The Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100.
February 14, 1891., by Various

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100. February 14, 1891.

Author: Various

Release Date: August 22, 2004 [EBook #13252]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH ***

Produced by Malcolm Farmer, William Flis, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

PUNCH,

OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOL. 100.

February 14, 1891.

MODERN TYPES.

(_BY MR. PUNCH'S OWN TYPE WRITER._)

NO. XXIII.--THE TOLERATED HUSBAND.

It is customary for the self-righteous moralists who puff themselves
into a state of Jingo complacency over the failings of foreign
nations, to declare with considerable unction that the domestic
hearth, which every Frenchman habitually tramples upon, is maintained
in unviolated purity in every British household. The rude shocks which
Mr. Justice BUTT occasionally administers to the national conscience
are readily forgotten, and the chorus of patriotic adulation is
stimulated by the visits which the British censor finds it necessary
to pay (in mufti) to the courts of wickedness in continental capitals.
It may be that among our unimaginative race the lack of virtue is
not presented in the gaudy trappings that delight our neighbours. Our
wickedness is coarser and less attractive. It gutters like a cheap
candle when contrasted with the steady brilliancy of the Parisian
article. Public opinion, too, holds amongst us a more formidable lash,
and wields it with a sterner and more frequent severity. But it is
impossible to deny that our society, however strict its professed code
may be, can and does produce examples of those lapses from propriety
which the superficial public deems to be typically and exclusively
continental. Not only are they produced, but their production and
their continuance are tolerated by a certain class, possibly limited,
but certainly influential.

[Illustration]

Amongst these examples, both of lapse and of toleration, the Tolerated
Husband holds a foremost place. Certain conditions are necessary
for his proper production. He must be n