It is satisfactory to know that, at the approaching revival of Hubando, the Brigand, the handkerchiefs used by the Brigands in their famous scene of contrition at the end of the Third Act, are entirely of British manufacture. We understand that they are from the looms of Messrs. PUFF AND RECLAME.
* * * * *
In the First Act of the same piece, it will be remembered that the bridal party is captured whole by Hubando, disguised as a mendicant, in the recesses of one of the forests of the Abruzzi. The real pine-trees, which are to figure in the foreground of this striking scene, have been grown, with immense labour and expense, in the well-known nurseries of Messrs. WEEDEM AND POTTER, at Ditchington. The mendicant’s rags, it should be added, are from one of our most celebrated slop-shops in the Ratcliff Highway.
* * * * *
[Illustration: TRIUMPH OF ART OVER NATURE.
Serious Artist. “I THINK YOU KNEW THE MODEL FOR THIS FIGURE—POOR BEGGAR, DEAF AND DUMB.”
Light-hearted Friend. “I KNOW,—USED TO SIT AT CORNER OF STREET. DEAF AND DUMB! BY JOVE, YOU’VE MADE A SPEAKING LIKENESS OF HIM! WONDERFUL!!”]
* * * * *
“THERE’S THE RUB!”
(AN OLD STORY WITH A NEW APPLICATION.)
Champion Bill-Poster, loquitur:—
“Bill-stickers beware!” Ah!
that’s all very well,
A wondrously wise, if conventional,
warning.
But I’m the legitimate “Poster”—a
swell
In the paste-pot profession,
all “notices” scorning.
A brush surreptitious, and Bills unofficial,
No doubt, are a nuisance to
people of taste,
To Order offensive, to Law prejudicial,
But who can object to my
pot and my paste?
’Tis time that this Poster were
up! Slap-dap-slosh!
I think it a telling one.
Brave, Big, Blue letters!
Some rivals about, but their programmes
won’t wash;
Those Newcastle noodles must
own us their betters.
I’m Champion Bill-Poster! Even
Brum JOEY,
Who flouted me once will acknowledge
that fact.
My Bills are so goey, and fetching, and
showy,
My paste so adhesive, my brush
so exact!
Slap-slop-slidder-slosh! There’s
“stick-phast,” if you like.
Bill-sticking like this is
an Art, and no error.
Bold letters, brave colour! A poster
to strike,—
Admiration with some, and
with some, perhaps, terror.
I wish I quite knew that the former preponderate,—
That is, sufficiently.
Mutterings I hear,—
But there, ’tis a Bill to admire,
and to wonder at.
Why, after five seasons’
success, should I fear?