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understand certain legal technicalities of the new finance laws. The House had scarcely
recovered from this sensation when Lord Hugo Sizzle caused a further flutter of
astonishment by going out of his way to indulge in an outspoken appreciation of the
fairness, loyalty, and straightforwardness not only of the Chancellor, but of all the
members of the Cabinet. A wit had gravely suggested moving the adjournment of the
House in view of the unexpected circumstances that had arisen.
Belturbet anxiously skimmed over a further item of news printed immediately below the
Parliamentary report: "Wild cat found in an exhausted condition in Palace Yard."
"Now I wonder which of them--" he mused, and then an appalling idea came to him.
"Supposing he's put them both into the same beast!" He hurriedly ordered another prairie
oyster.
Belturbet was known in his club as a strictly moderate drinker; his consumption of
alcoholic stimulants that day gave rise to considerable comment.
The events of the next few days were piquantly bewildering to the world at large; to
Belturbet, who knew dimly what was happening, the situation was fraught with recurring
alarms. The old saying that in politics it's the unexpected that always happens received a
justification that it had hitherto somewhat lacked, and the epidemic of startling personal
changes of front was not wholly confined to the realm of actual politics. The eminent
chocolate magnate, Sadbury, whose antipathy to the Turf and everything connected with
it was a matter of general knowledge, had evidently been replaced by an Angel-Sadbury,
who proceeded to electrify the public by blossoming forth as an owner of race-horses,
giving as a reason his matured conviction that the sport was, after all, one which gave
healthy open-air recreation to large numbers of people drawn from all classes of the
community, and incidentally stimulated the important industry of horse-breeding. His
colours, chocolate and cream hoops spangled with pink stars, promised to become as
popular as any on the Turf. At the same time, in order to give effect to his condemnation
of the evils resulting from the spread of the gambling habit among wage-earning classes,
who lived for the most part from hand to mouth, he suppressed all betting news and
tipsters' forecasts in the popular evening paper that was under his control. His action
received instant recognition and support from the Angel-proprietor of the EVENING
VIEWS, the principal rival evening halfpenny paper, who forthwith issued an ukase
decreeing a similar ban on betting news, and in a short while the regular evening Press
was purged of all mention of starting prices and probable winners. A considerable drop in
the circulation of all these papers was the immediate result, accompanied, of course, by a
falling-off in advertisement value, while a crop of special betting broadsheets sprang up
to supply the newly-created want. Under their influence the betting habit became if
anything rather wore widely diffused than before. The Duke had possibly overlooked the
futility of koepenicking the leaders of the nation with excellently intentioned angel under-
studies, while leaving the mass of the people in its original condition.
Further sensation and dislocation was caused in the Press world by the sudden and
dramatic RAPPROCHEMENT which took place between the Angel-Editor of the
SCRUTATOR and the Angel-Editor of the ANGLIAN REVIEW, who not only ceased to
criticize and disparage the tone and tendencies of each other's publication, but agreed to
exchange editorships for alternating periods. Here again public support was not on the
side of the angels; constant readers of the SCRUTATOR complained bitterly of the
strong meat which was thrust upon them at fitful intervals in place of the almost
vegetarian diet to which they had become confidently accustomed; even those who were
not mentally averse to strong meat as a separate course were pardonably annoyed at being
supplied with it in the pages of the SCRUTATOR. To be suddenly confronted with a
pungent herring salad when one had attuned oneself to tea and toast, or to discover a
richly truffled segment of PAT� DE FOIE dissembled in a bowl of bread and milk,
would he an experience that might upset the equanimity of the most placidly disposed
mortal. An equally vehement outcry arose from the regular subscribers of the ANGLIAN
REVIEW who protested against being served from time to time with literary fare which
no young person of sixteen could possibly want to devour in secret. To take infinite
precautions, they complained, against the juvenile perusal of such eminently innocuous
literature was like reading the Riot Act on an uninhabited island. Both reviews suffered a
serious falling-off in circulation and influence. Peace hath its devastations as well as war. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]