolved to throw up office if the tax again bevoted