Puck — December 25, 1878 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

VERSES VERGING ON THE SENTIMENTAL. AMONG THE LILACS. ‘Tue river wings its way in mist To woo the summer sky, Each rippling wave a star has kissed, Which, panting, strives to fy From lip so chill, But flying, still Its likeness lingers there. “Abt friend, heard you That murmured prayer, * Amongst the lilacs there, That whispered ‘Yes’? And can you guess ‘What meant that murmured prayer, ‘That whispered ¢ yes,’ Amongst the lilacs there?” « Dear love, the zephyrs wooing sighed Amongst the lilacs there; And now the stars bright-eyed In trembling wonder stare, To view in vain A lesson plain Amongst the lilacs there; For, love, if you Will hear my prayer ‘Amongst the lilacs there, ‘And breathe a ‘yes,’ I trow we'll guess What meant that murmured prayer, That whispered ‘yes,’ Amongst the lilats there.” A SONG. Ob! my love is fair, ‘And her gay golden hair Floateth down from the band that encloses, Till it wooeth her cheek Like the dawn's faintest streak, Shining over a garden of roses. Oh! my love she is true, Her alone shail I woo, Though a “nay, sir," was all that she said me; But alack! I’m content, 1Twas a ‘yes, sir,” she meant, ‘And I doubt not some day she will wed me. James R. Caseranit. YE WINTRY WINDS. “Oh, sir! please—if you call ypurself a gen- tleman’-don't look” z : FITZNOODLE IN AMERICA. No. LXIX. RIP VAN WINKLE, Ya-as, ye know, I nevah care a stwaw for the theatre—al- ways too much of a beastly baw, nevah can weally tell what the whole arwange- / ment is about. How so many fellaws can sit thwough the af- faih without getting horwidly dwowsy is to me a verwy gweat aw mysterwy—but cawn’t, 'pon my soul, weason about it any longer. Some Amerwican fellaws who had been din- ing with us at the Bwevoort pwessed Jack and me to go to some operwa house or a Fifth Avenue Theatre, D-d-devilish curwious, this aw aw theatre wasn’t on Fifth Avenue at all, but quite in close pwoximity to Bwoadway. We arwived there—doosidly neat sort of building. I quite appwoved of the decorwa- tions aw—pwetty. Everwybody said that the dwama was verwy interwesting. It was called “ Wip van Winkle,” and the pwincipal play actor was a verwy cele- bwated and extwaordinary man, chwistened aw after one of the Amerwican Pwesidents—Joseph- son or Jeffwies, at any wate a stwong wesem- blance to these names, Ya-as, by Jove, ye know, I think I have a twifling wecollection of the fellaw in England, Jack says Amerwicans do play there sometimes. The storwy is about a fellaw a hundwed years ago, who was extwemely fond of dwinking and getting dwunk and quarweling with his wife— verwy bad form, indeed. He goes out one night when it’s waining and quite a numbah o apparwitions surwound him, and then he dwinks maw spirwits, falls asleep, and wakes up one fine morning with a long gway beard, a bwoken gun, and all his clothes in a most disweputable con- dition. I believe the fellaw overslept himself considerwably, but the gwound must have been awfully damp to have caused such a wemarkable change in his wearwing apparwel. He then pwoceeds to visit his fwiends, who wefuse to wecognize him—and verwy pwopahly, too. I’m weally not at all surpwised at it. Then he does some othah odd things, without putting on any new twousers or cwavat, and afterwards his wife and daughter get wecon- ciled to this fellaw who still wetains his verwy wagged clothes. I couldn't find out pwecisely why, but it may be all wight and part of the play. ‘There was wathah a pwetty aw wefined gyurl in a short dwess who played a charwacter of Meenie Cwoly. She was the daughter or some neah welation of this Mr. Wip van Winkle, and moved about gwacefully, and spoke verwy clearly, only I didn’t welish seeing this nice aw’ de-ah young cweature embwace an old fellaw whose dwess was only fit for a twamp. I wondah he didn’t borwow a dwessing-gown or an ulster if he hadn't time to see his tailor. Severwal othah fellaws in ‘Wink van Wipple” spoke about sundwy mattahs, apparwently for- weign to the subject, and made a gweat wacket, but I didn’t catch the conversation aw. Unper similar circumstances some men would become discouraged, but not so the man who is paid by the day to distribute cir- culars throughout the up-town districts, and who plods on his weary way, in area and out, up stoops and down, leaving one at every house, although he knows that a gang of small- boys is following swiftly and surely in his wake, and re-collecting the bills as rapidly as he plays them out. TO THE PURE ALL THINGS ARE PURE. Puck's third cartoon this week is too inde- cent to be funny.—Piiladelphia Bulletin, The third cartoon referred to by our able and respected Philadelphia contemporary is that representing ex-President Grant, as King of Bulgaria, seated on his throne, supported on the right by Grand Vizier Belknap, while other trusty followers are passing in review be- fore his Majesty. Now Puck is sorry that this cartoon, to the effective execution of which he bestowed con- siderable thought and care, should not find favor in the sight of the Bulletin, and, above all, should be lightly styled indecent; for it is not desirable for Puck to acquire the unenvia- ble reputation of indecency, even without the fear of Comstock before his eyes. In this particular instance we think the Bu/- detin charge scarcely fair; and this is the opin- ion of the majority of our most pious friends who go on Sunday three times a day tochurch, and never lose an opportunity of listening to the good words that flow from the honeyed lips of Beecher and Talmage. In point of fact, with a pair of ‘“double-mil- lion gas microscopes of hextra power,” we have failed to discover where the indecency comes in. Puck is thoroughly independent in politics, They are at present scarcely in a sufficiently satisfactory condition to induce him to take sides. Republican party or Democratic party has a very limited definition now-a-days—one means ‘‘in,” the other ‘“out'’—and we have much more than we can do in showing up Re- publican frauds this week and Democratic swindles the next. Our Philadelphia contemporary, we believe, is slightly prejudiced in favor of the Republi- can party and those who have been its leaders— not always with first-class glory to themselves or the party, in Puck's opinion. Ex-President Grant happens to come under this category, We are proverbially difficult to please; and perhaps this is the reason we never felt ourselves puffed up with pride when he reigned in the White House. We don’t think the Presidency was Grant’s forte, although he held it for two terms; but he is not coming, or rather going, to hold it again. We trust, after all, that our good friend, the Bulletin, will admit that decency cannot be said to be deeply outraged by our picturing the soldier ex-President among the Bulgarians, enjoying himself in his own way, and attended by some of those eccentric friends of his, who, to say the least of it, never did very much to contribute to their chief's popularity, but a great deal that will discredit him and his ad- ministration in the eyes of posterity. PLAYING WITHOUT NOTES. Hessays he can; and his neighbors wish he could. comicbooks.com