"TOM O' BEDLAM."

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 409, 21 November 1868, Page 3

"TOM O' BEDLAM."

There was lately issued in "Westport, the first number of a periodical bearing the name of Tom o' 'Bedlam. It was not issued "from the press," because, although the printing-presses of "Westport numerically exceed the necessities of the place, they are not adapted for the production of lithographic sketches or " illuminated " designs. And it could not be said to be " published," because it was meant merely for private circulation. It was further peculiar by being " entered at nowhere at all, 1 ' and by being produced " for fun" by proprietors, of whom we know only that their names are " Messrs Fulcinello, Pumpernickel, Rumpelstiltzkin, and Co." But leave was, at the time of its issue, given to the " public press 1 ' to make some quotations from its pages, and although the quotations made were made with more regard to the local references they contained than to their literary merit, sufficient was quoted, with what was said, to indicate that it was a.periodical of rare excellence, both in its literature and in its art. In fact, it might have been said, as we say now, that any " publications" of the same character which have been produced in New Zealand under the name of Punch or Tomahawk are infinitely inferior to the AVestport Tom o' Bedlam ; and, without making any extravagant comparisons, it may be added that, in the artists who contribute to it, Leech and Doyle have, at least, apt imitators, and Mark Lemon or Shirley Brooks might have worse " copy" to peruse than the production of the wits of "Westport. We have just seen the secondnumber, and, like the traveller in the story of the chameleon, "pronounce it," not green, but good. The pen-and-ink sketches, which take the place of lithographs or wood-cuts, are more numerous, and, if there was room for improvement, more excellent than those contained in the first number. The frontispiece is, in itself, what common people would call a " happy thought.' 1 The cartoon has scarcely so much originality in it as the cartoon in the first number, but it is a suggestive sketch—the picture of a Maori, his "loins girded" with a British Union Jack, and holding with his right hand the mane of the " British lion " couchant, while from his left de-

pends, not far from his tatooed jaws, what we may suppose is the heart of an Englishman. The smaller sketches include two " Shakespearian illustra* I tions" —one a parody on " Romeo and Juliet," instead of whom we find an ancient toper and a bottle of port, to which the ancient toper addresses the lines:— " G-ood night! Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow. That I shall say ' Good night,' Till it he morrow." Another represents Macbeth with two well-fatted calves in his " Hielaa hose," and much more familiar with daggers than Shakespeare represented him, for he has, in each hand, a gigan. tic dirk, which is obviously anything but "air drawn." He has abjured usquebae and other national failings, and exclaims: — I have almost forgot the taste of heers. The time has been I should have deemed, Me fooled to miss a night drink. And my fell of hair would, at a lack of whisky, Rouse and stir, as life were in't. I have supped full of cocoa; and Temperance, familiar to teetotal thoughts, Cannot once start me. There is a capital sketch, and good likenesses, of five local whist-players, including <( the cogitative partner," his " irate partner," " the stolid man, who cuts in " " the victimised partner," and " the idiotic victimiser," who "never could, never can, and never will play, and who has just trumped his partner's two best tricks." The " perils of exploration" are depicted in a poetical and pen-and-ink sketch, of * brilliant exploits" by

"Bigg.C.E,, In going to see The West-port coal formation." Mr "Wrigg, who, we may say without libel, is referred to in the sketch, ia seen on his Mount Eoehfort journey in attitudes such as Leech's celebrated "Mr Briggs " was usually found in on his sporting tours, but, if there is one attitude more amusing than another, it is where Mr Wrigg presents to the spectator a " back-view," as he ascends the mountain-side. ■" On either flank Two men they rank, And one behind to hold him up, By slow degrees, With frequent ease, And labor vast they rolled hiru tip." Another sketch represents Tom himself in various attitudes more or less un*dignified; and there are four amusing pictures in further illustration of the "Adventures of M'Money Nix, Esq." —a real or imaginary character, according to the knowledge or the fancy of the reader. A " languid swell" and an apoplectic waiter are the figures in the other larger sketch. The " languid swell-," who desires to drink, and doesn't want " sheway," but wants some hock and seHzenvater—■ something sharp and acid—is told by the apoplectic waiter what might be told in more thau one hotel ill or out of Westporfc—" You'll find our sherry quite acid enough, Sir." One of the gems of the number, in the artistic line, is a sketch on the cover, representing a reader of Tom O' JSedlam, in a most Bedlam-like choice of situations for the peaceful perusal of its pages —lounging in a chair perched on the edge of a precipice, over which an extra puff of his cigar might at any moment send him. The sketch is not only extravagant in conception, but is meritorious for its apparent freeness, and, at the same time, its attention to details.

A.t another time we may be able to give a few quotations from the letterpress portions of Tom's pages, which avowedly contain " matter and impertinency mixed —reason in madness.''