Socialist: "Cert'nly."
H. T.: "And if yer 'ad two cows, yer'd give me one?"
S.: "'Course I would!"
H. T.: "An' if yer 'ad two pigs?"
S.: "Wot yer talkin' about? I've got two pigs!"
"The Open-minded Beggar"
Punch distrusted Socialism because, in his view, it led in practice to vicarious generosity. The Socialist would give half of everything, so long as he didn't possess it himself. Yet in apportioning the blame for the railway trouble in 1907, Punch did not spare Capital. Railway directors and trade unions were in his cartoon shown as equally animated by a disregard for the interests of the public. Incidentally we may note that the volunteer service rendered by the general public in 1919 is anticipated in a humorous sketch of the experiences of an amateur porter. Punch, even where he felt strongly, was alive to the extravagances of the extremists on his own side, witness the verses in 1908 which purport to express the perplexity of "an open-minded beggar":—
Reader, tell me, if you know,
What, on earth, is Socialism.