PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
Volume 108, May 4th, 1895.
edited by Sir Francis Burnand
MAY DAY.
(Strictly according to Precedent.)
Open the windows, salute the day;
Welcome, welcome the First of May.
Everything's changed, or ought to be,
Buds are bursting on hedge and tree.
Sweet winds breathe from the West or South
Soft as a kiss from a maiden's mouth.
Everything speaks of warmth and love,
Bright is the sun in the blue above.
Out in the woods, I know. I know,
Fur and feather are all aglow.
Downy rabbits with jewel eyes
Dart about in a wild surprise.
Yellow-billed blackbird, speckled thrush,
Pour their notes in a tuneful gush.
And all the neat little boys and girls,
With clean fresh faces and hair in curls,
Sing in a chorus, "Hurray, hurray!
April's gone, it's the First of May!"
* * * *
That's how I dreamt my May-day dream;
But things are not what they ought to seem.
For the wind—why, bless me, the wind is East,
And the birds don't warble or chirp the least.
The whole of the sky is wrapped in gloom.
And fires are lighting in every room.
And I shiver and sneeze and spend my day
In a winter-suit on the First of May.
Auk'd About.—The skin of a GreatAuk was put up for sale last week,but the reserved price was not reached.Evidently it was of bad omen that itshould have been put up at an "Auk-shun."
THE NEW BOY!
"Look, Father, this is your new Overcoat."
"By George, it fits you capitally!"
"Yes, doesn't it! You will now be able to wear myOld Clothes!"
DRAMATIC FAMILY LIKENESS.
For the plot of The Passport,recently produced with a fair amountof success at Terry's Theatre, theauthors admit their indebtedness toColonel Savage's novel, My OfficialWife. Oddly enough, this plotbears a considerable resemblance tothat of The Orient Express, a piece"made in Germany," of which theEnglish adaptation was producedhere, at Daly's, during his season.In this piece, i.e., The OrientExpress, a gentleman has touristtickets for himself and wife; buthis wife, after disposing of herticket to a professional cicérone,returns to England alone, while herhusband, travelling on business, continueshis journey. The cicéronehas sold the ticket cheap to a lady,who is therefore compelled to travelunder the name inscribed on theticket, and finds herself in thesame carriage with the gentlemanwho has the corresponding ticket,and the ticket-collector, seeing thesame names, hands back both ticketsto the gentleman, and tries to keepthe carriage strictly reserved forthem all the way, in which attempthe fails, and hence arise, on theirreturn to England, complicationsanalogous to those of The Passport.Was the novel of My Official Wifewritten bef