Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, June 28 1890 — John Shaqi
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, June 28 1890Various
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, June 28 1890
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
[_A youthful Gentleman is shown in; he wears a pink-striped
shirt-front, an enormous button-hole, and a woolly frock-coat, and is
altogether most expensively and fashionably attired, which, however,
does not prevent him from appearing somewhat out of countenance after
taking a seat._
_The L. L. (encouragingly)._ I presume, Mr. JERMYN, you're here to
ask me some questions about the future of the British East African
Company, and the duty of the Government in the matter?
_Mr. Jermyn (gratefully)._ Er--yes, that's what I've come about, don't
you know--that sort of thing. Fact is (_with a burst of confidence_),
this isn't exactly my line--I've been rather let in for this. You see,
I've not been by way of doin' this long--but what's a fellow to do
when he's stony-broke? Got to do _somethin_', don't you know. So I
thought I'd go in for journalism--I don't mean the drudgery of it,
leader-writin' and that--but the light part of it, _Society_, you
know. But the other day, man who does the interviews for _Park Lane_
(that's the paper I'm on) jacked up all of a sudden, and my Editor
said I'd better take on his work for a bit, and see what I made of it.
I wasn't particular. You see, I've always been rather a dead hand at
drawin' fellows out, leadin' them on, you know, and all that, so I
knew it would come easy enough to me, for all you've got to do is
to sit tight and let the other chap--I mean to say, the man
you're interviewin'--do all the talking, while you--I mean to say,
myself--keep, keeps--hullo, I'm getting my grammar a bit mixed;
however, it don't signify--_I_ keep quiet and use my eyes and ears
like blazes. Talking of grammar, I thought when I first started that
I should get in a regular hat over the grammar, and the spellin', and
that--_you_ write, don't you, when you're not travellin'? So you know
what a grind it is to spell right. But I soon found they kept a Johnny
at the office with nothing to do but put all your mistakes right for
you, so, soon as I knew that, I went ahead gaily.
_The L. L._ Exactly, and now, perhaps, you will let me know what
particular information you require?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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