1-150-565 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'The Sunday Question', 1869. The drinking habits of the working classes was always a cause for concern amongst their social superiors. A number of attempts had been made to close public houses on Sundays and, in this cartoon, Punch shows a typical Sunday public house. A drunkard stands unsteadily at the bar and his wife has arrived to persuade him to come home. It was believed that many women turned to drink simply because they had to enter public houses to retrieve their husbands. In the other picture, a family enjoys an improving day at a museum. The wife and daughter listen attentively as the man of the house points out of objects of interest and the little boy gazes in wonder at some object not visible to the viewer. Respectability oozes from this family. From Punch, or the London Charivari, April 17, 1869.