CABLE NEWS.
[EXCLUSIVELY FOR PUNCHINELLO.]
GREAT BRITAIN.
The Great PUNCHINELLO dinner has come off! JENKINS was there, and was to have telegraphed an account. But he was not so well as usual the next day, the Thames water having got into his head. JENKINS never could take much water. So your correspondent is obliged to trust to his memory—unaffected by the water, which he did not take.
Old London Tavern was the scene of this banquet, given by the literati of England in honor of the long-wished-for coming of PUNCHINELLO. The dining-hall was decorated for the occasion with appropriate portraits. There were HOGARTH, CERVANTES, ADDISON, MOLIÈRE, SWIFT, STERNE, GOLDSMITH, TOM HOOD, IRVING, THACKERAY, DICKENS, and ARTEMUS WARD. A number of the waiters were costumed in character. From my seat, I recognized SAM WELLER, (right behind me;) the Fat Boy of Pickwick; SANCHO PANZA, and JEAMES YELLOWPLUSH.
Mr. PUNCH was represented at the head of the table so well that you could know him at once from his weekly frontispiece. On one side of him sat CHARLES DICKENS; on the other, your humble ambassador. It would be rather invidious to name the other hundred guests; not to be there was to be nowhere in literature. Near me there sat Lord LYTTON, TOM HUGHES, PRÉVOST PARADOL, EDMOND ABOUT, CHARLES KINGSLEY, PAUL FÉVAL, and the Rev. JOHN CUMMING.
Asking, in a whisper, of Mr. PUNCH how the latter very staid individual came to be there, I understood that, of all the absurd men of this century, he was selected as the most representatively preposterous. The PRINCE OF WALES was not asked, lest his morals might be hurt by something that was said. And it is so important, you know, for the British nation—(for the rest, see the Saturday Review.) And then Madame GEORGE SAND was to be there, who sometimes wears trowsers.
MATTHEW ARNOLD was spoken to about it; but he replied gruffly,
"PUNCHINELLO is Goliath of the Philistines!" and declined.
JOHN STUART MILL was too busy over his next book, which is to be "On the Subjection of Horses." But every body else was there, so we did not miss these grave and reverend seigniors.