holders!" "Directors ought to be
kicked!" &c._) He would once more move, that the report be adopted, as
nobody would state any objections. (_Vociferous cries and yells--"No,
no!" "Down with them!" "Twenty-five per cent. or nothing!" "No
democrats!" "No exclusives!" "Bravo_ ROUSE!" _and so on_.)

The CHAIRMAN then called for a show of hands, when everybody clenched
his fist and shook it furiously at him. The Chairman, with a smile of
triumph, declared the motion unanimously carried, and then, with the
Secretary and the books, made a bolt through a side-door, before the
meeting could rush in upon them, and prevent the success of this _ruse_.
The meeting broke the windows, chairs, and lamps, and were then
dispersed by the police.

Yet, with such centres of organisation, fault is found with the working
of the Railway system. There's something wrong.

PUNCH.

* * * * *

PUNCH'S PRIZE JOKE SHOW.

By way of counteracting the attraction of the Prize Cattle Show, which
we think fosters a rather questionable taste for looking upon "fatty
deposits," we propose to institute a Prize Joke Show, and we hope that
the produce of the pen of wit will be more satisfactory than the
contents of all the pens in the Bazaar of Baker Street. We candidly
invite competition; and though anything in the shape of "animal matter"
will be rejected from a contest in which all the matter should be as
_spirituel_ as possible, we can only say that _Punch_ will be happy to
see any of the farfamed Suffolk Punches if, in this "keen encounter of
our wits," they have the courage to show themselves.

As a specimen of the style of Joke that will be admissible into the
contemplated Prize Show, we have the pleasure to "flick off" the
following:--

If I want a statue of myself, why should I be foolish to present a
sculptor with the marble for the work? _Answer._ Because if I did, he
would be sure to chisel me out of it.

* * * * *

THE MOUSTACHE AND BEARD QUESTION.

"MR. PUNCH,--I have been, I may say from my birth--leastwise since I
could stand upon a stool--a barber. I've brought up a large family (and
am married again) upon shaving. To be clean shaved was the prerogative
of a Briton. And now there is a movement for German beards and Cossack
moustachios, which, if permitted, farewell to the British Constitution.
When we look like Roossian slaves and Austrian panders, we shall feel
and