The Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 103,
August 27, 1892, by Various

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Title: Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 103, August 27, 1892

Author: Various

Release Date: February 22, 2005 [EBook #15144]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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PUNCH,

OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOL. 103.

August 27, 1892.

TWO-PENN'ORTH OF THEOSOPHY.

(_A SKETCH AT THE ISLINGTON ARCADIA._)

SCENE--_The Agricultural Hall. A large Steam-Circus is
revolving with its organ in full blast; near it is a
"Razzle-Dazzle" Machine, provided with a powerful mechanical
piano. To the combined strains of these instruments, the
merrier hearts of Islington are performing a desultory dance,
which seems to consist chiefly in the various couples charging
each other with desperate gallantry. At the further end of
the Hall is a Stage, on which a Variety Performance is in
progress, and along the side of the gallery a Switchback, the
rolling thunder of which, accompanied by masculine whoops and
feminine squeaks, is distinctly audible. Near the entrance
is a painted house-front with two doors, which are being
pitilessly battered with wooden balls; from time to time
a well-directed missile touches a spring, one of the doors
opens, and an idiotic effigy comes blandly goggling and
sliding down an inclined plane, to be saluted with yells of
laughter, and ignominiously pushed back into domestic privacy.
Amidst surroundings thus happily suggesting the idyllic and
pastoral associations of Arcady, is an unpretending booth,
the placards on which announce it to be the temporary
resting-place of the "Far-famed Adepts of Thibet," who are
there for a much-needed change, after a "3500 years' residence
in the Desert of Gobi." There is also a solemn warning that
"it is impossible to spoof a Mahatma." In front of this booth,
a fair-headed, round-faced, and Spectacled Gentleman, in
evening clothes, and a