Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, March 14, 1917Various
History
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, March 14, 1917
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
AT THE PLAY.
"THE MAN WHO WENT ABROAD."
The authors of _The Man Who Stayed at Home_ (I preserve their modest
anonymity) have contrived a sequel to that exciting and veracious stage
account of secret service activities. _The Man Who Went Abroad_ on one of
those famous State-paper chases, in which conspirators conspire in the
least likely places, such as the promenade decks of liners, is the man who
spent his time in chimneys at home in the earlier part of the War--_Kit
Brent_.
[Illustration: THE MAN WHO STAYED IN HIS TENT.
_Christopher Brent._ MR. KENNETH DOUGLAS.
_Ani Kiraly._ MISS IRIS HOEY.]
He had a cousin, _Lord Goring_, Cabinet Minister, bound on a mission to
Washington; and _Kit_, who was as like his cousin as clean-shaven KENNETH
DOUGLAS was like KENNETH DOUGLAS with a toothbrush moustache, took his
cabin while the important peer preceded him in another boat. On board _Kit_
disports himself as a fatuous ass, of the kind that hyphenated Americans
(in plays) would naturally assume to be the staple of a British Cabinet.
Not that _Goring_ really was such an ass; but it was _Kit's_ plan to be so
guileless as to induce the enemy agents to think they had a sitter. And I
must say they were pretty easily induced. Their general schema was to get
those inevitable papers, copy and return them, and delay _Goring's_ visit
to Washington, while the late lamented BERNSTORFF put in a suggestion which
would make the British schemes, whatever they were--it was secret service,
so we, rightly, never knew--look foolish. And they had the Hunnish idea of
compromising the silly peer with an irresistible Austrian _danseuse (Ani
Kiraly)_, so that fear of exposure (by Hidden-Hand Press) of intrigue with
enemy aliens would make him hand over the "papers." _Brent_ played up to
all this. But the lady of the ballet fell really in love with him, and
besides was actually a Dalmatian and on the right side, a fact which she
proclaimed at the top of her voice on the promenade dock, though, as she
added, it meant death if discovered. In New York the _Kiraly_ appears in
_Kit's_ bed-bathroom in the early morning, for devilment; to our loud
enjoyment, for the great bath joke has an assured immortality. The
_Kiraly's_ husband appears too. Fat in fire. When _Kit_ goes to the
hyphenated's flat to exchange fake papers in his belt for letter
acknowledging _Kiraly's_ innocence, an agitated Hun appears with the news
that the real _Goring_ is in Washington, and the papers all spoof; which
was annoying, as a reading-glass had already disclosed to the chief spy the
British Government watermark, which obviously proved they were genuine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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