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قراءة كتاب Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, November 1, 1890

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‏اللغة: English
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, November 1, 1890

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, November 1, 1890

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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solution of the social problem had caused him some anxious thought, "without being inclined to launch out a little more than one does under ordinary conditions at home. Only I wish they wouldn't think it necessary to keep their dining-saloon at such an excessive temperature, and waste quite so much time between the different courses."

A Pleasant Little Excursion.A Pleasant Little Excursion.

And here the mild-mannered Clergyman had real ground for complaint; for the German recipe for table d'hôte dinner seems to be something very much like the following:—Get a room that has been smoked in, with closed and tightly-fastened windows and doors, all the morning. Light the stove, if there is one, and turn on the gas, if there is any. You begin your dinner. Take twice, thrice, or, even four times of every course, glaring savagely and defiantly at your neighbour as you pass the dish. Sit over each, allowing a good quarter of an hour for its proper digestion, and keep this up till the perspiration drops from your face. Finally, in about two hours' time, having carefully mopped your forehead, quit the table for the "Conversations Saal." Here (still keeping in gas and stove, if there is one) smoke till you can't see six feet before you. Keep this up till you have had enough of it, and feel the time is getting on for you to go through a modified edition of the same process at supper. At least, this is how the German element—a very formidable one at the Hôtel Titlis—for the most part, conducted itself over the principal meal of the day. There were, of course, exceptions, for all Germany is not essentially German; yet it must be confessed that the prevailing features were of this guzzling, and, for the want of a more descriptive word, I would add, "sweltering" type, not fully appreciated by the ordinary travelling Briton, who, whatever else he may be, is not a gross feeder, though he does set the proper value on a breath of pure fresh air.

"Get him up? Of course we can get him up," rejoined Dr. MELCHISIDEC, warmly. This in answer to some doubts expressed by one of the more cautions spirits of our party as to the possibility of dragging the Dilapidated One over one of the stock excursions of the neighbourhood, to wit, the Fürren Alp. "Why, put him into a chaise à porteur, and we could get him up the Titlis itself, and throw in the Schlossstock, and the Gross-Spannort, for the matter of that, as well. Baedeker makes only a two and a half hours' affair of it."

And so we find ourselves in due course, doing the "Fürren-Alp" in approved style.

"By Jove, I'll be hanged if I think it's a bit better than going up Primrose Hill, twenty times running: and not near such good going either," observes young JERRYMAN, after we have been struggling up a precipitous mountain path, occasionally finding ourselves sliding and slipping backwards in the bed of a disused watercourse, for about two hours and a half.

And really I think young JERRYMAN's view of the matter is not so very far out, after all.


ONE RITE, AND ALL WRONG.—The "Service of Reconciliation" in St. Paul's seems to have had the effect of setting everyone by the ears. Quite a muddle,—a Western Church, and an Easton rite.


SCIENCE AND HEART.

A Correspondent of 'the Field'

"A Correspondent of 'the Field' records an experiment which he made with a wasp. 'Having,' he says, 'severed a wasp in two pieces, I found that the head and thorax with the uninjured wings retained full vitality.... It tried to fly, but evidently lacked the necessary balance through the loss of the abdomen. To test the matter further, I cut out an artificial tail from a piece of thin cardboard, as nearly following the shape of the natural body as possible. To fasten the appendage to the wasp, I used a little oxgall ...; gum or more sticky substances would not do, as it impedes the use of the wings in flight. Presently the operation was complete, and, to my surprise, the wasp, after one or two ineffectual efforts, flew in rather lopsided fashion to the window. It then buzzed about for at least a quarter of an hour, eventually flying out at the top ... it was vigorous when it flew away."—Extract from an Evening Paper.

The Benefit of Humour in
Philosophy.
Philosophers can always do more
Assisted by a sense of humour:
Witness the droll experiment
Of this same scientific gent.
For he, his frugal breakfast finishing,
(The eggs and bacon fast diminishing)
Noted how o'er his marmalade
A Wasp was buzzing undismayed.
General Reflection:
Attitude of Man towards
the Wasp.
We all are apt to be inhosp-
Itable to the humble Wasp—
That Ishmael of domestic insects,
The terror of the feminine sex!
The Philosopher shares
the prevailing Prejudice.
And our Philosopher, though cool,
Was no exception to the rule.
His Method. He let it settle on his plate;
He poised a knife above—like Fate.
The Blow falls. Next—with a sudden flash it drops
Right on that unsuspecting Wopse!
Which, unprepared by previous omen,
A Tragic Meeting. Awestruck, confronts its own abdomen!
And sees its once attached tail-end dance
A brisk pas-seul of independence!
A pang more bitter than before racks
Dignified Behaviour of
the Wopse.
That righteously indignant thorax,
As proudly (yet with perfect taste)
It turns its back upon its waist,
And seeks, though life must all begin new,
"Business as usual" to continue!
A Philosopher's Remorse. The Man of Science felt his heart
Prick him with self-accusing smart,
To see that ineffectual torso
Go fluttering about the floor so;
The Uses of a Scientific
Education.
A wasp for flight is too lopsided.
So, with remorsefulness acute,
Reparation. He rigged it up a substitute;
Providing it a new posterior,
At least as good—if not superior.
His Process. He cut it out a tail of card,
And stuck it on with ox-gall, hard.
(This he prefers to vulgar glue)
And made that Wopse as good as new!
Forgiveness. Until the grateful insect soared
Away, with self-respect restored
To find that mutilated part of his
Had been so well replaced by artifice.
Further proceedings of
the Philosopher.
The Scientist, again complacent,
To pen and ink and paper hastened,
And, in a letter to the Field,
Told how the Wasp, though halved, was healed,
And how, despite a treatment rigorous,

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