The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-03-17
AT PUNCH'S TABLE.
1T WAS THERE THAT HOODS FAMOUS
SONG GOT ITS START.

Board around which Many Bright
Lights OF Literature Have Assembled.
The table, the famous board of which
we all have heard yet none or but very
few of us have seen, l myself among the
fortunate few, says Mr. NJ. II. Spielman
in his "HistOry of Punch" AS II piece of
furniture this hospitable but rather prim-
tive piece of ioinery is not of much ac-
count, tho top being of plain deal (pace
Thackeray's Mahogany Tree''), oblong
in shape with rounded ends. But its as
socintions render 1t treasure among
treasures, a rich and priceless gem. For
at this table nearly every man upon the
staff has from the day it was made sat
and carved his initials upon 1t with "A pen
knife when officially elevated to Punch's
peerage. AS each has died his successor
has taken his place, just as the 1nstitut dc
France creates immortals to fill the chairs
made vacant by death, and lie has cut his
initials or his mark close by those of tho
men who occupied the place before him.
There they are, staring at you from tho
table like so many abecedarian skeletons
at the feast, and If you take n furtive and
hasty peep from the doorway and lift the
green protective cloth you catch sight
nearest you of "D NJ" (Du Maurier) in
close company with beautifully cut wv
NJ. T." (William Makepeace Thackeray)
and monogrammatic leech inside bot
tic fanked by 81. and an a." (John
F.each), and you gaze with deep interest
on the handiwork of them and of the rest
many Of whom have carved their names
as on that table, deep into England's roll
of fame.
Thomas Hoods "Song of the Shirt"
was one of punch'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
police court with pawning her masters
goods, for which she had to give 80 secu-
rity. Her husband had died by an accident
and had left her with two children to sup
port, and she obtained by her needle for
the maintenance Of herself and family
what her master called tho good living
of shill4Ass u W.,,:." Punch was at
once aglow with redhot 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 Hupgers haggard fingers neatly sewn,
Embroidered tunics for your infant made
The eyes are sightless now that worked the
braid.
Eich vests of velvet at this mart appear,
Each one bedimm'd by some poor widow q tear.
And riding habits formed for maid or wife,
All cheap-aye, ladies, cheap as paupcr 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 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 he
was engaged on serious work. So Hood
conjured up his "Song of the Shirt"
moved by tho revelations of poor seam
stresses who received, as it appeared, 8
farthings 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 few lines
in which he expressed the fear that 1t was
hardly suitable for Punch and leaving it
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 the table, where
the majority Of the staff protested against
its inclusion in comic paper. But Lemon
was determined and, after all, was it not
for Christmas number that he destined
it-a number in which something serious,
pathetic, with II note of pity and love, was
surely not out of place?
The effect of its publication was tremen-
dous. The poem went through the land
like wildfire. Nearly every paper quoted
it, headed by The Times. 1t was the talk
of the hour, the talk of the country 1t
went straight to John Bulls kind, bour-
geois, sympathetic heart, just as Carlyle
declared that Ruskin' S truths had "pierced
like arrows into his. The authorship,
too, was vigorously canvassed with intense
interest. Dickens, with that keen insight
and critical faculty which had enabled him
almost alone among literary experts to de-
tect the sex Of George Eliot, then an I'M
known writer, was one of the few who at
once named the writer of the verses. And
it was we'll for Hood that he had proof OF
the authorship, for one of the most curl
Gus things connected with the poem was
the number of persons who had the incom-
prehensible audacity to claim it.
Punch shared handsomely in the glory
of the poet, and its circulation tripled on
the strength of it. And Mrs. Hood, poor
soul, triumphed in her. prophecy, for had
she not said and maintained in spite of
each successive rejection from foolish edi-
tors: ''Now, mind Hood, mark my words;
this will tell wonderfully. 1t is one of the
best things you ever did" And SO this
song, which In spite of its defects still
thrills you as you read, achieved such u
popularity that for sudden and snthusias.
tic applause it's reception has rarely boon
equaled. 1t was soon translated into every
language in Europe. Hood used to laugh
as he wondered how they would render
"seam and gusset and band" into Dutch
1t was printed and cold as catchpennies,
printed on cotton pocket handkerchiefs; 1T
was illustrated In thousand ways, and
the greatest triumph of all, which brought
tears of Joy to Hoods eyes, before week
was cut poor heggar woman came sing
inglt down the street, the words got to a
simple air of her own.
A Bachelors Paradise.
DIR. Benjamin a. Gould, the eminent
astronomer who died ut his home In Cam