Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 93, December 17, 1887Various
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 93, December 17, 1887
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
There was commotion in Gggrrandddolllmann's Camp. It could not have been
a fight, for in those days, just when gold had been discovered on Welsh
soil, such things as fights were unknown. And yet the entire settlement
were assembled. The schools and libraries were not only deserted, but
JONES'S Coffee Palace had contributed its tea-drinkers, who, it will be
remembered, had calmly continued their meal when even such an exciting
paper as the _Grocers' Journal_ had arrived. The whole Camp was
collected before a rude cabin on the outer edge of the clearing.
Conversation was carried on in a low tone, but the name of a man was
frequently repeated. It was a name familiar enough in the Camp--"W. E.
G.--a first-rate feller." Perhaps the less said of him the better. He
was a strong, but, it is to be feared, a very unstable person. However,
he had sent them a message, when messages were exceptional. Hence the
excitement.
"You go in there, TAFFY," said a prominent citizen, addressing one of
the loungers; "go in there, and see if you can make it out. You've had
experience in them things."
Perhaps there was a fitness in the selection. TAFFY had once been the
collector for a Trades Union Society, and it had been from some
informality in performing his duty that Gggrrandddolllmann's Camp was
indebted for his company. The crowd approved the choice, and TAFFY was
wise enough to bow to the majority.
The assemblage numbered about a hundred men. Physically they exhibited
no indication of their past lives and character. They were ordinary
Britons, and there was nothing to show they had been less contented than
their neighbours; and yet these men, in spite of their loneliness, had
never wanted for a single reform. Until now they had been absolutely
satisfied with their lot.
There was a solemn hush as TAFFY entered the Post Office. It was known
that he was reading the despatch. Then there was a sharp querulous
cry--a cry unlike anything heard before in the Camp. It was muttered by
TAFFY. He told them that the document called upon the whole community to
ask for Disestablishment and Home Rule. The Camp rose to its feet as one
man. It was proposed to explode a barrel of dynamite in imitation of the
Irish Nationalists, but in consideration of the position of the Camp,
which would certainly have been blown to pieces, better counsels
prevailed, and there was merely a cutting of bludgeons from the trees
the levelling of which W. E. G. was known to love so well.
Then the door was opened, and the anxious crowd of men, who had already
formed themselves into a _queue_, entered in single file. On a table lay
the document they had come to read.
"Gentlemen," said TAFFY, with a singular mixture of authority and _ex
officio_ complacency; "gentlemen will please pass in at the front door
and out of the back. Them as wishes to contribute anything towards the
carrying out of the written wishes of the document will find a hat
handy."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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