قراءة كتاب Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 108, March 23, 1895

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‏اللغة: English

Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 108, March 23, 1895

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg

الصفحة رقم: 6

of the adjournment for the Easter recess."

The Times.]

Air—"The Cane-bottom'd Chair."

Ah-h-h-h!!! Farewell to the Chair, to the Mace, to the Bar!
To tedious twaddle and purposeless jar!—
Away from the House, and its toils, and its cares,
I hope to sit snug in my snuggest of chairs.

To mount that old Chair was my pride, to be sure;
But—the House got ill-mannered, its air grew impure:
And the sights I have seen there on many a day
Were worthy a lot of young Yahoos at play.

Ah! yet that old Chamber had corners and nooks,
Which seemed haunted by friendly, familiar old spooks.
The Gossetts, O'Gormans, and Gladstones! All ends!
But escaping old bothers means missing old friends.

Old chums, like old china, though possibly cracked,
With rickety tempers, and wits broken-backed,
Old memory treasures. And when shall men see
Such champions as Dizzy and W. G.?

No better divan need young Abbas require
Than this snug Easy Chair well drawn up to the fire.
Off robes! Wig avaunt! Now I'm cosy!—And yet,
If there's something to gladden, there's much to regret.

Why is it one clings to some genial old scamp?
Why is it one sticks to a worn-out old gamp?
Why is it, despite my relief, I feel drawn
To that hard high-backed Chair I so long sat upon?

Long, long through the hours, and the night, and the chimes
Have I sat, yawned and ached in the tiresome old times,
When faction and fog filled the House, and for me
The Chamber was pitiless pur-ga-to-ree!

Now comfort and quiet will gladden my rest,
And tedium no longer will torture my breast,
For that finest of Seats ever padded with hair
I am going to exchange for my own Easy Chair!

If Chairs had but speech it would whisper alarms
To him who's next clasped in its stuffy old arms.
How long there I languished, and lolled in despair—
Till I wished myself wood like the rest of "the Chair!"

A decade and more since I first filled the place!*
There's many a form and there's many a face
Have vanished since I donned the wig of grey hair,
And sat and looked stately, at ease in that Chair.

Men say I have honoured that Chair ever since,
With the poise of a judge and the mien of a prince.
Perhaps! But I'm weary, and glad, I declare,
To make now a change to my own Easy Chair.

When the candles burn low, and the company's gone,
In the silence of night I shall sit here alone,
Or with you, Mr. Punch, many-memoried pair,
And muse on old days in that high Speaker's Chair!

Eh? What, Mr. Punch? Read me last night's debate?
Oho! Order! Order!! I'm drowsy, 'tis late.
For Ayes and for Noes, Punch, no more need I care;
I may take forty winks in my own Easy Chair!
I may take forty winks in my own Easy Chair!

* Mr. Arthur Wellesley Peel was elected Speaker at the opening of the Session of 1884, upon the retirement of Sir Henry Brand.

Ancient Custom.—"A quaint practice exists" at the Episcopal Palace, Fulham, "of waking up the domestics by means of a long pole." "Stirring them up," apparently, as the keepers do the beasts at the Zoo. The Sun reminds us of the existence of "rousing staves" for waking sleepers in church. About Regatta time riparian dwellers are frequently disturbed in their slumbers by "rousing staves," which, however, are sung by jolly young watermen, canoeists and house-boaters.

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