The Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101,
July 18, 1891, by Various

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Title: Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, July 18, 1891

Author: Various

Release Date: September 12, 2004 [EBook #13446]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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PUNCH,

OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOL. 101.

July 18, 1891.

LETTERS TO ABSTRACTIONS.

NO. II.--TO SOCIAL AMBITION.

DEAR SIR, OR MADAM,

I had not intended to annoy you with another letter. But since I
addressed you last week I have received one or two communications--not
from you, _bien entendu_, for you are too wary to dispute the accuracy
of what I have written; but from concrete human beings, who pretend to
speak on your behalf, and deny that I have "proved my case." I might
answer by saying that I never set out to prove a case--that I wished
merely to enjoy a friendly chat with you, and to appeal to your
clemency on behalf of the large class whom I ventured to represent by
the DABCHICKS. "But," says one of my detractors, in a letter now lying
before me, "you have only given one instance. You have talked grandly
about Queens, and Dukes, and actresses, and, in the end, you have
put us off with a wretched story about the _parvenu_ DABCHICK. For
my part, I refuse to admit your authority until you prove, in greater
detail, that you really know something of the subject on which you
presumed to write." "Sir," I reply, "you are brusque, and somewhat
offensive in the style you use towards me. For my part I do not admit
that you are entitled to an answer from me, and I have felt disposed
to pass you by in silence. But since there may be other weak vessels
of your sort, I will do violence to myself, and pen another letter."
And thus, my dear SOCIAL AMBITION, I once more take the liberty of
addressing you, not without an inward tremor lest you should pounce
upon me unawares, and cause me to expiate my rashness by driving me
from the calm seclusion in which I spend my days, to mingle with the
feverish throng who wrang