MR. PUNCH ON THE CONTINONG

THE STEAM-LAUNCH IN VENICE

("SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI")

'Andsome 'Arriet. "Ow my! If it 'yn't that bloomin' old Temple Bar, as they did aw'y with out o' Fleet Street!"

Mr. Belleville (referring to Guide-book). "Now, it 'yn't! It's the fymous Bridge o' Sighs, as Byron went and stood on; 'im as wrote Our Boys, yer know!"

'Andsome 'Arriet. "Well, I never! It 'yn't much of a Size, any'ow!"

Mr. Belleville. "'Ear! 'ear!     Fustryte!"

MR. PUNCH ON THE CONTINONG

WITH 152 ILLUSTRATIONS

BY

PHIL MAY, GEORGE DU MAURIER, JOHN LEECH, CHARLES KEENE, L. RAVENHILL, J. BERNARD PARTRIDGE, E. T. REED, REGINALD CLEAVER, AND OTHER HUMOROUS ARTISTS

PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH

THE PROPRIETORS OF "PUNCH"

THE AMALGAMATED PRESS, LTD.

Punch Library of Humour

Crown 8vo. 192 pages, fully illustrated, pictorial cover, 1s. net.

Before the Battle                 After the Battle

OFF TO THE CONTINONG!

(A Foreword)

FACT!

The kind of figure which comes nearest to the ideal you have formed.

FANCY AND——

The kind of figure you see on posters inviting you to French seaside resorts.

Nothing is more calculated to give Englishmen a good conceit of themselves in the matter of international courtesy than a careful examination of the archives of Mr. Punch, such as was necessary in the preparation of the present volume. To anyone familiar with the anti-British attitude of the French comic press before these happier days of the Entente Cordiale, and of the German press at all times, the complete absence of all manner of ill-feeling from Mr. Punch's jokes about our neighbours across the Channel is little short of wonderful. Even in the days when the English people were the unfailing subject for every French satirist when he suffered from an unusual attack of spleen, our national jester seems never to have lost the good-humour with which he has usually surveyed the life of the Continent. Indeed, as the pages here brought together will readily prove, Mr. Punch has seldom, if ever, laid himself open to the charge of insularity in his point of view. Instead of showing a tendency to ridicule our neighbours on the Continent, he has been more inclined to pillory the follies of his own countrymen, and to contrast their behaviour on the Continent rather unfavourably with that of the natives. But, even so, there is nothing in these humorous chronicles of "Mr. Punch on the Continong" which will not amuse equally the travelling or the stay-at-home Briton and the foreigner, since each will find many of his national characteristics "touched off" in a way that is no less kindly than amusing. The fact that a considerable proportion of these pages are from the pen of George Du Maurier, himself a Frenchman by birth, is a reminder that long before the Governments of France and Great Britain had come into their present relationship of intimate friendliness, Mr. Punch had maintained his own Entente Cordiale!

WHERE SECOND THOUGHTS ARE BETTER

Scene—Boulevards, Paris

Professional Beggar (whining). "Ayez pitié, mon bon m'sieu. Ayez pitié! J'ai froid—j'ai bien froid!"

Le Bon Monsieur (irritably). "Allez au di——" (suddenly thinking that sunshine might be preferable) "aux Champs Elysées!"

"LOOK ON THIS PICTURE——

AND ON THIS!"