PUNCH,
OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
Vol. 109.
August 31, 1895.
Place—South Parade, Cheapenham-on-Sea.
Edith. "Mabel dear, would you get me Baedeker's Switzerland andthe last Number of the World."
Mabel. "What do you want them for?"
Edith. "Oh, I'm writing Letters, and we're in the Engadine, youknow, and I just want to describe some of our favourite Haunts, andmention a few of the People who are staying there—here, I mean."
Taking the Waters.—Are the Falls of Foyers worth preserving?That depends on another question—What are the Falls of Foyers? Theyare the finest cascade in Bonny Scotland, and the B. A. C., or BritishAluminium Company, intends to take all the water out of them to turnits machinery with. Not, mind you, a mere inappreciable rill, but thewhole river! "Ma Foi-ers!" exclaimed Mr. Punch in his best French,when he read the correspondence on this subject in the North BritishDaily Mail, the Glasgow Herald, and other northern papers; "shallthis vandalism be allowed? No! Foyers must be preserved for-years tocome!" It seems that a Dr. Common, a director of the B. A. C.,has been explaining to the Inverness Field Club that the Falls won'tactually be destroyed—only there will be no water in them! Yet, byhis name, this director should defend all common rights. We hope heis rare. The B. A. C. (or Brazen Assurance Company) must learn the AB C of respect for natural beauty, or Mr. Bryce will have tointroduce an "Access to Waterfalls Bill." There is yet time to savethe chief Wonder of Loch Ness; and a year hence let us trust that thefollowing Wordsworthian stanza will apply:—
Saved by his winsome page;
And from the B. A. C. this Fall,
A lovely, powerless, hopeless, thrall,
Was rescued by the Sage.
So let it foam! And time will come
When every tourist raider
At this Cascade will give three cheers
For every good Casc-aider!
An Old Crusted Port.—The "Battle of the Mails" is againraging in Ireland. Queenstown seemed to have conquered, but, accordingto the Cork Daily Herald, the partisans of Southampton areinsidiously working in favour of that port, because it is believed that"a Unionist Government with a powerful majority will be less amenableto Irish pressure than the late Home-Rule Government was." And the veryidea of the Post Office breaking through the contract with the CunardLine, the Dublin Steam Packet Company, and the London and North-WesternRailway is denounced as a monstrous offence. That is all right, and itis refreshing to find so much respect for contracts still survi