The mission, you see, for which a supernatural visitor is sent from the
world of spirits, prospers. Three labourers go into fits, and three
policemen are frightened out of their duty. Then doors bang all night,
and groans are heard, and a mob blocks up the street until five in the
morning. And _Mr. Punch_, who, as may often be seen in the streets, is
ready to tackle any ghost with that unhesitating club of his, goes the
next afternoon to Pond Street, and finds the assembly again in full
force, but not very reverent, and discussing the ghost's nature with
that freedom of epithet characteristic of street conversationists. _Mr.
Punch_ was very much shocked to hear the roar of laughter which greeted
a proposition, made by a gentleman in his shirt-sleeves and with a short
pipe, to the effect that if any one would "stand" (_Mr. Punch_ believes
he reports the right word) a vessel of malt liquor, he would go into the
house (which appears to have resembled that of SAUL), and inflict upon
the Ghost--as to whose future destiny the speaker's expressions showed
that he had made up his mind--a species of castigation which certainly
should be reserved for extreme cases. And _Mr. Punch_ further reports
that all along the King's Road, and near the Hospital, and even towards
theatrical Brompton, many of whose inhabitants have rejoiced to see "the
Ghost walk," the popular invitation was "Come on; let's go and see that
blessed Ghost." Clearly, therefore, the supernatural visitor is
fulfilling the important mission for which only can we suppose he has
been sent from another world.
When the clergy of the neighbourhood heard of the affair, they were
greatly moved. One of them, a young Barnabasian, threw down the sweetest
handful of charming artificial flowers, with which he was making an
altar-wreath for Sunday, rushed into the crowd, and affectionately, but
earnestly, reproved his humbler brethren for putting faith in such
vulgar and impious folly. He entered the haunted house, walked all over
it, and throwing up every window in turn, addressed a few words of
gentle ridicule from each: and he ended by leading away the whole
assembly to his church, where he gave them some sound, shrewd counsel,
which will probably spoil a Ghost's market in that quarter for some
time. Others of the clergy, roused by the spectacle in Pond Street, have
been equally active; and perhaps after all, this was the Ghost's real
mission. In this case "it is an honest ghost, that let _Punch_ tell ye."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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