August 4, 1877.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

37

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iill

PROFESSIONAL VIEW OF THE SITUATION.

" Awful dem Roosbian Atrohshities—Shtrippin' de poor Creeturs naked !
vok ting-ole clo's 'll be sheap!"

MALEDICTION MADE WOESE.
[To Mr. Edward Freeman.)

Ix was not " Perish. India," yon exclaimed,

'' Rather than for the Turk one Briton fight! "
But " Perish British Interests, unshamed,

Rather than we take part against the Right" ?
The second saying gives the worse offence
To the true Briton's moral sense !
If India perished, and if that were all,
The evil were comparatively small.
" India " might " perish " without more ado
Than if you sung out, " Perish Timbuctoo ! "
But " British Interests," Sir, and " Our Dominion

In India "—these are things that Britons cherish.

Do rather anything than let them perish !
The man's un-English holds not that opinion.

You, that of Freeman hear the glorious name,

Do you yourself a freeborn Briton think,
And yet admit, with soul devoid of shame,

A cause for which you'd " British Interests " sink ?
As Britons paramount we feel 'em.
" Fiat Justitia, ruat ccelu?n."
That moral maxim, in this freemen's land,
Folk with this free construction understand,
"Let ' British Interests ' reign supreme o'er all,
Although the welkin on the world should fall."
You should have put up with the misquotation.

What ? '' Perish British Pocket—British Purse ! "

Ill-advised Freeman, you've but made bad worse
By your unpatriotic explanation.

Reports of Progress.

Scene—A Block in Fleet Street.

First Cabby. Now then ! What are you stopping for ?
You 're a nice obstruction, you are !
Second Cabby. You 're a Bigger !
First Cabby. Yah ! You're a PAjpjreLL—nan are !

Epitaph for Mr. Joseph Jefferson {may it be long
before he wants it).—R. I. P.

A GOOD WORD AND A GOOD WOEK FOE JACK

ASHOEE.

Punch does not often own himself surprised. But he had to own
himself surprised a little while ago, when he learnt that there was
no Soldiers' Reading and Recreation Room at the " Rock." In
furtherance of the movement to supply so strange a want, he then
said a good word for the Garrison of Gib., and hopes it profited.
He has now another surprise to own to, on learning that the Bermu-
das are without anything in the shape of a Club-house for Sailors
and Marines on liberty from our West Indian Fleet, which has its
head-quarters in the harbour of Ireland Island, where we have our
chief West India Naval Establishment, and where half-a-dozen
men-of-war are often lying for weeks together. And, as he has this
other surprise to confess to, so also he has this other good word to
say on behalf of the movement now on foot to supply this urgent
want. For want it is, and no mistake. As things are, "liberty"
for Jack or Jolly in that hot and blazing climate becomes, perforce,
"licence." The only places open, during their run ashore, to our
Bluejackets and Marines are villanous dens for the supply of
drugged liquor, the consumption of which is stimulated by the
foulest accompaniments.

What it is proposed to start is a clean and decent Club-house,
where, for moderate charges, good beds, wholesome food, honest
drink, and rational amusement can be had—a place where Jack on
liberty can smoke his pipe, drink his beer or grog, and enjoy his
game at draughts or skittles, bowls or billiards, read his paper, or
take his hand at cards with his messmates, without having his
P°vv, P^k^ % extortionate harpies, and his constitution ruined
with hocussed drink, or worse abominations ;—a place where, after
his day s ramble ashore, Jack may top-up a social evening with a
quiet night s rest, and come aboard next morning as a British sailor
should—cool, clean, cheerful, and collected ; and not like a beaten,
boosy, battered blackguard, with his eyes in mourning, his stomach
sick, and his blood in a blaze.

Jack, all popular as he is, has more flatterers than friends—more
who make a profit out of his weaknesses, and a living out of his vices,

than who do their best to strengthen the one and root out the other.
But he has no better friends than those who help him to put to good
use the rare and much-prized moments of liberty that relieve the
monotony and confinement of his life aboard ship. This those are
doing who are promoting the establishment of the Bermuda Sailors'
and Marines' Club-house. Such things want starting; though, once
started, they should—and must—keep themselves going.

Punch is proud to hold out his old naval cap for this good work,
and to say that contributions will be received by Captain Leveson
Somerset, R.N. (Captain in Charge, Bermuda), care of Messrs.
Chard & Co.. 3, Clifford's Inn, Fleet Street, or the Rev. C. H. Har-
bord, B.A., R.N., The Parsonage, Ireland Island, Bermuda.

COLORADOS AT CLOSE QUARTERS.

If our potato - growers do not become personally acquainted
with the Colorado Beetle it will not be the fault of the Alexandra
Palace Company, which advertises for exhibition a sample of the
insect (dead, we sincerely trust), or of Mr. Stollwerk, the modeller
who has produced an exact likeness in wax of the beetle in all
its stages; or last, and not least, the exemplary Manchester
Entomologist who has received a consignment of the Chrysomela
decemlineata from a scientific friend in the States, and has been
keeping them in his garden on strawberries and vegetable marrows,
under the strictest injunctions, of course, not to let them escape.

As they are winged, we don't quite see how walls are to keep them
in. At all events, considering the possible consequences of letting
loose a pair of these interesting " bugs," one is glad to learn that
the Privy Council has written to Sir Joseph Heron, the active
Town-Clerk of that Metropolis, to beg him to bring down the Muni-
cipal foot—all its force of beetle-crushers in fact—on the happy
family which the Lancashire Entomologist has been maintaining
with a curiosity highly scientific, no doubt, but hardly compatible,
perhaps, with the safety of our potato-fields.

British Interest.—Wherever there's British Capital.

vol. ixxnr.

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