It is much to be hoped that the telegraph wire, About to be laid down, will not form a lyre, On which to strike discord 'twixt the old world and new; Though scarce can we hope all its messages true, For then t'other side would have nothing to do. _Punch's_ interest in aeronautics dates from his earliest infancy, though his mixture of prophecy and satire is rather confusing. Designs of aerial steamships abound in his columns; and one of them is not too bad an anticipation of the aeroplane. [Illustration: AERIAL STEAM CARRIAGE] [Sidenote: _Aviation Forecasts_] In 1845 there was actually a periodical called _The Balloon_, though _Punch_ is jocular at the expense of its very limited _clientèle_. Still, though the number of aeronauts was few, their enterprise attracted a great deal of attention, and Green, who made 526 ascents between 1821 and 1852, including his famous trip from Vauxhall to Weilburg in Nassau, is frequently mentioned. _Punch_, to his credit, inveighed vehemently against the senseless inhumanity of aeronautic acrobats who made a practice of taking up animals with them. He was less fortunate in his dogmatic pronouncement in 1851 that the balloon was a "perfectly useless invention," and in his scornful dismissal, four years later, of the suggestion that it might be useful in warfare:-- Everybody, including, of course, all the nobodies, would seem to have some peculiar plan for finishing off the war in a successful and expeditious manner. The last place we should look for the means of carrying on hostilities with vigour is up in the air; but, nevertheless, an aeronaut has "stepped in" upon the public with a suggestion that balloons are the means required for the siege of Sebastopol and the smashing of Cronstadt. If this theory is correct, Lord Raglan ought at once to be superseded by the "veteran Green" or the "intrepid" Mrs. Graham.