“Very Communicative” from the 1862 “Fun”

Very Communicative

Wood engraving

Fun (27 September 1862): 20

Old Gent (in a hurry): — “Now, Conductor, are you going to move?”

Conductor: — “—No, not as I knows, Sir. My old ’oman says she’s werry well sooted!”

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[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Hathi Digital Library Trust and the University of Minnesota library and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. — George P. Landow]

This cartoon is one of many comments in Victorian humor magazines about the annoyances of new forms of public travel in London, particularly cabbies and conductors of the new mode of wheeled transportation — the ominibus. Many of the cartoon commentaries in Punch take the form of cunning drivers of Hansom cabs intentionally misunderstanding, over charging, and otherwise cheating passengers. Lower class dialect, as here, is usually a feature. The Omnibus, which soon became a feature of London life, forced riders of different social and economic classes into close, sometimes embarrassing, proximity that clearly demonstrated the difference between those who wrote in such vehicles and the wealthier classes. In a word, to ride in an omnibus crushed against other travelers was for many déclassé, so much so that in one Punch cartoon a butler resigns his position after catching sight of the master of the house in an omnibus, explaining he doesn’t want to be dragged down the social scale. — George P. Landow

The Omnibus in Victorian literature, art, and humor

Last modified 18 February 2016