PUNCH'S DINING TABLE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1266, 4 June 1896, Page 8

PUNCH'S DINING TABLE.

The Table—the famous board of which we all havo hoard, yet none, or but very few of us, have seen—f myself among the fortunate few (says Mr Mr M. 11. Spielman in his his tory of' Punch ' "). As a piece of furniture, th'x hospitable, but rather piioiitive, piece of joinery is not of much account, tho top being of plain deal (pace Thackeray's " Mahogany Tree "), oblong in shape, -with rounded ends. Put its associations rendered it a treasure among treasures, a rich and priceless gem. For at this table nearly every man upon the stall' has, from tho day it was made, sat and carved his initials upon it with a penknife, when officially elevated to "Punch's" peerage. As each has died, his successor has taken his place, just as tho Institut do Franco creates Immortals to fill the chairs made vacant by death—and he has cut. his initials .a- his mark dose by those of tho men who occupied tho place before him. There they are, staring at you from tho table like so many .abecedarian skeletons at the feast, and'if you take a hasty and furtive peep from the doorway, and lift tho green protective cloth, you catch sight nearest you of a "D.M." (Du Maurier), inclose company with a beautifully-cut " W.M.T." (William Makepeace Thackeray), and a monogrammatic leech insido a bottle flanked by a " J." and an " L." (John Leech), and you gaze with deep interest on the handiwork of them and at tho rest, many of whom havo carved their names, as on that Table, deep into England's roll of fame.

Thomas Hood's " Song of the Shirt " was one of Punch's great successes, and at this table its merits wero first discussed. A woman, with a half starved infant at tho breast, was "charged at tho Lambeth Police Court with pawning her master's goods, for which sho had to give £2 security. Her husband had died by an accident, and had loft her with two children to support, and sho obtained by her needlo for tho maintenance of herself and family what her master called tho ' good living ' of seven shillings a week." "Punch" was at once aglow with rod-hot indignation, and in an article entitled "Famino and Fashion " proposed an advertisement such as this for the firm that employed her:— Holland Coats from two and three are

shown By Hunger's haggard fingors neatly sewn, Embroidered tunics for your infant made— The [eyes are sightless now that worked the

braid ; Rich vests of velvet at this mart appear, Each one bodimm'd by some poor widow's

tear : And riding habits formed for maid or wife. All cheap—aye, ladies, cheap as pauper-life, For mourning suits this is tho fittiug mart. For every garment help'd to break a heart. Tho subject touched Hood more powerfully perhaps than others, for his nature was essentially grave and sympathetic. As ho himself had said, it was only for his livelihood that he was a lively Hood—although he was always brimming over with comicalities ; and he never felt moro deeply tho dignity of his profession and his own force and weight than when ho was engaged on sorious work. So Hood conjured up his " Song of tho Shirt," moved by tho revelations of poor seamstresses who received, as it appeared, five farthings a shirt, out of which sum they had to find their own noodles. Mark Lemon told Mr Joseph Hattoii that Hood had " accompanied tho poem with a few linos in which ho had expressed tho fear that it was hardly suitable for " Punch," and leaving it between his discretion and tho wastepaper basket." It had, said Hood, already l)oen rejected by throe papers, and he was sick of' tho sight of it. Mark Lemon brought] tho poem up at tho table, where the majority of the staff protested against its inclusion in a comic paper. Put Lemon was determined; and, after all, was it not for a Christmas •number that ho destined it—a number in wnich something serious, pathetic, with a note of pity and love, was surely not out of place;-' The effect of its publication was tremendous. The poem went through tho land like wildfire. Nearly every paper quoted it, headed by tho Times ; it was tho talk of the Lour, tho talk of tho country. It went straight to John Pull's kind, bourgeois, sympathetic heart, just as Carlylo declared that Ruskin's truths had "pierced like arrows" into his. The authorship, too, was vigorously canvassed with intense interest. Dickens, with that keen irsight and critical faculty, which had enabled him almost alone among literary experts, to detect the sex of George Eliot, thou an unknown writer. . . was ono of tho few who at once named the writer of the versos. And it was well for Hood that he had proof of tho authorship, for ono of the most curious things connected with tho poem was the number of persons who had tho incomprehensible audacity to claim it "Punch" shared handsomely in tho glory of tho poet, and its circulation tripled on tho .strength of it. And Mrs Hood, poor soul, triumphed in her prophecy ; for had she not said, and maintained in spito of each successive rejection from foolish editors—" Now, mind, Hood, mark my words; this will toll wonderfully I It is ono of the best things you ever did." And so this song, which, m spito of its defects, still thrills you as you read, achieved such a popularity that for sudden and enthusiastic applause its reception has rarely been equalled. It was soon translated into every language of Europe—(Hood used to laugh as ho wondered how they would render " Seam and gusset and band" into Dutch); it was printed and sold as catch-pennies, printed on cotton pockot-handkerchiefs, it waa

illustrated in a thousand ways ; and the greatest triumph of all, which brought tears of joy to Hood's eyes, before a week was out a poor beggar-woman came singing it down the street, the words sot to a simplo air of her own.