Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, CompleteVarious
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
The result of a course of active and careful (s)peculations on the
philosophy and economy of pockets, has led us to the conviction that
their intention and use are but very imperfectly understood, even by the
intelligent and reflective section of the community. It is, we fear, a
very common error to regard them as conventional recesses, adapted for
the reception and deposit of such luxurious additaments to the attire as
are detached, yet accessory and indispensable ministers to our comfort.
Now this delusive supposition is diametrically opposed to the truth.
Pockets (we must be plain)pockets are not made to put into, but to take
out of; and, although it is of course necessary that, in order to
produce the result of withdrawal, they be previously furnished with the
wherewithal to withdraw, yet the process of insertion and supply is only
carried on for the purpose of assisting the operation of the system.
And having, we trust, logically established this point, we shall hazard
no incautious position in asserting that the man who empties a pocket,
fulfils the object for which it was founded and established. And
although, unhappily, a prejudice still exists in the minds of the
uneducated, in favour of emptying their own pockets themselves, it must
be evident that none but a narrow mind can take umbrage at the trifling
acceleration of an event which must inevitably occur; or would desire to
appropriate the credit of the distribution, as well as to deserve the
merit of the supply.
We perceive with concern and apprehension, that pockets are gradually
falling into disuse. To use the flippant idiom of the day, they are
going out! This is an alarming, as well as a lamentable fact; and one,
too, strikingly illustrative of the degeneracy of modern fashions.
Whether we ascribe the change to a contemptuous neglect of ancestral
institutions, or to an increasing difficulty in furnishing the
indispensable attributes of the pocket, it is alike indicative of a
crisis; and we confess that it is matter of astonishment to us, that in
these days of theory and hypothesis, no man has ventured to trace the
distress and the ruin now impending over the country, to the increasing
disrespect and disuse ofpockets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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