Produced by Chris Curnow, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriberâs Note This eBook has no Table of Contents, but all of the cartoons are listed in the Index at the end. [Illustration: CARTOONS FROM âPUCKâ 1877â1893 ] Copyright, 1893, by KEPPLER & SCHWARZMANN. [Illustration] 300 COPIES PRINTED AND BOUND IN THIS MANNER, OF WHICH THIS IS NO. 92. [Illustration: J.K. 1893 Jos. Keppler.] J. KEPPLER A SELECTION OF CARTOONS FROM PUCK BY JOSEPH KEPPLER WITH TEXT AND INTRODUCTION BY H.Â C. BUNNER [Illustration] KEPPLER & SCHWARZMANN NEW YORK MDCCCXCIII [Illustration] INTRODUCTION. So careless has been the popular use of the words â_cartoonist_â and â_caricaturist_,â that to many minds they no doubt seem practically interchangeable. Yet, as a matter of fact, not only do the two titles imply two different functions of pictorial satiric art, but, although there is a school of that art for almost every one of the great races of civilized men, there is but one school that positively demands the union of these two factors in the work of its pupils. That school is the German school, and it is Mr. Joseph Keppler who, as an American cartoonist and caricaturist, has not only imposed its canons and traditions upon this country, but has, in so doing, placed himself at its head, both in this country and in Europe, by virtue of a genius that has made him eminent above the generation of his masters. The spirit of French comic art turns distinctly--and delightfully--to caricature. The French âcartoonâ--the pictorial lampoon, that is--has but to exhibit in an exaggerated form the objectionable characteristics of an individual, to serve its purpose and to touch its public. It is the revelation of character, of purpose, of intellectual or moral scope which affects, apparently, the French mind, by nature rather observant than deductive. The Anglo-Saxon spirit, less quickly perceptive, more deliberately logical, asks something beyond this of the man who tries to reason with it in a picture. It must be approached by means of a fable, a parable, an allegory, something that will stand the test of argument and comparison. Caricature, or the significant exaggeration of physical characteristics, may or may not be an incident to this. Few of the English cartoonists, for instance, have been caricaturists of any account. The greatest of them all, John Tenniel, is a cartoonist pure and simple--that is, one who draws allegories or parables. In his delightful âAlice in Wonderlandâ work, he shows his power of caricature; but in his cartoons he is classically faithful to nature, save for just sufficient accentuation to point his satiric intent. And in the United States, up to twenty years ago, the prime idea of the cartoonist was simply to express in drawing a figure of speech--and the more realistically the better. If it seems a remarkable thing that the influence of one man should avail to change the taste of a nation in such a manner, it must be remembered that the breadth and force of the German school which Mr. Keppler introduced into this country were peculiarly calculated to appeal to a receptive people, delighting in vigorous expression. For the German school carries the art and mystery of cartooning far beyond any of its rivals. The German conception of the cartoon not only involves a picture parable, it demands that the actors of the fable shall be so drawn as to display their characters in their lineaments, and it asks, moreover, that the allegory shall, if possible, take a distinctive dramatic form, suggestive, at least, of action, and not merely of position. It was not in the American nature to refuse to recognize the pregnant possibilities of such a school of satiric art. Nor did Mr. Keppler fail to grasp the vast possibilities opened to him by the freedom of American laws and American tradition--social and political. This collection of Mr. Kepplerâs cartoons is not by any means intended to summarize his work during the sixteen years in which he has drawn for PUCK--or it would be treble its present size. It simply brings together such examples of his work as may now with propriety be reprinted. This is no slight volume, yet it contains, comparatively, but a narrow choice of the hundreds of cartoons Mr. Keppler has drawn for PUCK. It is surprising to consider that this great output is to be credited to a man who has only attained the fullness of life; for Joseph Keppler is but fifty-five years old. He was born in Vienna, February 1st, 1838. His early life was a struggle with poverty; but it was a blithesome and cheerful-hearted struggle, almost romantically full of incident and adventure. He was with equal ease an actor and an artist; and at one time, with a very natural longing for Italy, he wandered through Styria and the Tyrol and, again, through Hungary, making vain attempts, balked by constant misfortune, to enter the land of art. In 1856 he settled down to serious study at the AcadÃ©mie des Beaux Arts of Vienna. Although his capacity as an artist was increasing year by year, he possessed a histrionic talent that made it hard for him to give up the stage, and as manager and actor he was connected with the theatre even for several years after his arrival in America in 1868. His first years in America were passed in the West; and in St. Louis he started two humorous weeklies, _Die Vehme_ and a too-early PUCK. The gods loved both of these ventures too well. It was in 1877 that Mr. Keppler, in association with Mr. Adolph Schwarzmann, first introduced to the American public the school of cartooning which has now become as much ours as Germanyâs. This was through the medium of a German edition of PUCK. The English PUCK was born on March 7th, 1877. To his colleague of sixteen yearsâ side-by-side working time, it is a great pleasure to claim for Joseph Keppler the masterhood in the brave art whose present form he introduced to America, and which he has used with enduring courage and growing knowledge to more good ends than need here be told. _March 20th, 1893._ _H.Â C. Bunner._ A LITTLE CHANGE; OR, POLITICS MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS. _PUCK, October 4th, 1876._ These two expressive portraitures of two distinguished German-Americans, General Sigel and the Hon. Carl Schurz, appeared in the initial number of the German PUCK (New York) as interesting specimens of Mr. Kepplerâs skill as a caricaturist, pure and simple. They had no timely significance in particular. [Illustration] THE DEMOC-RATS CAUGHT IN THE PRESIDENTIAL TRAP. _PUCK, February 28th, 1877._ The idea of this cartoon is not free from guilty obligation to a small pun; yet it depicts the situation of the Democratic Party in the last months of 1876 with considerable aptitude and force. It appeared at the time when the Democrats in Congress had been hoodwinked into accepting the Electoral Commission scheme, which deprived Mr. Tilden of the Presidency, and put Mr. Hayes in the chair. Under these circumstances, it was certainly truthful, even if it was trite, to say that the âDemoc-Ratsâ were caught in the political trap. [Illustration: THE DEMOC-RATS CAUGHT IN THE PRESIDENTIAL Trap [ZUR PRESIDENTEN-FRAGE] WIE DIE DEMOK-RATTEN IN DIESEM FALLE IN DIESE FALLE GERIETHEN.] CONSOLIDATED. _PUCK, January 26th, 1881._ âThe telegraph companies have been consolidated, which in simple language means that Mr. Jay Gould controls every wire in the United States over which a telegram can be sent,â said PUCK of January 26th, 1881, and the statement was no exaggeration. The editorial went on to express a fear that this monopoly of telegraphic facilities might be used for stock-jobbing purposes, as it made suppression or falsification of price-quotations not only possible, but temptingly easy. This fear was far from groundless at the time, although it has since been removed by the enormous growth of the business of electrical communication, which has now become a machine too huge to be readily perverted from its proper working by any one man. It is, however, undeniable that the Western Union wires were misused for parties and purposes in the doubtful and troublous days immediately succeeding the Presidential election of 1884. At the time when this cartoon was published there was a very general feeling that the federal government ought to take charge of the whole telegraphic system. This feeling, however, changed when the people realized that a postal telegraph scheme would practically involve the enrollment of a new army of office-holders who would be, under our inadequate and ineffective civil-service reform laws, merely the hirelings and henchmen of the party in power. Although the phrase âpernicious activityâ had not yet been coined to characterize the performances of unscrupulous office-holders, the people had seen quite enough of the thing itself to want no more of it; and the project of government interference became unpopular. At the same time, it can not be said that Mr. Gould, who lived until 1892, ever inspired the people with confidence or made any recognizable attempt to that end. [Illustration] AN ATTACK ON OUR OUTER RAMPARTS. _PUCK, April 22nd, 1885._ The so-called âFreedom of Worship Bill Controversyâ has been carried on so many years, through so many varying phases and under such exceptional and peculiar conditions, that it has become most difficult of description and characterization. Its exciting cause is a bill introduced into the New York legislature ostensibly in the interests of what might be called sectarian fair play. On the face of it, it aims to secure to the Catholic, confined by sickness or for other reasons in a public institution, the right to enjoy the ministrations of his religion at the hands of a priest of the Roman Church. Its opponents have alleged that it is calculated to go much farther than this in practical effect, and to afford a foothold for the regular and official installment of Roman Catholic Priests in the public institutions of the state. The bill has appeared and reappeared for many years. It has assumed many forms, has provoked a vast amount of discussion, and has engaged the interest of a very large, and in some respects a very peculiar, collection of friends and enemies. Its good faith has always been questioned, and we do not think it is expressing an _ex parte_ opinion to say that it has always been open to question--in view of the breadth and comprehensiveness of our American common law as applied to the civil rights of the citizen and the equal status of all religious organizations in the commonwealth. At the time (April 22, 1885,) when this cartoon was printed, the bill had appeared in a form which gave good reason for the belief, in which the whole press of New York shared, that it was a covert attack upon non-sectarian institutions. It is to be hoped that this cause of so much contention will some day be forgotten in the natural growth of a spirit of religious tolerance. [Illustration] THE POLITICAL âARMY OF SALVATION.â _PUCK, March 31st, 1880._ Loyalty and lack of moderation were equally marked as characteristic of the support which Mr. Roscoe Conkling gave to any cause that enlisted his sympathies. The hot, unreasoning, fanatical vehemence of the attempt which he made in 1880 to dragoon the Republican party into nominating General Grant for a third term undoubtedly made the third term idea far more unpopular than a more judicious advocacy might have made it. Mr. Conkling treated the question of General Grantâs nomination almost as though it were a matter of divine right; and although Mr. Conkling himself had a right to be considered honest in his enthusiasm, as much could not be said for the most of his active assistants in the management of the âBoomâ--among whom were Ex-Secretaries Belknap and Robeson, two officials who had reflected anything but credit upon General Grantâs cabinet, Boss Shepherd, and other members of the ring that had been formed in Washington during the Ex-Presidentâs second administration. The artist has drawn a parallel between the methods employed by the âSalvation Army,â which had invaded this country a little while before, and those of the âhalcyon and vociferousâ Mr. Conkling--to quote his own immortal phrase. [Illustration] THE CINDERELLA OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND HER HAUGHTY SISTERS. _PUCK, October 13th, 1880._ During the Presidential campaign of 1880, which ended in the election of Mr. Garfield, Mr. R.Â B. Hayes, then the incumbent of the Presidential chair, was treated with studied neglect and coldness by the leaders of his own party. Although General Grant had failed to get the nomination at the Chicago convention, in spite of the vigorous efforts of Mr. Roscoe Conkling, the ex-President and his ally were prominent in the campaign on their own account. âThey speak at mass-meetings, they are interviewed, they write letters; they are never out of the public eye,â says PUCK of October 13th, 1880. Mr. Hayes, however, received no pressing invitation from the party managers to assist in electing their Republican ticket. Undoubtedly this deliberate slight was due to the extreme sensitiveness felt by all classes of Republicans on the question of Mr. Hayesâs title to the office which he held; and it was in its inception a creditable feeling that prompted the desire to keep him in the background. At the same time, it was a severe, almost a cruel retribution to be visited upon a man who had tried hard to atone for his capture of the Presidential chair by trick and device, by giving the country an uncommonly good, and, in some respects, decidedly courageous administration. Messrs. Grant and Conkling seemed to be solicitous to draw attention to their complete silence concerning the outgoing administration, and their enthusiasm in Mr. Garfieldâs behalf. Although, to quote again from PUCK, âboth these talkative gentlemen might have found their eloquence at a discount if Mr. Hayes had not kept up the score of the party through the last four years.â âHis administration will be held notable, in days to come, not merely for its positive performances, its vetos of the infamous Silver Bill and the unconstitutional Chinese Act; but for its negative excellence. He has done his duty as he saw it. If he has made himself ridiculous by carrying the contemptibly small social practices of a little Ohio town into the wider sphere of life to which Fate has introduced him, it is a pardonable fault. Let us say for him, after all, that, considering the wretched way in which he got to be President, he has done far too well with his chances to be snubbed by men in such equivocal positions as Messrs. Grant and Conkling.â [Illustration] A HARMLESS EXPLOSION. _PUCK, May 25th, 1881._ Mr. Conklingâs resignation to the Senate, in hope of re-election under circumstances which would have made such a triumph a severe rebuke to President Garfield, proved to be, as most people foresaw, the end of his political career. But, at the time, there were plenty of people to applaud his act and to liken his resignation to a âbombshellâ thrown into the Senate. It was a sort of fireworks bombshell that destroyed nothing but itself, but it made a great noise for the moment. Mr. T.Â C. Platt chose at the same time to pop his toy balloon, and probably thought that it made part of the noise. [Illustration] PUCKâS POLITICAL HUNTING GROUND.--HOW HE HAS MADE GAME OF THE POLITICIANS. _PUCK, January 14th, 1885._ The first cartoons were doubtless chalked on dead walls, and even when the art reached a higher development, sticking to walls remained the cheapest and most convenient method of publication. It is often a test of a cartoonâs worth to-day--its suitability as a wall-decoration. It is a natural and simple impulse that moves us to pin on the wall the picture that has pleased us. Readers of PUCK who travel much in this country can not but notice how many people delight in pasting and pinning their favorite cartoons to the walls of their offices and workshops, and even of their dwelling-houses. A really popular cartoon is always sure of these humble but well-meant honors; and, curiously enough, experience has shown that next to the really telling âhit,â a playful, familiarly puzzling trifle like âPUCKâS Political Hunting-Ground,â if it is conceived with some grace and prettiness, is the most certain of this sort of popular favor. This particular picture was, no doubt, made attractive to many by the simple puzzle afforded by the faces of the animals. As, however, the passing of time must make some of these faces unfamiliar, it may be well to offer the following key--first calling attention to the fact that all the personages introduced were at the moment, in one way or another, at odds with fortune--except the late Mr. Jay Gould, who is figured as a bird of prey (in a general way, and with no over-particular ornithological accuracy) comfortably bearing off a lamb. The fact that this one figure of success is quite unconscious of the attempts of PUCKâS water-dog to catch him, may be supposed to show the usual disregard that Wealth entertains for Wit: The fox, of course, is the ingenious Mr. James G. Blaine. The hyena, ex-speaker Kiefer, and the next animal of doubtful breed âStar Routeâ or âSoapâ Dorsey. The paw and the head seen in the reeds behind the dog belong to Brady. The lineaments of Ben Butler may be discerned in the head of the frog, and the nature of the beast in the distention of the belly thereof. At the other end of the cartoon, General Grantâs features, without distortion or caricature, fit the head of the dead lion. Next to him âSecorâ Robeson lies in the similitude of a dead boar, incapable of mischief for all his glaring eye-balls. In the foreground, Roscoe Conkling lies a dead pouter pigeon. (Caricaturists frequently showed Mr. Conkling as a pouter pigeon, but most of them carried the analogy too far and made a frail, spindle-shanked thing of him. In this picture the thickly feathered legs and stout frame of the bird do not bely its sturdy original.) The owl is the late John Kelly--and a powerful and accurate owl he was, too, in his time! The pendent monkey is T.Â C. Platt, who was at that time suffering from one of the temporary eclipses which flecked the pathway of the political adventurer with appropriate forecasts of oblivion. [Illustration] THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH OF THE FUTURE--FROM THE PRESENT RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK. _PUCK, January 10th, 1883._ The times change, and we change with them. When this cartoon was designed, the popular theological fad was the harmonization of science and religion, and the immediate cause of its appearance was some utterance, now forgotten, but at the time considered highly audacious, of the Reverend Heber Newton. It was, we believe, the introduction of the practice of âslummingâ which changed the current of clerical taste. [Illustration] POSITIVELY LAST AWAKENING OF THE DEMOCRATIC RIP VAN WINKLE. _PUCK, October 27th, 1880._ The picture of the Democratic party as Rip Van Winkle was suggested by the fact that in 1880, when it appeared, (Oct. 27) the party had been for just twenty years wrapt in the sleep of political inactivity. The figure of the old sleeper is the one made familiar by Mr. Jeffersonâs wonderful interpretation. He starts up from his twenty yearsâ slumber to see a spectral host flit by him, as he lies upon the mountain crag--Douglas, Greeley, McClellan, Seymour, Tilden, and Hancock the Superb, leading the doomed line of hapless Presidential candidates. The mean realities of life are represented by the two fiery-eyed owls in the tree at the old manâs back--General B.Â F. Butler and Mr. John Kelly of Tammany Hall, who never appeared in national politics, except as secret and mischievous birds of prey. Down in the right-hand lower corner of the picture a pocket-flask labelled âBourbonâ may puzzle the reader who turns this page a generation hence. It is a sly reference to a jest well known and well understood at the time,--it had a much earlier origin. The Democrats were called Bourbons because it was supposed that âthey never learned anything and never forgot anything.â As it happened, Bourbon County, Kentucky, had given its name to a brand of whiskey at that time in great favor. As whiskey was Americaâs democratic drink, in the broader sense of the word, by a natural association of ideas Bourbon whiskey was set down as the drink of the Democratic party. It was generally known as âBourbonâ and pronounced âBurbin.â [Illustration] JUST THE DIFFERENCE. _PUCK, July 28th, 1880._ This cartoon depicts so simply and clearly the position of the two great parties and their respective leaders in the early part of the campaign of 1880 that even at this date it hardly calls for any elucidation whatever. It may, however, be proper to note that the placing of Mr. Arthur as a burden upon Mr. Garfieldâs back, in the bag labeled âCredit Mobilierâ and âDe Golyer Contract,â is not intended to imply that Mr. Arthur himself had any connection with these scandals. Mr. Arthur himself undoubtedly was regarded as an incumbrance to Mr. Garfieldâs canvass because of his very unwise choice of associates among the politicians of New York, and his singular indifference to the regard of the people with whom his birth and breeding should naturally have led him to affiliate. In this it must be admitted that Mr. Arthur did himself an injustice, for which, however, he amply atoned when Mr. Garfieldâs death threw upon him the responsibilities of the Chief Executive. [Illustration: HE CARRIES THE PARTY. THE PARTY CARRIES HIM. ] A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! _PUCK, December 22d. 1880._ There are few more tragic or startling pages in our political history than those which record Mr. Garfieldâs brief career as the national leader of his party. Nominated for President in the Chicago Convention of 1880, after the collapse of the Grant Third-Term Movement, (although it was generally supposed that he was too firmly committed to the interests of Senator Sherman to enter the lists on his own account,) he was elected in November, after a somewhat heated campaign, during which much publicity was given to his unfortunate dealings with the CrÃ©dit-Mobilier people and other objectionable speculators. His opponent was General Hancock, a soldier and a gentleman of unblemished reputation. He owed his defeat partly to certain utterances concerning the tariff question which, though just in themselves, were injudicious in view of the popular sentiment of the time; partly to the wide-spread distrust of the Democratic party that then prevailed, and partly, as Mr. S.Â W. Dorsey, one of Mr. Garfieldâs campaign-managers, most gratuitously and indecently announced after election, to wholesale bribery in the State of Indiana. (This was the notorious âSoapâ Dorsey, so called from his using âsoapâ as a euphemism for bribe-money.) By a permissible pictorial license, the artist, in PUCK of December 22nd, 1880, represents the President-Elect as already quartered within the White House, distributing the spoils of office as presents from a Christmas tree. Around him are the leaders of the Republican party: General Grant, Senator John Sherman, Don Cameron, General Logan, Vice-President Chester A. Arthur, and Carl Schurz in the foreground; James G. Blaine and Marshall P. Jewell (the collector of the campaign-fund) in a corner. The shadow of Roscoe Conklingâs head and of the ambrosial curl which was supposed still to linger on his brow, is thrown upon the side of the window-casing, but from what quarter it is projected is difficult to determine. Mr. Conklingâs attitude toward the new administration was dubious and peculiar. Outside, in the cold Winter night, are the Democrats gazing hungrily into the lighted windows. The head of Mr. W.Â H. English, the defeated candidate for Vice-President, rises from a barrel, supposed to represent the large fortune which alone gave him any political standing. Mr. James Gordon Bennett appears in the character of a sportsman who has brought down a large owl-like bird having the features of Mr. John Kelly--the New York _Herald_ was credited with having obtained the local victory over the Tammany leader. âUp in a tree,â are Tilden, Wade Hampton, L.Â Q.Â C. Lamar, Chairman Barnum of the Democratic Committee, General B.Â F. Butler (constructively a Democrat, for cartoon purposes), and Thomas F. Bayard. âTo the man of statelier figure, who stands outside, but not among the shivering crowd of malcontents,â PUCK wished that year a Merry Christmas; and hoped that there would be many Merry Christmases for him, if not in the White House, at least âin the place where he well served the country.â The wish was vain: General Hancock died not long after. [Illustration] âA SAIL! A SAIL!â _PUCK, July 2nd, 1884._ This simple but effective cartoon hardly requires any further elucidation than is afforded by the date of its publication. It appeared on July 2nd, 1884, immediately after the nomination of Mr. Blaine at the Republican Convention at Chicago, and the consequent bolt of the Independent Republicans and so-called Mugwumps. With reference to the appearance in the picture of Mr. John Kelly in the attitude of a hostile savage, we need only say that the readiness of the Tammany Hall of that day to stab the Democratic Party in the back whenever it furthered its own ends by so doing was something that was more than suspected then, and that was conclusively proved in the first Cleveland and Harrison campaign. [Illustration] SAMUEL J. TILDEN. _PUCK, August 11th, 1886._ âMr. Tildenâs death is to be regretted by his friends and by his political enemies. He was a man of principles and ideas. He had ambitions that looked higher than to the mere accumulation of money or the acquirement of that cheap, ephemeral power which flatters some small souls. And beside this he had courage and independence, and the breeding and education of a gentleman. Many were forced, by conscience and conviction, to oppose his political aspirations; but all found him an adversary to be respected, and a man of dignity and power. History must record of Samuel J. Tilden that he did his best to purify a great party fallen into a frightful moral decadence in its own Capuan stronghold,--must note his wonderful work in the cause of civic honesty and good government, and his loyalty to his country at a time when all his affiliations must have inclined him to disloyalty or to an indifferent neutrality. And more than this, History must say of him that he suffered a cruel wrong with dignified fortitude, and by his wisdom and self-restraint relieved his country from a well-grounded fear of dangerous civil disturbance. Remembering this, it is easy for the most partisan spirit to forget much else, and to do honor to the dead statesman and patriot.â--PUCK, _August 11th, 1886_. [Illustration] LET US HAVE PEACE, NOW A PRESIDENTâS ELECTED. _PUCK, November 3d, 1880._ PUCK for November 3d, 1880, went to press, of course, too early to receive the news of the result of the election. Consequently the cartoonist had to content himself with constructing this curious puzzle picture, in which may be found, with a little study, the portraits of the Republican and Democratic candidates, as well as those of many other prominent public men, including Mr. Roscoe Conkling, Mr. J.Â G. Blaine, Mr. Carl Schurz, Mr. Marshall P. Jewell, Mr. Chester A. Arthur, General U.Â S. Grant, Mr. R.Â B. Hayes, Mr. Samuel J. Tilden, Mr. Wm. H. English, General John A. Logan, Mr. John Kelly, (of New York City,) General B.Â F. Butler, Mr. Thos. F. Bayard, and Mr. Abram S. Hewitt. âThere is, moreover,â PUCK goes on to say, âsomething more in that cartoon. There is a gentle hint of a duty that we have forgotten too long, in the excitement of that wild political fight--the duty of going back to the plain old ideal of friendly federation which our forefathers had constantly in mind. We do not wish to talk any of the cheap cant about clasping hands over the bloody chasm. All the hand-shaking in the world wonât close a crevasse up. But is this nonsense to go on forever? We hope not. The work of the campaign is done. A President is elected. There will be no need of renewing the battle for another four years. Let us see if we can not use those four years in making preparations for a contest on a broader basis--on points less mean, less cheap and malicious. There is time, in these four years, for the honest men, North and South, to come to some understanding with each other; to make up their minds as to what are dead and what are living issues; to build up a new party, or two new parties, if need be, and to make the Presidential election of 1884 a respectable contest, between people who, however they may disagree on matters of principle or opinion, have all but one end in view--a wise and honest government.â [Illustration] ON THE ROAD. CONKLING.--Want a guide, sir? GARFIELD.--No; thank you! _PUCK, February 2nd, 1881._ This cartoon sketches fairly the situation a month before Mr. Garfieldâs inauguration in 1881. Mr. Conkling had shown a certain willingness to lend a hand to Mr. Garfieldâs administration, and Mr. Garfield had shown no willingness whatever to accept the proffered hand. It was not to be expected that Mr. Conkling would prove himself an unreservedly loyal and disinterested Secretary of State, and there was little room for doubt that the desire of Messrs. Don Cameron and J.Â A. Logan to hold office under the President-Elect was of the most strictly selfish sort. * * * * * _Note.--As the word âMentor,â on the flag over the distant dwelling-house shown in this cartoon, might be supposed to have some ulterior significance, it may be well to say that it is simply the name of Mr. Garfieldâs home and P.Â O. address in Ohio._ [Illustration] A HUMILIATING SPECTACLE. _PUCK, August 31st, 1881._ The situation, which this cartoon, published in PUCK of August 31st, 1881, commemorates after a peculiarly forcible fashion, is too unpleasant to invite further comment than is absolutely necessary to explain it. During the latter part of the Summer of 1881, while President Garfield lay dying from an assassinâs bullet, certain politicians of a peculiarly coarse fibre were unwilling to wait for his death to make their arrangements for the distribution of the spoils of office under his successor. These were not men who were in any way concerned in shaping the course of the government in matters of statecraft or policy; they were simply out for the spoils, as the phrase goes, and their undisguised eagerness was scandalous under the circumstances. PUCK said at the time, with more moderation than, viewed in the light of subsequent events, the occasion called for: âWhether presidents live or die, the game of politics goes on. It is humiliating and deplorable, but it is nevertheless true that many professional politicians of more or less reputation are carefully laying their plans of procedure in the event of the decease of the dying President, We will not wrong these gentlemen by saying that they desire his death; but it is scarcely decent to raise even a discussion on the most trivial matter connected with mere machine politics, before the vital spark has fled from the body of the chief magistrate. Although his presumptive, or, to use a monarchical term, his apparent successor has acted throughout in a manly and modest way, there are political friends of his whose demeanor has not been distinguished by the sympathy and consideration that, at least, might be expected on such an occasion.â [Illustration] UNCLE SAMâS LODGING HOUSE. _PUCK, June 7th, 1882._ In 1882 (June 7th), when âUncle Samâs Lodging Houseâ was drawn, the Irish âpatriots,â who were trying to free their country by exploding dynamite in public places, had made this country their base of supplies, and were especially active in New York and Chicago. Their lawlessness created much excitement, and if it had not been that there was more bluster than performance about their pernicious liveliness they might have involved us in a war with Great Britain, in which we should certainly have lacked the moral support of our own conscience. These gentry did not relish the stand PUCK took in the matter, and their threats of reprisal by dynamite were frequent. The rate of letter postage had some time previously been reduced from three to two cents. [Illustration] OPENING A LITTLE CAMPAIGN ALL BY HIMSELF. _PUCK, September 6th, 1882._ The Summer of 1882 was just changing to Fall when Mr. Blaine made a notable speech at Portland, Me., which was generally received as an announcement of his determination to seek the nomination for the Presidency in 1884. In this speech, which attracted great attention, he stated with singular clearness his position in politics, affirming the moral right of the Republican Party to a continuance in rule on the strength of its record. This was, we believe, the first clear, frank and open enunciation of this idea in all its naked simplicity. It has formed since then the stock in trade of many candidates and of countless campaign orators, but the credit of putting it fairly and squarely before the people belongs to Mr. Blaine, and it should be noted that the time he chose to express his views was one in which most Republicans were offering apologies or explanations for the past and present shortcomings of their party. Mr. Blaine reaped no personal benefit from the enterprise he displayed in taking this bold stand, but he undoubtedly gave his party a lesson in audacity by which it profited materially. It was what might be called a âbluff,â and it was certainly a big and effective bluff. At the time when it was made its far-sighted cleverness was under-estimated, and its insincerity was so apparent that the reader of that day could have had little difficulty in seeing why PUCK suggested to Mr. Blaine to abandon his extreme and untenable position, and to take another, which would have been at once more credible and more popular. It is curious that the idea with which Mr. Blaine inspired his party should have been the means of his own undoing, and, in some measure, of electing Mr. Harrison to the Presidency over his head. [Illustration] BLAINE LEAVING THE CAPITOL.--âI GO--BUT I RETURN!â _PUCK, December 21st, 1881._ Mr. Blaine was the most highly honored of President Garfieldâs cabinet officers. In the convention that nominated Mr. Garfield he had been, next to General Grant, Garfieldâs most dangerous rival--or, perhaps it would be more correct to say that he might have been, had the time been ripe for him to exert his full strength. So, when President Garfield died, and Mr. Arthur, who had been an unpopular candidate for the Vice-Presidency, succeeded to the Presidential chair, two apparent probabilities interested the populace. It was assumed, of course, that a President must be a candidate for re-election and under such circumstances it was thought that in all likelihood Mr. Blaine would be far more powerful in the next convention than a President who owed his elevation to mere accident. Thus, when Mr. Blaine made his bow and retired from the cabinet formed by President Garfield, his very leaving seemed to imply a threat that he would return to Washington only to assume a prouder position. PUCK of December 21st, 1881, says, discussing the possibility of Mr. Blaineâs election to the Presidency: âThere are two or three miracles which we would gladly see worked in this country. There is that great miracle which always seems near at hand, yet which never seems nearer--the miracle of a great popular awakening to a healthy political life.... Is it not a disgrace, indeed, that we should talk about electing to the highest office in the nation a man of whom an honest, unprejudiced and unbiased journal has to say that although he is clever and strong, he has not an absolutely unblemished record?! An absolutely unblemished record! Why, a statesmanâs record should be as unblemished as a womanâs should be. And yet it is very possible that we shall find the man of whom this is said the very best man whom it is possible to put at the head of our Government in 1884. Is it not time for a miracle?â It was pretty nearly time: the miracle was worked in 1884. [Illustration] HELPING THE RASCALS IN. _PUCK, October 22nd, 1884._ The New York _Sunâs_ âboltâ of the Democratic ticket during the Cleveland Campaign of 1884 was so characteristic, so extravagant and so funny in its fantastic futility, that it can not be forgotten, even now. This cartoon appeared about the time that Mr. Chas. A. Dana was running General Benj. F. Butler as a candidate for the Presidency, and was predicting for that harlequin among political adventurers a majority over Mr. Cleveland in the City of New York. General Butler came out of the death-struggle with four-thousand-odd-hundred votes, _in all_, as his share of the suffrages of New Yorkâs citizens; and Mr. Dana, a day or two after the election, blithely caroled, to the somewhat discordant accompaniment of his organ: âWe may be happy yet, You bet.â [Illustration] QUALITY COUNTS. _PUCK, April 11th, 1888._ The editorial article accompanying this picture draws a curious historical parallel between the characters of Samuel Pepys and Grover Cleveland, with a side glance at âSouth Sea Bubbleâ Law and certain moderns who resemble him in certain ways. After sketching Pepysâs career in the British Admiralty Office, the article closes: ââA man of the old way of taking pains,â they called him in that degenerate day. Is not that even now a good standard by which to test public service? Is all greatness to lie in bluster, noise, braggadocio, and what we are pleased to call âsmartnessâ? These were the attributes of the men who were the official superiors of Samuel Pepys just two centuries ago. The world has forgotten their names. But the old fashion of honest service is still honorable. Those who have borne with us so far in this historical recital may forgive us if we suggest a modern instance. A few weeks ago, the presiding officer of the United States Senate told his distinguished audience that no man was so mean or so obscure that he might not be President of the United States, now that Grover Cleveland held that place. Mr. Grover Cleveland was a lawyer in one of our smaller cities. He became, successively, Sheriff and Mayor of his town, Governor of his state, and President of the United States. In every office he has done his duty âin the old way of taking pains.â He has had no hand in the corruption of political life; he has never been the pensioner of corporate monopolies. As Sheriff, Mayor, Governor and President he has served the people honestly and wisely, âin the old way of taking pains.â To our mind this gives him a claim to the regard and respect of the people that will not easily be shaken by the bluster of his enemies. The people will look at the work he has done before they decide whether or no he is President by accident--whether the Time has done everything for him, he nothing--but what the little critic could have done too.â [Illustration: There was a great stir made among the Beasts, which could boast of the largest family. So they came to the Lioness. âAnd how many,â said they, âdo you have at a birth?â âONE,â said she, grimly; âbut that one is a Lion!â _Ãsopâs Fables, LXVIII._ ] THE CAROL OF THE âWAITS.â _PUCK, December 23rd, 1885._ When Mr. Cleveland first became President in 1885, he put into practice a much broader theory of Civil Service Reform than certain active politicians of his party had any use for. Nor did he show any great eagerness to shower offices and honors upon those members of his party who had proved false to him in the campaign of the previous year. On December 23rd, 1885, PUCK pictured these unfortunates as Christmas âWaits,â standing outside the White House in the wintry cold, and raising their voices in plaintive song: âGod rest you, merry gentlemen, May nothing you dismay; Remember us poor spoilsmen left This blessed Christmas Day. âSince Christmas comes but once a year, Oh, let us share your Christmas cheer, And chuck one little office here On Christmas Day in the A.Â M.â [Illustration] AT LAST! _PUCK, January 18th, 1888._ Another phase of the tariff question is illustrated in this cartoon, which was designed to serve as an offset to the impudent accusations of disloyal desire to serve English interests so frequently made by high protectionists against all those who questioned their divine right to profit by their ingenious scheme of taxation. Adapting Sydney Smithâs famous formula to modern American use, PUCK said on January 18th, 1888: âYou may sit down, O well-protected Average Citizen! at your protected table, in your protected arm-chair; and button your protected coat about you, and dream that your protective tariff is a drain on the wealth of the English. But the fact remains that you pay every cent of the duties that you impose upon foreign goods, and that nobody is the worse off for the increased price, except yourself. The fact remains that you pay for goods manufactured in this country the same price which you pay for foreign-made goods of the same grade; that price being greater than the fair price by the amount of the duty imposed. And, above all, the disgraceful fact remains that all these goods on which you pay a tax are brought to this country in English ships, sailing under the English flag, which take back, on their homeward trip, your American money, O Average Citizen! in payment of freight imported by you in English bottoms. And yet, before we had a protective tariff, we were able to do our carrying trade for ourselves.â [Illustration] SIEGFRIED, THE FEARLESS, IN THE POLITICAL DISMAL SWAMP. _PUCK, December 28th, 1887._ When Mr. Cleveland began his now historic struggle for Tariff Reform he found that he had to encounter more ignorance and apathy among the public at large than he had reckoned on. In fact, he began his fight in a very mist or fog of popular misconception, and his surroundings in these first days were such as naturally suggested the grewsome allegory which PUCK published on December 28th, 1887. The animal-portraits in this picture are for the most part readily recognizable--J. G. Blaine, John Sherman, Whitelaw Reid, W.Â M. Evarts, B.Â F. Butler, T.Â C. Platt, (dead, but floating,) C.Â A. Dana and Joseph Pulitzer. The owl in the left hand upper corner is Secretary Folger. In the corner below him is Most, the anarchist. The hedge-hog and the wild boar on the extreme right are Jacob Sharp and J.Â B. Foraker. The two tails protruding from holes in the ground are reminders of the brief period of activity enjoyed by Mr. Henry George and his clerical ally. [Illustration] A MIDSUMMER DAYâS DREAM. _PUCK, August 10th, 1881._ Bright as is the idea which inspires this cartoon, it inspires only the interest of reminiscence. PUCKâS chief cartoonist figures himself as falling asleep upon a hot midsummer day, so soundly that during his slumber the subjects of his facile pencil invade his studio and use his drawing materials to depict themselves according to their own conceit. Thus Roscoe Conkling, practically withdrawn from active politics, portrays himself as a Jupiter Tonans in the prime of life, and Mr. Whitelaw Reid, who was at the time accused of dallying with Ã¦sthetic dandyism, appears as a figure somewhat like Mr. Gilbertâs _Bunthorne_. Peter Cooper appears as a young and auburn-whiskered man; and Mr. Tilden, even then in the feebleness of old age, sketches himself as an ambitious athlete. Mr. James Gordon Bennett sketches himself as the Apollo Belvidere. A subtle pun is here intended. Mr. Bennett was then prominent through his efforts to introduce the game of polo into this country. The patch on his nose marks the wound he is supposed to have received in his mysterious encounter with Mr. Frederick May, a disreputable man-about-town, with whom Mr. Bennett was at one time intimate. Mr. John Kelly draws himself as a fashion-plate model; and Mr. Beecher, whose lineaments age had made somewhat gross, paints for his picture the likeness of the young man whose eloquence and originality waked a new fire in the religious circles of the West. Mr. Talmage draws himself as he perhaps would have liked to have people think he looked. General Grant sketches a mighty emperor who bears his features. And that curious political tramp, General Benjamin F. Butler, uses the canvas to straighten out his curious, ugly mug into the likeness of a good-looking man. The picture curiously suggests what General Butler might have been had he been anything but the queer and unpleasant thing he was. [Illustration] A RUSSIAN NOCTURNE. _PUCK, March 23rd, 1881._ The hideous cruelties practised by the government of the Czar of Russia on all those of his subjects who do not worship and adore the âLittle Fatherâ with single-minded devotion and reverent awe, have more than once furnished a subject for Mr. Kepplerâs sympathetic pencil. At the time of the appearance of this cartoon, in March of 1881, these brutalities had attracted general attention throughout the civilized world. Perhaps they were no worse than they had been before; but there seemed to be reason to believe that they were just then of an exceptional atrocity, the recent Russo-Turkish war having noticeably stimulated the savage element in what one of their own artless writers calls the âsemi-barbarian raceâ of Russians. [Illustration] THE REIGN OF PEACE.--THE MOUSE IS SAFE WHILE THE MOON SHINES. _PUCK, February 15th, 1888._ This cartoon bears date of February 15th, 1888, but it might have appeared with very little variation at any time during the last ten or twelve years of Bismarckâs premiership. While that great and clear light shone in the European heavens nothing was left wholly to chance in all that quarreling, jealous congeries of states. Nothing was done--nothing was even planned that was not in some measure suggested or shaped by that giant will and that alert and far-seeing intelligence. It is worth while to call attention to the logical composition of this cartoon. Observe that it is _thought out_ to the last point. The eye takes in at a glance the thronging, hungry beasts of prey, the mighty luminary hanging high in the firmament and the poor little Bulgarian rat helpless on his little rock amidstream between the frowning cliffs, yet safe in that clear radiance so long as it deigns to shine upon him. But note the settled suggestion of warlike possibilities conveyed by the helmet on the head of the Man in the Moon and the curious hints of animal ferocity given by the lines under the heavy moustache, the feline cleft in the middle, and the mane-like touches beside the cheeks. Now, looking at the cat-like beasts of prey, observe that Prussia occupies the point of advantage, and uses it to âstand offâ the approach of Russia, who crouches on a somewhat higher cliff, rapacious, strong, eager, yet with wary eyes half-turned upon the ever-dreadful Prussia. Follow that furtive cat-like glance a little further and you will see that it takes cognizance of the sly approach toward the prey which Austria is making under cover of Germanyâs position. Italy and France crawl on in the background, paying more attention to each other than to their remote chances of individual gain. Russia and France, you see, are on one side of the stream; the Triple Alliance of the hour on the other. For a touch of interesting detail look at the figure of France with its fine bushy beard, its red liberty cap, and its very conspicuous epaulettes. To one who follows the nicety of the artistâs symbolization, this indicates that the picture was drawn at the time when âBoulangismâ was rampant in Paris. It was not the era of Thiers, the clean-shaven statesman, or the _vieux Militaire_ time of MacMahon, or the time of GrÃ©vy with his little bourgeois whiskers. It was a sort of bogus-Gambetta revival, which is aptly characterized here in features that suggest those of President Carnot, without permitting the weak amiability of his expression to typify militant France. And--one thing more--note how that whole picture, by means of color, composition and perspective, centres itself to your eye in one little figure that does not occupy (by measure) the one two-hundredth part of its space. [Illustration] IN MEMORIAM EMPEROR WILLIAM I.--HOW HE FOUND GERMANIA, AND HOW HE LEAVES HER. _PUCK, March 21st, 1888._ âThere was one King
{'title': 'A Selection of Cartoons from Puck by Joseph Ferdinand Keppler', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}