The Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, or the London Charivari. Volume 93.
August 27, 1887, by Various

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Title: Punch, or the London Charivari. Volume 93. August 27, 1887

Author: Various

Release Date: August 18, 2010 [EBook #33459]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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PUNCH,

OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOLUME 93.

AUGUST 27, 1887.

* * * * *

THE PRICE OF SUPPORT.

_A Fragment of a coming Contemporary Romance._

"Is it possible that Mr. GLADSTONE, not content with having allied
himself with the Parnellites, or with having endeavoured to sow
jealousies between the component parts of the United Kingdom, is at
last endeavouring to purchase the parliamentary support of the
South-Eastern Railway? The idea seems almost too humiliating to be
entertained; but it is not easy to place any other interpretation
upon this new and startling announcement. Can it be conceived that
the safety of England ranks as nothing in his estimation when it is
brought into competition with the possibility of winning a few votes
from the interested supporters of a commercial enterprise?"--_Times._

VOL. I.--THE COMPACT.

IT was on a sultry August evening in the memorable year 1887 that a
stranger, whose anxious gaze, now and again fixed on the entrance,
denoted the fact that he was awaiting the arrival of one of the Members,
crossed and re-crossed the pavement of the Hall of the Reform Club with
a step that indicated a high condition of nervous trepidation. To the
casual observer he might have passed for a solicitor in an extreme state
of irritability. The Hall-Porter, however, who had watched him narrowly,
had recognised him for who he was. He knew that the restless interloper,
who had several times peered into his carpet-bag, and examined specimens
of Channel chalk, and had, when he thought no one was looking, hacked a
London, Chatham and Dover trains'-bill with his penknife, was no other
than the famous Sir E