Dear guests

or, Hamburg wines in Budapest,
or, the brilliant march of Cholera into the capital city.
(This comic exchange is littered with malapropisms that I have doubtless failed to convey properly, but the arrival of cholera from Hamburg in 1892 played into Budapest municipal politics in complex ways. The city was growing extremely rapidly and becoming more Hungarian in the process, but German-speaking burghers still played important mediating roles, and they are the main object of satire here.)
Mr. Finances: “Halt! Vere do your horsehides come from, Schlesinger?”
Schlesinger [caricatured here as Jewish]: “Vere vould zey come from if not Hamburg?”
Mr. Finances: “Then you won’t be held up!… Let him pass!…”
Dr. Müller: “St. Roch, in the name of public health! I forbid it!”
Dr. Farkas: “They are importing cholera germs. It is forbidden!”
Dr. Csatáry: “To battle against cholera! Down with the horsehides! In particular, Dr. Schwimmer will make a declaration next to the horsehides in his capacity as dermatologist!”
Dr. Farkas: “Quite so! And Dr. Krebs as the head of the emergency services association will find it desirable to create a situation where he has to save everyone!”
Dr. Gebehart: “The question is, is it true that it comes from Asia? Isn’t it just a forged thing, this cholera? It ought to be done here!”
District mayor Gerlóczy: “Quite so, it ought to be eaten here! Organize a capital city banquet in honor of cholera!”
Monsignor Mayor Ráth: “Deeply respected Madame Cholera! Welcome, we did not expect you! You are most welcome within the visitor-friendly walls of the capital city, you should feel right at home among us, so that you may be our constant good fortune. We also hope that you will be satisfied with the precautionary measures we have taken in receiving your eminence. May the god who is kind feed our high guest to the very limits of the human age!”
(Noisy cheering. Harnessing the horses, the eastern guest is solemnly drawn to the town hall.)
(Bolond Istók, Budapest, 1892)