Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 108, January 19, 1895 — John Shaqi
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 108, January 19, 1895Various
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 108, January 19, 1895
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
Down on his back he fell crashing, bearing me with him as he went over
and fixing the spike firmly in the earth, pinned like some huge beetle
by a human pin. As my legs flew up they encountered the second giant,
and, winding round his chest, crushed every vestige of life out of
him and flung his mangled body full twenty yards to the rear. I had
escaped, but my position was still uncomfortably awkward. By this
time, however, the rout was complete, and four of my men, by dint
of tremendous exertions, succeeded in extricating me from my curious
entanglement. My pinned foeman turned out to be the Ranee's brother,
HADJU THAR MEEBHOY. We bore him back with us to camp, where,
marvellous to relate, after a prolonged illness, he eventually
recovered.
Of course he has never been quite the same man since. He has to
be careful about his diet, but with the childlike simplicity of an
Oriental he finds a constant pleasure in opening and shutting the
little aluminium doors which our dear old surgeon, TOBY O'GRADY,
constructed to replace the KHAN's stomach and the small of his back. I
came to be great friends with him and it was through him that I gained
the knowledge which prompted the adventure I am now about to relate.
(_To be continued._)
* * * * *
A WORD ABOUT THE ST. HENRY JAMES'S THEATRE.
There is something in a name, especially when it happens to be the
title of a play. At the St. James's, Mr. ALEXANDER'S latest venture
has been _Guy Domville_, by the American novelist HENRY JAMES, who
if he knew as much about play-writing as he does about novel-writing
would probably be in the first flight of dramatists; _and_ he would
not have chosen so hopeless a name for his hero and for his play as
_Guy Domville_. For the anti-James jokers would delight in finding
that _Guy could_ be "_guy'd_," and to say as to "_Domville_" that
"a first night audience '_vill dom_' the play." For all that, if
ALEXANDER be the sagacious commander in the dramatic field that he
has hitherto shown himself, it is not likely that he should have been
completely mistaken in accepting a play which a portion of the public
has refused to accept. Of course, a manager cannot afford to keep a
play going until the public come _en masse_ to see it, and therefore,
unless there is "a turn of the tide" (and such things have happened
before now, and a condemned piece has had a long and prosperous
career), Mr. ALEXANDER will himself be obliged to do to the play what
those who ridicule and chaff it have already done, _i.e._ "_take it
off_."
* * * * *
MRS. R. admits that she has always been very fond of sweets at dinner.
What she is especially fond of is, she says, "a dish of _pommes
d'Ananias_;" and she always adds, "But, my dear, why the French choose
such awful names for such nice things is what I never can understand."
* * * * *
[Illustration: "QUITE ENGLISH, YOU KNOW!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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