English wit and humor; English wit and humor, Pictorial; Europe -- Description and travel -- Humor
"There is much, sir. There is the Tube of the Four Halfpennies, _tutto
all' inglese_, as at London. He is on the arches of steel below the
news streets. There is the bridge from the city to Murano, one span of
steel all covered of stone much thin, as the _Ponte della Torre_, the
Bridge of the Tower, at London. Is marvellous, the our bridge! Is one
bridge, and not of less not appear to be one bridge, but one castle
of the middle age in the middle air. _È bellissimo, e anche tutto all'
inglese._ And then----"
"Stop," cried the Englishman. "Does anybody ever come to your city
now? Any artists, for instance?"
"Ah, no, sir! _Pittori, scultori, perche?_ But there are voyagers some
time. The month past all the Society of the Engineers of Japan
are comed, and the hotels were fulls, and all those sirs were much
contenteds and sayed the city was marvellous. She shall go now, sir,
to visit the bridge?"
"No," said the Englishman, emphatically, "not I! Let me pay my bill
here and your fee, whatever it is, and take me back to the railway
station as fast as you can. There are plenty of bridges in London. I
am going back there."
* * *
AT BRUSSELS.--_Mrs. Trickleby_ (_pointing to announcement in grocer's
window, and spelling it out_).
_Jambon d' Yorck._ What's that mean, Mr. T.?
_Mr. T._ (_who is by way of being a linguist_). Why, good Yorkshire
preserves, of course. What did you suppose it was--Dundee marmalade?
[Illustration: 'ARRY IN 'OLLAND
"These 'ere cigars at three a 'na'penny 'as just as delicate a flavour
as them as we pays a penny a piece for at 'ome!"]
[Illustration: L'EMBARRAS DES RICHESSES. AT THE CAFÉ DES AMBASSADEURS
_The Garsong_ (_to Jones and Brown, from Clapham_). "But your dinner,
gentlemans! He go to make 'imself cold, if you eat 'im not!"]
'ARRY IN SWITZERLAND
DEAR CHARLIE,--You heard as I'd left good old England agen, I'll
be bound.
Not for Parry alone, mate, this time--I've bin doing the Reglar
Swiss Round.
Mong Blong, Mare de Glass, and all that, Charlie--guess it's a
sight you'd enjoy
To see 'Arry, the Hislington Masher, togged out as a Merry Swiss
Boy.
'Tis a bit of a stretch from the "Hangel," a jolly long journey by
rail.
But I made myself haffable like; I'd got hup on the toppingest
scale;
Shammy-hunter at Ashley's not in it with me, I can tell yer, old
chap;
And the way as the passengers stared at me showed I wos fair on
the rap.
Talk of hups and downs, Charlie! North Devon I found pooty steep,
as you know.
But wot's Lynton roads to the Halps, or the Torrs to that blessed
Young Frow?
I got 'andy with halpenstocks, Charlie, and never came _much_ of a
spill;
But I think, arter all, that, for comfort, I rayther prefer
Primrose 'Ill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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