Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 03, April 16, 1870Various
General
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 03, April 16, 1870
Various
American wit and humor -- Periodicals
As to the rest--those weak creatures who _will_ be satisfied with
good husbands and broad home-missions--they know no better; they will
continue to move in their limited spheres, benighted but happy, and
every thing will be satisfactory.
Lawyers tell us that since the statutes of 1848, a woman's _real estate_
has been within her own control; we take a broader view: we think it
_always_ has been within her own control by virtue of that old first
statute given to our gentle mother, EVE.
* * * * *
AN OLD BAILEY PRACTITIONER.
In England they have an institution called the Old Bailey. It dealt from
time immemorial in such queer animals as "four-footed recognizances,"
and in such strong assistance to justice as "straw bail" affords. The
court-room of the Old Bailey may be called a historical vat of crime.
Until recently, New-York was Old Bailey-less. Now detectives go about
the streets singing an air which reminds one forcibly of the tune called
"Unfortunate Miss BAILEY," only that it is Mister BAILEY they have
missed. Old BAILEY is really like JOHN GILPIN in two respects; all
rumors about him begin by calling him "a citizen of credit and renown;"
and they generally end by referring to him as a man who was gone to
"dine at--where?"
Our New-York Old BAILEY has disappeared. Either the FULLERTON earthquake
has swallowed him up, or he has gone to the unknown land to which most
Spiritual mediums migrate. There never was a greater Spiritual medium
than Old BAILEY. He has had spirits on the brain during several years
past. He throve on spirits. He had only to rap on casks of spirits, and
greenbacks would rustle therefrom like trailing garments out of the
Spirit-world. He had assistant mediums in all the Federal officers. And
now the question asked of Commissioner DELANO, (who, by the way, in this
respect would gladly become DELA-yes) is "Canst thou call 'spirits from
the vasty deep?' and if thou canst, where is Old BAILEY?" Banker
CLEWS is one of his sureties, but he owns no Clews to his principal's
whereabouts. Do not PUNCHINELLO'S subjects all know that whisk brooms
sweep clean, and that no broom swept cleaner the Augean stables of
Federal plunderers than that wretched Old BAILEY'S whisky broom? There
is, however, an old proverb which claims that industrious brooms soon
wear out. But BAILEY is unlike a broom, in that no one can find a handle
to his whereabouts.
PUNCHINELLO has heard a great deal about the practice of the Old Bailey
in London. He thinks it likely that so long as the Administration
continues to protect Federal plunderers, and to cover their tracks
by attacks against alleged city and State abuses, these Old Bailey
practices recently introduced into the United States Courts and United
States procedure, within or without revenue offices, must soon entitle
a large number of Federal officers, all over the country, to be happily
styled "Old Bailey Practitioners."
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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