_Dining-room, Apelles Club_
_Diner._ "Thomson, do the members ask for this wine?"
_Head Waiter (sotto voce)._ "Not twice, sir!"]
SPECIMENS OF MR. PUNCH"S SIGNATURES!
(_Fac-similes taken during the course of the evening._)
[Ill.u.s.tration: Punch]
THIS IS BEFORE DINNER, 730. ATTESTED BY SEVERAL WITNESSES.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Punch]
THIS IS AFTER THE PUNCH a LA ROMAINE, ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE BANQUET.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Punch]
THIS IS WITH THE DESSERT.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Punch]
AFTER THE CLARET.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Punch]
AFTER THE CLARET _AND_ THE PORT.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Punch]
DURING THE CIGARS, WHISKEY AND WATER.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Punch]
1230. BEFORE LEAVING TABLE.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Punch]
130. BEFORE GETTING INTO BED.
The above have been submitted to an eminent expert, who says he could almost swear they are the same hand-writing, but must come and dine with _Mr. P._, in order absolutely to verify them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A BAD ENDING.--"Well, William, what"s become of Robert?"
"What, "aven"t you "eard, sir?" "No! Not _defunct_, I hope!" "That"s just exactly what he _"as_ done, sir, and walked off with heverything he could lay his "ands on!"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: A SALVE FOR THE CONSCIENCE
_Vegetarian Professor._ "No, madam, not even fish. I cannot sanction the destruction of life. These little creatures, for instance, were but yesterday swimming happily in the sea."
_Mrs. O"Laughlan._ "Oh but, Professor, just think it"s the first time the poor little things have ever been really warm in their lives!"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FELICITOUS QUOTATION
"Oh, Robert, the grouse has been kept too long! I wonder you can eat it!"
"My dear, "we needs must love the highest when we see it.""
(_Guinevere._)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Little Boreham_ (_relating his Alpine adventures_).
"There I stood, the terrible abyss yawning at my feet----" _That Brute Brown._ "Was it yawning when you got there, or did it start after you arrived?"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: At a dinner given by my Lord Broadacres to some of his tenants, curacoa is handed in a liqueur-gla.s.s to old Turnitops, who, swallowing it with much relish, says--"Oi zay, young man! Oi"ll tak zum o" that in a moog!"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: PRICE FOR AGE
_Mr. Green._ "You needn"t be afraid of that gla.s.s of wine, uncle. It"s thirty-four port, you know."
_Uncle._ "Thirty-four port!--Thirty-four fiddlesticks! It"s no more thirty-four port than you are!"
_Mr. Green._ "It _is_ I can a.s.sure you! Indeed, it"s _really thirty-six_; and _thirty-four if you return the bottles_!"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FLUNKEIANA
_Master._ "Thompson, I believe that I have repeatedly expressed an objection to being served with stale bread at dinner. How is it my wishes have not been attended to?"
_Thompson._ "Well, sir, I reely don"t know what is to be done! It won"t do to waste it, and we _can"t_ eat it downstairs!"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: CONCLUSIVE