A PRACTICAL JOKE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 9, 25 June 1886, Page 7

A PRACTICAL JOKE.

Fob gross malignity Mr. de Cobain carries of! the cake among the Orange Babes of the Barm. A smile never rippled over his acrid face. PHe has Major Saunderson's bumptiousness without his bon hommit. He has Mr. Johnston's mediaaval bigotry plus the crasa rowdyism of Sandy-row. We, therefore, heartily congratulate the Tralee wags upon the subject they chose for their Fool's Day merriment. By their contrivance this dull malignant was made to play the fool for the entertainmeut of a House of Commons that shook and screamed with laughter, Mr. de Cobain was made solemnly to ask a question about the intimidation practised by a branch of the National League which never existed, at a poor-law election which never took place, against " the Conservative candidate, Mr. Wm. Dundon "' (the only person of that name in Tralee being the town bellman). Nor were Mr. de Cobain's merciless tormentors content with that much fooling. He was made further to inquire whether the atrocious League did not upon this occasion drench with wh isky " a man named William Denny " (William Denny being a Tory swell of the first water) ; whether the man Denny had to be attended by two doctors, one of whom turns out to be a vet., and the other a practitioner in the humble but useful school of porcine surgery ; and " whether the stomach pump was applied and a pint-and-a-half of alcohol extracted from the unfortunate m»n." The wits who framed the question muit have been studying Mr. de Cobain's Parliamentary career pretty closely to take so accurately the measure of his intelligence, sense of humour, and eagerness to gulp down the most preposterous story that purports to throw discredit on his countrymen. It was characteristic of Orange intelligence to have tumbled into such a tiap. It was no leas characteristic of Orange bravery to have attempted to run away from the question after printing it. He had to digest the Tenom of bis spleen, however, as best he might in presence of a shrieking house ; and we rather think that if, to paraphrase his own elegant language, " the stomach-pump were applied " after the operation, a pint-and-a-half of "—let ua say, bilge-water — might have been "extracted from the stomach of the unfortunate man." — United Ireland.