_PUCK, February 2nd, 1887._
Elsewhere in these pages an attempt has been made to give some idea of
the character and significance of “German Michel.” This cartoon, which
appeared at the time of the Boulangist excitement in France, shows how
Michel’s native shrewdness and stolidity rendered him proof against
the ingenious, but far from ingenuous, attempts of Prince Bismarck to
make capital for the War Department out of the disturbances in France.
The sturdy toiler, overworked and overtaxed already, showed not only
a frank unwillingness to add to his burdens, but bore himself toward
the princes and potentates that were set above him with a certain
self-confident freedom of attitude which had not been his wont of old
time.
[Illustration]