The cartoon published nine years later, in 1872, showed that _Punch_ was still dissatisfied with the conditions of railway servants. _A propos_ of the railways, it is worth recording that in 1860 there were cheap excursions to Brighton and back for 3s. Also that in 1868 _Punch_ commits himself to the view that an increase in railway fares means less revenue--an interesting parallel to the recent controversy. In 1865 the cattle plague led to a sharp rise in the price of meat; but the attempt to introduce and popularize cheap jerked (or charqued) beef from South America--sold at threepence a pound--was not successful, though _Punch_ appealed to the public to give it a fair chance in a set of verses with the refrain:-- Oh, the jerked beef of La Plata, A platter give me of jerked beef. "Progress at high prices," in _Punch's_ opinion, was dearly bought. When two demonstrations were held by working men at Worcester this summer to protest against the high price of meat which was attributed to a monopoly amongst the farmers and butchers, and a resolution was adopted to abstain from the consumption of meat for a certain time, _Punch_ saw in this move a tacit acknowledgment that the high price was owing to demand, and cordially endorsed the comments of _The Times_:-- There can be no doubt that the present high price of meat is mainly to be traced to the fact that the consumption on the part of the working classes has of late years enormously increased, owing to their prosperous condition, good wages, and cheap bread. A general resolution on their part to limit the consumption would soon bring down the price. [Sidenote: _Honest Fault-finding_] The strike against the butchers was one in which the working classes might safely combine to turn out. "They will not injure themselves, nor hurt their wives and families: on the contrary, all the while the strike lasts they will be putting by money. The public will support instead of discouraging them." But it is impossible to take the commendation seriously in view of the last sentence; "whilst others, I trust, are endeavouring, by total abstinence from butchers' meat, to reduce the butchers to reason, I remain medicinally, of course, always 'A Beefeater.'" Much more effective, because untainted by irony, are the plain-spoken verses on the British workman as painted by his flatterers, his detractors and his candid friends:-- While Democrat orators praise him and puff him As the land's bone and sinew, and Nature's own nob: Aristocrat talkers calumniously cuff him, As shiftless, and soulless, sot, spendthrift, and snob. 'Twixt the daub of his bully, the daub of his backer, The true British Workman's been able to stand, And at once to disclaim both the brighter and blacker, As alike wide of truth, from the right and left hand.