And shall not Artists kneel?
Says the Jan Van Beers.
No! Artists will not kneel,
But express contempt they feel
For your incense and pastille,
Mister Jan Van Beers.
So said Punch about an exhibition of clap-trap foreign pictures which, in 1886, attracted sightseers of morbid tastes, in search of the horrible and the grotesque. Cunning arrangements of black curtains, grinning skeletons, headless bleeding bodies, and ghastly wounds made up a show, in which but little true art could be found.
——:o:——
The rollicking Irish song Ballyhooly, which was introduced in the highly successful burlesque Monte Cristo junior, was written by Mr. R. Martin, according to rumour an officer in the Royal Artillery.
The Parliamentary Ballyhooly,