humour to
Scotsmen, several Irishmen also have contributed not a little to its
success. Mr. Alfred Perceval Graves is one of these, although it is long
since he wrote for the paper. "I contributed to _Punch_" he says,
"during Shirley Brooks's editorship. Tom Taylor was then secretary to
the Local Government Board, and I was private secretary to the
Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Home Office, Mr. Winterbotham.
Meeting on business, we struck up a friendly acquaintance, and, _Punch_
being then a close borough, Taylor smuggled in verses and jokes of mine
for a while, till he thought I had established a claim to introduction
to Shirley Brooks. My work only went on from 1871 to 1874, as I became
so engaged on literary work of a severer kind, and educational work as
an Inspector of Schools, that I had not time for _Punch_; and when I
cared to return to it Taylor had gone, and the present Editor was
surrounded by fresh men, so I have not resumed my connection with it."

Mr. Graves--the author of the popular "Father O'Flynn," perhaps the best
of all his Irish songs--wrote for _Punch_ "The Tea-Table Tragedy," "The
Ballad of the Babes in the Wood," and those admirable "Lines of Farewell
to the Irish Humorist, Baron Dowse, on leaving the House of Commons"--

"Dick Dowse, Dick Dowse,
Is it lavin' the House?"

Then there is "On St. Patrick's Day falling on a Sunday," and in
_Punch's_ Pocket-Book the lines on "A Frog," and "A Cauliflower"--a
parody of "The green, immortal Shamrock." But another merit in Mr.
Graves was his coaching of Charles Keene on the subject of his Irish
jokes, for which the former was greatly responsible in the years of his
_Punch_ connection.

Nursery jingles newly adapted and applied to the morals and manners of
the day are always a favourite vehicle of satire with the public, and
have been freely used by professional humorists. _Punch_ offers many
instances of happy examples of the work. The first of a long series of
"Nursery Rhymes for the Times" was begun by Mr. Charles Smith Cheltnam
on January 9th, 1875, as well as in the Almanac of the same year. The
writer forthwith became a busy contributor. About fifty of these rhymes
appeared in _Punch_ in quick succession, and there were many other
pieces besides. "The Infallible Truth," a comment in verse on the
passage at arms which was then (November 13th, 1875) taking place
between Lord Redesdale and Dr. Manning on the subject of infallibility,
s