Picturesque Sketches of London, Past and PresentMiller, Thomas
Philosophy
Picturesque Sketches of London, Past and Present
Miller, Thomas
London (England) -- Description and travel
But our picture is not complete without the spectators. Look at that
ragged woman holding up her dirty child. The little rogue claps his tiny
hands, and crows again at every blow Judy receives; and that poor mother
is more delighted with the pleasurable expression of her dirty darling's
countenance than she is with the exhibition, for her heart and eyes are
fixed on her child. But for Punch sounding in the street, the urchin
would probably have been creeping about the house, or seated upon the
hearth crunching the cinders he picked up from under the grate. Even
that thin pale-faced girl, who holds up a baby half as big as herself,
and throws the long loose hair aside which fell over her clear blue
eyes, as she came running and panting up with her heavy burden, stands
looking on delighted. That respectable-looking old gentleman also halts,
though half ashamed of being seen in such a motley assembly; then passes
on with a smile on his face, for he remembers pausing many a time, when
going or returning from school with his books swung idly over his
shoulder, to look at Punch and Judy; and while he walks along his mind
turns back to the days of other years. Then the drum--what a
spirit-stirring sound it makes! and the shrill pandean pipes, stuck in a
stock of faded crimson velvet, how clear and shrilly they sound!--the
man's head seems as if placed on a swivel, and he hammers and blows away
as if for very life.
But whither is the crowd running? To see an organ-boy and his monkey.
What an excellent tumbler Jocko is! his long tail seems no incumbrance
to him, but head over heels he goes. What a strange language his
jabbering seems, a running of one word into another! and he looks at us
as if pitying our ignorance for not understanding him. There is
something about his countenance conducive to merriment; something so
old-manish in the expression of his face, that we cannot forbear
laughing at him. See how he cracks that nut,--how nimbly he plies his
fingers, and how knowingly he looks up at us all the time, as if
wondering whether he shall get another or not when that is eaten. What a
living caricature he is of our race; now an indignant ugly old man,
jabbering and spitting out his vexation; then a mischievous boy, playing
all kinds of tricks, and, though grumbled at, liked by every body. Poor
fellow! we almost regret that he was ever caught and shoved into that
scarlet jacket, to add to our street
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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