Caricatures and cartoons -- Great Britain; English wit and humor; English wit and humor, Pictorial
just below, which consists of the grand Sultan smoking desperately
against Ali Pacha. Now, look a little lower down, and you will see a
famous crocodile-catcher of the Nile, said to bear a striking resemblance
to Commodore Napier; and now, look upwards again to the farthest verge,
and you behold the great Pyramid, and a wild horseman chasing an ostrich
not so wild as himself. Now, the world goes round a little more, and
you see some vast mountains, together with the temples of Hindostan;
and upon the palm-tree you will find the monkeys pulling one another's
tails, being very uneducated and having nothing else to do: here, also,
you will discern the Indian jugglers, one throwing the balls, and another
swallowing the sword, a very common thing in these parts. And now, my
little dears, you can plainly see several very independent gentlemen
and loyal subjects standing on their heads in presence of the Emperor
of ever so many worlds, and the brother of the sun and moon; and behind
these, hiding the wall of China, you will see a quantity of steam, (for
they are in hot water there,) that issues from the tea-kettles. Leaving
his Celestial Majesty smoking his opium, and passing the junks, temples,
and pagodas, you see a Chinese joss upon his pedestal; and now you can
descend and join that pretty little tea-party, where you will recognise
some of your old acquaintances on tea-cups; only, if you are afraid of
the lion which you see a long way off, you can turn to the left, and
follow the tiger that is following the elephant like mad: and now, my
little dears, you can jump for safety into that palanquin carried by the
sable gentry, or perhaps you would join the party of Persians seated a
little lower, only they have but one dish and no plates to eat out of.
Just above this dinner-party you behold some live venison, or a little
antelope eating his grass for dinner while a boa-constrictor is creeping
up with the intention of dining upon him; so you had better make your
way to that giraffe, who is feeding upon the tops of trees, which habit
is supposed to have occasioned the peculiar shape of that remarkable
quadruped; and now you fall again in the way of that ramping lion, from
whose jaws a black is retreating only to encounter a black brother more
savage than the wild beast. And now, if your eye follows that gang of
slaves, chained neck to neck, who are being driven off to another part
of the world, you will see what treatment they are doomed to experience
there, in the flogging which is being administered to one of their
colour--that is to say, black as the vapour issuing from that mountain in
the distance; it is Chimborao, or Cotapaxi, I can't say exactly which,
but it shall be whichever you please, my pretty little dears. In the
smoke of it an eagle is carrying off a lamb--do you see?--Stop, let me
wipe the glasses!--Ah, yes, and now you can clearly behold a gentleman
of the United States smoking his cigar in his rocking-chair. A little
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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