Outing . d you before the little house of mys-tery, the home of the immortal was expectancy and strained magic of centuries was at ! and Punch himself was there uponthe little stage be-fore you, bowing,singing, jumpingabout and peep-ing around thecorner, always inmotion, alwayssmiling, full ofquips and sallies,grotesque in formand feature, withthe strangest voicein the world, yet ahero in your eyesfor all time. You followedhim gleefullythrough all man-ner of villainy;with hardly aqualm of con-science saw himtoss his crying in-fant from the win-dow, and unmerc
Outing . d you before the little house of mys-tery, the home of the immortal was expectancy and strained magic of centuries was at ! and Punch himself was there uponthe little stage be-fore you, bowing,singing, jumpingabout and peep-ing around thecorner, always inmotion, alwayssmiling, full ofquips and sallies,grotesque in formand feature, withthe strangest voicein the world, yet ahero in your eyesfor all time. You followedhim gleefullythrough all man-ner of villainy;with hardly aqualm of con-science saw himtoss his crying in-fant from the win-dow, and unmerci-fully beat his shrewish spouse and the doc-tor; you even felt sorry for him when he washaled off to prison in the arms of the doughtypoliceman, and clapped your hands whenhe turned the tables on the hangman andpulled the rope which, by all the verities,should have circled his own rascally neck;and when, with that magic club of his he Punch—From etching by George Cruikshank. 463 464 The Outing Magazine. Punch and the Devil by Cruikshank. had successfully banished the clown, thedarky and even the devil himself, you ac-claimed his efforts and seconded his ownvain-glorious boasting with the heartiestenthusiasm. The retrospect of years and the wisdomwhich has come to you do not, however,bring the blush of shame at this realize now that by some strangebeneficence of Nature you were enabled toshare in a delectable intoxicant whichharmed you not at all; thatwhat the moralist would havepointed out as dangerous to yourfuture well-being evaporated inthe action of some miraculousalchemy of Nature and left youharmless. There is no morningafter to your childish spree. If your first acquaintance withPunch carried with it such full-ness of pleasure what shall besaid of that later day when youwere permitted a glimpse behindthe scenes? Can you ever forgetthe kindly presence of the oldCockney master, versed in theshowmans patter and the quaintdialogue of the play who, leadingthe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, booksubjectsports, booksubjecttravel
