Puppets at Large: Scenes and Subjects from Mr Punch's ShowAnstey, F.
General
Puppets at Large: Scenes and Subjects from Mr Punch's Show
Anstey, F.
English wit and humor
A GLIB PERSON, _in a tall hat_ (_as he picks his way up and down the
benches, the occupants of which treat him with intolerant
indifference_). I'm not a bookmaker, ladies and gentlemen; don't have
that impression of me for a moment! I'm simply an amateur, and an
independent gentleman o' means, like any of yourselves. You all know
more than _I_ do. I don't come 'ere with any intention o' winning your
money--far from it. I'm wishful to settle and live among you. I may
eventually put up as your member; and, if so, when I take my place in
Parliament I shall be in a position to testify that the Baymouth people
are extremely cautious as to the manner in which they invest their money
on 'orse-racing'! Yes, I'm 'ere on beyarf of the Sporting League, just
to prove how free a meeting like this is from the evils o' gambling. I
don't come 'ere to _rob_ yer. I want yer all to win. I like to see yer
bright and shining faces around me; I like the friverolity and
reckereation and the conviverality of the thing, that's all. I'll tell
yer how it is. I've a rich ole aunt, and she puts fifty pound into my
'ands, and sez, "Jacky," she sez, "I love those dear Baymouth people,
and I want you to take this 'ere money and lay it out among 'em in
moieties, and make 'em rich and 'appy." You can see for yourselves. I've
no tickets and no parryfernalia, excep' this little pocket-book, where I
enter any bets you honour me with. Come, Miss win a pair o' those
three-and-sixpenny gloves at Chickerell's, the ex-Mayor's, to oblige
_me_! Did I tread on your corn, Sir? I assure you it was the last thing
I intended.... "You knew I'd do it afore I'd done?"... Well, Sir, if
you've sech a gift o' seeing into futoority as that, why not make
something out of it now? Three to one bar one. _Kitty I'm_ barring.
Thank _you_, Sir; 'alf-a-crown to seven and six on _Sportsman_. I tell
you candidly--you've got the winner. The favourite won't win. Now, then,
all you others, where's your Baymouth pluck? I orfered you thirty to one
_Beeswing_ last race; and you wouldn't take it. And _Beeswing_ won, and
you lost the chance o' making yer fortunes. Don't blame _me_ if the
same thing 'appens again. I'm on'y bettin', as I told you, for my own
amusement, and to get rid o' the money! (_&c._, _&c._)
MR. SAM SATCHELL (_whom the apathy of the public has apparently reduced
to a state of defiant buffoonery_). Even money _Daredevil_, you rascals!
And why the blazes don't ye take it? Come on. I'll take two little bits
o' twos that _Kitty_ don't win! Four to one against ole bread-and-butter
_Tommy_, over there in the corner! Eleven and a 'alf to three quarters
to two against _Kitty_. "What har the Wild Waves say-hay-ing?" Two
_Kitties_ to three _Daredevils_ against a bloomin' goat-chaise? On the
Baymouth Durby I'm bettin'!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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