A Jewel from the Emerald Isle

A Jewel from the Emerald Isle

S Cretch [?]

Fun 3 (6 December 1893??): 48

Literary Party (aghast): — “Er — um — good heavens, Bridget! What papers from my desk are you lighting the fire with?”

Bridget: — “Oh, Sor, only just the old ’uns that were scribbled all over! Sure I haven’t touched the Clane Paper at all at all!

This cartoon mocking Irish ignorance has a famous (or infamous) historical source: When Thomas Carlyle gave his only manuscript of the first half of The French Revolution to John Stuart Mill to critique, Mill’s maid used it to light the fireplace.

Source: Hathi Digital Library Trust web version of a copy in the University of Minnesota library.

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