Six years later Punch describes "rack-hanging" on the suburban lines of the Great Eastern as one stage worse than "strap-hanging" on the Underground. Another and more formidable outcome of the subterranean extension of London traffic was noted in 1913 à propos of the cracks in St. Paul's. Punch's Londoner exults complacently over the impending downfall, so long as he is swiftly transported from his home to his office:—
I thunder down to work each morn,
And some historic shrine
Must have its matchless fabric torn
To get me there at nine;
And when I gather up my traps,
As sundown sets me free
A nation's monuments collapse,
To take me home to tea.
To parody Lord John Manners's couplet:—