The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-08-18
AT PUNCH'S TABLE.
- WAS THERE THAT HOODS FAMOUS
SONG GOT ITS START.
discussed by the star Of Punch and Final
~ Accepted For Print-The Famous
uoard Around Which Many Bright
,,vnts OF Literature Have Assembled.

n.srd Around Which Many Bright
,,.hts OF Literature Have Assembled.
rho table the famous board of which
all have heard, yet none or but very
w., Of MS have seen, myself among the
..r,ate few, says Mr.. Nj. II. Spielman
tie History of Punch" AS piece of
s'rritnro this hospftable but rather prlm-
,,,ra piece of joinery is not of much nc
unit the top being of plain deal (pace
Thockeray's "Mahogany Tree'O, oblong
81 shane with rounded ends. But its as
locations render IL treasure among
treasures, a rich and priceless gem. For
az this table nearly every man upon the
taft has from the day it was made sat
and carved bis initials upon it with pen
Inife when officially elevated to Punchs
neeraqe. As each has died his successor
has taken his place, just as the Institut do
France creates immortals to fill the chairs
made vacant by death, and he has cut his
initials or his mark close by those of the
men who occupied the place before him.
There they are, staring at you from the
table like so many abecedarian skeletons
Of the feast, and If you take a furtive and
bosty peep from the doorway and lift the
Green protective cloth you catch sight
close company with a beautifully cut Wv.
M t." civilian Makepeace Thackeray),
and a monogrammatic leech inside bot
tle flanked by 81" and an 81" (John
reach), and you gaze with deep interest
on the handiwork of them and of the rest
many of whom have carved their names
ms on that table, deep into Englands roll
of fame.
Thomas Hoods "Song of the Shirt
was one of Pnnch's great successes, and at
this table it's merits were first discussed
A woman, with half starved infant at
the breast, was charged at the Lambeth
poice court with pawning her masters
GOODS, for which she had to give 20 secu-
ritv Her husband had died by an accident
and had left her with two children TO sup
mort. and she obtained by her needle for
the maintenance of herself and family
what her master called the good living
of z shillings IA week. Punch was at
once aglow with rodhot Indignation, and
in an article entitled Famine and Fash
ion" proposed an advertisement such as
this for the firm that employed her:
Holland coats from two and three are shown
BY Hunger's hagRard fingers neatly sewn,
Embroidered TUNES for your infant pade-
The eyes are sightless now that worked the
braid.
Rich vests OF velvet at this mart appear,
Each one bedimm'd by some poor widows tear,
And riding habits formed for maid or wife,
All cheap-aye, ladies, cheap pauper life.
For mourning suits this is the fitting mart,
For every garment help'd to break heart.
The subject touched Hood more power
fully perhaps than Others, for his nature
was essentially grave and sympathetic. AS
he himself had said, it was only for his
livelihood that he was "a lively Hood al
though he was always trimming over
with comicalities, and he never felt more
deeply the dignity of his profession and
his own force and weight than when be
was engaged on serious work. So Hood
coniured up his "Song of the Shirt, ="
moved by the revelations of poor seam
d.. stresses who received, Us it appeared, D
farthings a shirt, out of which sum they
had to find their own needles. Mark Lem
on told Mr.. Joseph Hatton that Hood had
"accompanied the poem with a few lines
in which he expressed the fear that it was
hardly suitable for Punch and leaving 1t
between his discretion and the waste pa
per basket" 1t had, said Hood, already
been rejected by three papers, and he was
sick Of the sight of it, Mark Lemon
brought the poem up at tho table, where
the majority of the staff protested against
its inclusion in "a comic paper But Lemon
was determined, and, after all, was IL not
for a Christmas number that he destined
it-a number in which something serious,
pathetic, with "a note of pity and love, was
surely not out of placer
The effect of It's publication was tremen-
dous. The poem went through tho lhho
like wildflre. Nearly every paper quoted
it, headed by The Times. 1t was the tals
of the hour, the talk of the country. IL
went straight to John Bull $ KIND, bour
geos, sympathetic heart, just MS Carlyle
declared that Ruskin S truths had pierced
like arrows into his Tho authorship
too, was vigorously canyassed with INTENSE
interest. Dickens with that Keen lnslgh'
and critical faculty which had enabled MN
almost alone among literary experts TO ue
tect the sex of George Eliot, then an un
known writer, Was one CT tho lew VINO u,
once named the writer OF the verses an.
1t was well for Hood that he had PROOF o.
the authorship, for one OF tne hiosu ou'i
Gus things connected with the poem wa'
the number of persons who hau the inooih
prehensble audacity to claim IL.
Punch shared handsomely in the glor!
of the poet. and its circulation tripled OF
the strength of it. And Mrs. Hood, poo
she not said aud maintained In spite 0
each successive rejection from foolish edi
tors: "Now, mind, Hood, mark my words
this will tell wonderfully. 1t Is one OF I'm
best things you ever did" And so Uni
song, which in spite of Its defects SUI
thrills you as you read achieved such
popularity that for sudden and enthusiasts
tic applause its reception has rarely peel
equaled. 1t was soon translated into ever
language in Europe Hood used to iaug
as he wondered how they would renoe
''seam and gusset and band" into Dutcn
1t was printed and sold as catchpennies
printed on cotton pocket handkerchieis;
was illustrated in thousand ways, an
the greatest triumph of all, which brougn
tears of Joy to Hoods eyes, before VIZ
was out poor beggnr woman came oine
ing it down the street, the words set To
simple air of her own.
A Bachelors Paradise.
DR.. Benjamin A. Gould, the emine 'i