NOT WANTED NOW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 5 (Supplement)

NOT WANTED NOW.

PUNCH AND JUDY PASSING. Ox a thousand hoardings in London Mr. Punch is represented as saying to Charlie's Aunt, '• Still limning, my dear? But you haven't beaten me yet!" and Charley's Aunt replies, " But then, I am so young, 'you know.'' A ~.',;; Mr. Punch consort ■of : Judy—is dying of old age; he will -'soon take his pine* with the dedo, the British Constitution, . and other memories of a bygone. age., . . .'••-.. A visitor to the two top rooms which bouse a family of &ix—not to mention Dog Toby—convinced himself . that Mr. Punch was indeed "doing bad." His master spoke longingly of the .days when Punch actually brought in 18s or a pound a week.

" When I came back from the war," lie said, "1 used to give my missus 5s or 4s a clay", with 7s or 8s on Saturday*. Today I've come homo with Bd, which me and my brother earned between us. We went right along Gloucester Place, Enniamore Gardens, Rutland Gate, Eaton Place, Chester Square, King's Road, Chelsea Embankment, and Brampton Road before we took a penny, and then we ' done a pitch' for 6d. '• ' Doing ii pitch' is setting the show lip at a street coiner; in the other streets we pimply ' called ' to draw the ladies' attention.' They, don't allow the pipes and the drum nowadays—frightens the horses —so we have to ' call em ,up ' and let 'em know we're there. But they actually want a private show in these days for ss ' ' said he, with profound disgust. "My father, ho had the show before me, could get a guinea, tor a show inside a house, and half a guinea outside; and what his father had before him— I only wish I'd got it now ! "My father earned twice as much as me; but there were no picture palaces up then— what's hit us. The poor people patronise us quite as much as the gentry do, although there was one old lady in Grosvcnor Street who used to give the dog a dinner three times a week. But she's dead. Since Coronation Day, when I took £3, I haven't had a decent week. ' People don't want ' Punch and Judy ' in these days ; they want pictures. In my father's time the horses weren't scared at the pipes and drum, and the police did not keep him on the move. To-day we have got to do what they call ' fly pitch ' —we have got to keep one eye open for the policeman and the other one on the nearest shopkeeper. The story of ' Punch and Judy' is just as my grandfather used to tell it. He used to pitch at the Colonnade, near Russell Square, and he also 'worked' Marylebone Lane, a piece of waste ground in front of the Garrick Theatre, and outside Tattersall's. Christmas made some difference to him, but it wouldn't have made any difference to usif you hadn't come along."