PUNCH LIBRARY OF HUMOUR Edited by J. A. HAMMERTON Designed to provide in a series of volumes, each complete in itself, the cream of our national humour, contributed by the masters of comic draughtsmanship and the leading wits of the age to “Punch,” from its beginning in 1841 to the present day. MR. PUNCH IN SOCIETY [Illustration] [Illustration: _He._ “By the bye, talking of old times, do you remember that occasion when I made such an awful ass of myself?” _She._ “_Which?_”] MR. PUNCH IN SOCIETY BEING THE HUMOURS OF SOCIAL LIFE _WITH 133 ILLUSTRATIONS_ BY GEORGE DU MAURIER, CHARLES KEENE, PHIL MAY, L. RAVEN-HILL, C. E. BROCK, J. BERNARD PARTRIDGE, A. S. BOYD, REGINALD CLEAVER, LEWIS BAUMER, F. H. TOWNSEND AND OTHERS [Illustration] PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE PROPRIETORS OF “PUNCH” THE EDUCATIONAL BOOK CO. LTD THE PUNCH LIBRARY OF HUMOUR _Twenty-five Volumes, crown 8vo, 192 pages fully illustrated_ LIFE IN LONDON COUNTRY LIFE IN THE HIGHLANDS SCOTTISH HUMOUR IRISH HUMOUR COCKNEY HUMOUR IN SOCIETY AFTER DINNER STORIES IN BOHEMIA AT THE PLAY MR. PUNCH AT HOME ON THE CONTINONG RAILWAY BOOK AT THE SEASIDE MR. PUNCH AFLOAT IN THE HUNTING FIELD MR. PUNCH ON TOUR WITH ROD AND GUN MR. PUNCH AWHEEL BOOK OF SPORTS GOLF STORIES IN WIG AND GOWN ON THE WARPATH BOOK OF LOVE WITH THE CHILDREN [Illustration] INTRODUCTION [Illustration] It would be difficult to think of _Mr. Punch’s_ prototype of the immortal drama as “in Society”; but, however much our national jester may resemble in facial detail the somewhat rude and impulsive character from whom he took his name, he is in all his instincts a gentleman. In other words, it is just here that PUNCH has differed from most comic journals, being, if not absolutely from the first number, certainly from its early days, distinguished for refinement of taste and good manners, not less than for its wit and humour. “MR. PUNCH in Society” is indeed MR. PUNCH in his most congenial surroundings, as he has been above all else the untiring, irrepressible satirist of the social world.