Current:

Tomahawk (1867-1870), 14th May 1870, Edition 1 of 1, Page unpag, No. 158.] LONDON, MAY 14, 1870. [Price T...

Page unpag
Page 3
3 of 16

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • KING DEATH OF GREECE
  • Text (4)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      The Tomahawk. A Saturday Journal Of Sati...

      THE TOMAHAWK . A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . Cfeitefc bp ; 3 tttt ) UT a'Becfeett * o " INVITAT CULPAM QUI PECCATUM PRETERIT . "

      No. 158.] London, May 14, 1870. [Price T...

      No . 158 . ] LONDON , MAY 14 , 1870 . [ Price Twopence .

      King Death Of Greece

      KING DEATH OF GREECE

      What Can Be More Absurd, More Ridiculous...

      What can be more absurd , more ridiculously-absurd , than a small German Principality with its army of sixteen officers , two privates , eighteen people , and one King ? There are not many of these States in Europe now , for Prussia has swallowed most of them up with the aid of the mild diplomacy of Bismarck , and the gentle pressure of the needle gun , but still , where they do from exist , a they military are as point laug of hable view . as— They let us are say too —Prince absurd- — Christian they are , indeed . It would be difficult to say to what possible use they could be put , unless perhaps for the purpose of providing the distant branches of our Royal Family with mild and harmless husbands . Our Princesses are not permitted to mate with our own aristocracy , and accordingly a German Prince is occasionally acceptable—voilH tout . "We have said that the Petty States of Germany are ridiculous , but we have not added they are pernicious . Until very lately they served as admirable locales for the " tables . " When Aix la Chappelle turned " serious , " and suppressed rouge et noir at the cost of its solvency , Saxe Weir Sausagen benefited by the change . Until then it was celebrated for its small army and nasty waters , but with the conversion and consequent ruin of Aachen its prosperity commenced . The fashionable world and its dissipated votaries flocked to the little German Principality , and the people became wealthy , while the Crown Duke sold

      beer . There was great rejoicing among the dozen Field-Marshals ( at about fivepence a day ) and the Grand Chamberlain saw some prospect of receiving his arrears of salary . However , this prosperity only lasted for a few years . At the end of the Austro-Prussian war Saxe Weir Sausagen was its annexed military by band the and grasp leather ing Bismarck -lunged croupiers , and the , became Kursaal a , thing with of the past . No longer did the fashionable world and its dissipated votaries flock to the nasty waters , which became nastier than ever , now that the gaming tables had ceased to exist . The Crown Duke found his beer a drug in the market , the salaries of the Field-Marshals reduced to threepence a day ( payable in bills at six months' date ) and the honorarium of the Grand Chamberlain became more in arrears than ever it had been before . In fact , the state of Saxe Weir Sausagen was not only virtuous but slow . It was branded a bore , and the fashionable world and its dissipated votaries wended their vicious way to Monaco the Scandalous , or to Baden Baden the very bad . In its most rollicking days the little German State was not exactly pernicious—at least not more pernicious than Tattersall ' s , the Arlington , or the Stock Exchange .

      ridiculous There is but one pernicious Kingdom . in It Europe is ten , times however as , bad that as the not most only depraved of German principalities . It boasts a historical name , which only serves as a foil to heighten the effect of its now degraded condition . It has a King who was chosen after the . throne had been scornfully declined by at least two nominees of the people . It has a constitution which is a farce , a Ministry little better than a burlesque . The people when they are not lunatics are thieves , the army are only soldiers when they are not bandits . Honesty is not known in this miserable country . Lies are accepted as truths , and only a scoundrel is respectedonly a brigand has any influence anywhere . In a word , the most pernicious , the most degraded State in Europe at the present moment is Greece . We can scarcely write with patience of this miserable land . It is cursed with a weak King , a paltry Ministry , a strong band of bloodthirsty bandits , and a large number of Mr . Cook ' s excursionists . Poor Greece—once the land of civilization—the mistress of the world is now given over to cutthroats and . snobs ! The field of Marathon is made a place of pillage , the City of Athens a spot upon which Brown , Smith , and Jones are invited to congregate ! It is a painful thought to think of a land so rich in historical memories falling so low , so very low . Europe Poor Greece , the Ratcliff , once the Highway Empress of the State whole , now world the ! St . Giles' The recent cruel murders have turned the attention of

      Englishmen to this unhappy land . It is difficult to suggest a remedy . Greece is hopelessly in the hands of brigands and thieves . The very parliament is composed of ex-bravos and those who sympathise with the robbers . The executive is as weak as water . The King is a poor youth of German extraction , to whom the throne was voted a few years since as a kind of compliment to England . The most illustrious of the land have the prestige of vestrymen—the talents of St . Pancras Guardians . Theft is so thoroughly established and so generally practised that " Greek" has now the same meaning as " pilferer . ' ' | So long as these miserable people robbed and even murdered one another , we could afford to let them alone—perhaps on the whole it was the best thing they could do—for Europe ; but when they rob and murder our own countrymen , then is it time to take an active part in the matter , to mete out justice to them , to obtain redress . We cannot permit our . people to be murdered because the King of Greece is incapable , and his ministry little better than thieves . We have no wish to be too hard upon George the First , but really and truly his Majesty had better retire . He is ( we doubt not ) a most amiable youth , an excellent husband , and a conscientious Christian . Nay , we will

  • Citation
    • Tomahawk (1867-1870), May 14, 1870, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_14051870/page/3/