The Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1,
October 2, 1841, by Various

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Title: Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, October 2, 1841

Author: Various

Release Date: February 7, 2005 [EBook #14930]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOL. 1.

FOR THE WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 2, 1841.

* * * * *

THE TIPTOES.

A SKETCH.

"The Wrongheads have been a considerable family ever since England
was England."

VANBRUGH.

[Illustration: M]Morning and evening, from every village within three or
four miles of the metropolis, may be remarked a tide of young men wending
diurnal way to and from their respective desks and counters in the city,
preceded by a ripple of errand-boys, and light porters, and followed by an
ebb of plethoric elderly gentlemen in drab gaiters. Now these individuals
compose--for the most part--that particular, yet indefinite class of
people, who call themselves "gentlemen," and are called by everybody else
"persons." They are a body--the advanced guard--of the "Tiptoes;" an army
which invaded us some thirty years ago, and which, since that time, has
been actively and perseveringly spoiling and desolating our modest, quiet,
comfortable English homes, turning our parlours into "boudoirs," ripping
our fragrant patches of roses into fantastic "parterres," covering our
centre tables with albums and wax flowers, and, in short (for these
details pain us), stripping our nooks and corners of the welcome warm air
of pleasant homeliness, which was wont to be a charm and a privilege, to
substitute for it a chilly gloss--an unwholesome straining after effect--a
something less definite in its operation than in its result, which is
called--gentility.

To have done with simile. Our matrons have discovered that luxury is
specifically cheaper than comfort (and they regard them as independent, if
not incompatible terms); and more than this, that comfort is, after all,
but an