Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Nutrition, Astronomy, Commerce

    Discusses a Daily News report of an insolvent butcher who attributed his appearance in court to 'the high price of meat and the loss he had sustained in June when the Comet was expected'. Regards the 'expectation of a Comet' as a preposterous explanation for the spoiling of meat, and mocks the idea of a 'Comet appearing in a Law Court with a tale of its destructiveness in bonâ fide evidence'. However, Punch thinks the example shows the 'baleful influence of Comets' and their power to damage 'when merely in expectancy'. Sympathises with the unlucky butcher but is not surprised that the case was adjourned for want of better evidence. Further ridicules the butcher's appeal for protection from the court, observing that 'the insolvent might as well have sued for its protection from the Comet'.