Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, September 24, 1887 — John Shaqi
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, September 24, 1887Various
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, September 24, 1887
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
Relying on the generous impulse of all those who would not wish
to see the patriot deprived of his home comforts, I beg, Sir, with much
self-restraint, to subscribe myself,
Your calm and dispassionate Correspondent,
EMANCIPATOR HIBERNICUS.
SIR,--What's all this fuss about pushing this fellow O'BRIEN into a
cell, nine feet by six? By all means push him in, or into one six feet
by six, for anything I care. If he can't breathe the fresh air he wants
inside, what of that? Serve him right. He has been egging on the dupes
and fools who have listened to him to commit acts that, if the Executive
were a trifle stronger, would soon crowd every gaol in the country to
the roof, and now he has got a taste of the same medicine himself. I
hope he likes it. As to his talking of "suffering in his health," who, I
should like to know, supposes he goes to prison to improve it. Again, I
say, "Serve him right!" and if he is let out some eighteen months hence
well broken down, perhaps the experience will teach him to hold his
tongue in future, and not go posturing on a platform with his political
claptrap, for the purpose of interfering with the vested interests and
inalienable rights of
Yours, rabidly,
AN IRISH TORY LANDLORD.
SIR,--That political prisoners should not be regarded precisely in the
same light as common criminals, public opinion, by a very generally
accepted consent, readily admits. Yet Mr. W. O'BRIEN can hardly expect
to find residence in a Government gaol in all respects as comfortable as
that supplied to him in his own chambers. Still he may probably
reasonably expect no harsh, certainly no vindictive treatment, at the
hands of the Authorities, but merely that constraint and subjection to
ordinary discipline which his detention necessarily involves. As, after
the issue of the warrant for his arrest, he was allowed virtually to
choose his own time for its service, ride on an open car with a Mayor,
preceded by a brass band, playing a solemn march, take up his residence
at an hotel, and subsequently address a crowd from the balcony, the
Executive cannot be said to have been very hard on him, at least in
their preliminary treatment, and probably they will follow it up
somewhat in the same lines, and, without making his incarceration a
farce, allow it to be softened with such relaxations that, while not
incompatible with the surrender of his liberty, may yet be found
consistent with a due regard to the requirements of his health, and the
circumstances which have led to his rather injudiciously placing it in
jeopardy. Such, at least, Sir, is the view of the situation taken by
Your devoted and constant Correspondent,
COMMON SENSE.
* * * * *
Illustration: SEA-SIDE WEATHER STUDIES. "THE SEVENTH WAVE."
* * * * *
WHAT WAS IT?
I had been reading a lot of "Letters to the _Times_." That may account
for any little confusion in the details of the subsequent events.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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