With a glance of sympathy at the belated traveller in No. 23, we pass to No. 24, which shows the "Bursting of the Russian Bubble." This was published in _Punch_, October 14th, 1854, after the Battle of the Alma had been fought and badly lost by Russia and part of the Russian fleet sunk at Sebastopol. Leech here shows very graphically the shattering of the "irresistible power" and of the "unlimited means" which were to have led the Emperor Nicholas I. of Russia to an easy victory over the British and French allied forces. [Illustration: 25.--IN THE EARLY DAYS OF PHOTOGRAPHY; BY "CUTHBERT BEDE," 1853.] No. 25 is another of the caricatures of photography in its early days by "Cuthbert Bede," and very funny it is. The next picture, No. 26, is one of _Punch's_ classics. It is that well-known joke illustrating manners in the mining districts in the early fifties:-- _First Polite Native_: "Who's 'im, Bill?" _Second ditto_: "A stranger!" _First ditto_: "'Eave 'arf a brick at 'im." By the way, speaking of Mr. Punch's jokes which have become classic, the one which is the best known is the following:-- Worthy of Attention. Advice to persons about to marry-- Don't! [Illustration: 26.--MINERS' MANNERS, 1854.] This famous _mot_ appeared in _Punch's_ Almanac for 1845, and Mr. Spielmann states that it was "based upon the ingenious wording of an advertisement widely put forth by Eamonson & Co., well-known house furnishers of the day." [Illustration: 27.--PLEASANT FOR THE YOUTH. BY LEECH, 1853.] [Illustration: 28.--A SUPPOSITITIOUS RUSSIAN ACCOUNT OF OUR DISTRESS DURING THE CRIMEAN WAR, 1854.] As regards the source of this famous joke, Mr. Spielmann, with characteristic thoroughness, gives a long account of the many claims to its paternity, and finally makes this statement:-- ... chance has placed in my possession the authoritative information; and so far from any outsider, anonymous or declared, paid or unpaid, being concerned in it at all, the line simply came in the ordinary way from one of the Staff--from the man who, with Landells, had conceived _Punch_ and shaped it from the beginning, and had invented that first Almanac which had saved the paper's life--Henry Mayhew. [Illustration: 29.--A STREET-ARAB OF 1854.]