YEARS OF TURBULENCE
In marked contrast to the preceding lengthy period of tranquillity,
the closing decade of the nineteenth century witnessed a succession of
wars and international crises well calculated to stimulate the pencils
of every cartoonist worthy of the name. One has only to recall that to
this period belong the conflict between China and Japan, the brief
clash between Greece and Turkey, the beginning of our policy of
expansion, with the annexation of Hawaii, our own war with Spain, and
England's protracted struggle in the Transvaal, to realize how rich in
stirring events these few years have been, and what opportunities they
offer for dramatic caricature.
[Illustration: I. Absolute Monarchy. II. Constitutional Government.
III. Middle Class Republic. IV. Social Republic.
A Present Day Lesson.
_From the "Revue Encyclopedique."_]
[Illustration: A _Punch_ slip: a cartoon published in anticipation of
an event which did _not_ occur--viz. the meeting of General Gordon and
General Stewart at Khartoum.
_By Tenniel, February 7, 1885._]
[Illustration: _Telegram, Thursday morning, Feb. 5._--"Khartoum taken
by the Mahdi. General Gordon's fate uncertain."
_By Tenniel, February 14, 1885._]
[Illustration: The London "Times" and the Spurious Parnell Letters.]
A cartoon produced in an earlier chapter, entitled "Waiting," showed
General Gordon gazing anxiously across the desert at the mirage which
was conjured up by his fevered brain, taking the clouds of the horizon
to be the guns of the approaching British army of relief. Early in
1885 the relief expedition started under the command of General Henry
Stewart, and on February 7 there was published in _Punch_ the famous
cartoon "At Last," showing the meeting between Gordon and the
relieving general. This was a famous _Punch_ slip. That meeting never
occurred. For on February 5, two days before the appearance of the
issue containing the cartoon, Khartoum had been taken by the Mahdi.
The following week Tenniel followed up "At Last" with the cartoon
"Too Late," which showed the Mahdi and his fanatic following pouring
into Khartoum, while stricken Britannia covers her eyes.
[Illustration: Tenniel's Famous Cartoon at the Time of Bismarck's
Retirement.]
The _Times_ challenge to Charles Stewart Parnell was, of course,
recorded in the caricature of _Punch_. The "Thunderer," it will be
remembered, published letters, which it believed to be genuine,
involving Parnell in the murders of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr.
Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin, in 1882. When these letters were proved
to have been forged by Pigot, _Punch_ published a cartoon showing the
_Times_ doing penance. Both of these cartoons were by Tenniel. "The
Challenge" appeared in the issue of April 30, 1887, and "Penance"
almost two years later, March 9, 1889.
[Illustration: L'enfant Terrible.
The Baccarat Scandal at Tranby Croft in 1891.
_From "Puck."_]
A cartoon which marked Tenniel's genius at its height, a cartoon
worthy of being ranked with that which depicted the British Lion's
vengeance on the Bengal Tiger after the atrocities of the Sepoy
rebellion, was his famous "Dropping the Pilot," which was published on
March 29, 1890, after William II. of Germany had decided to dispense
with the services of the Iron Chancellor. Over the side of the ship
of state the young Emperor is leaning complacently looking down on the
grim old pilot, who has descended the ladder and is about to step into
the boat that is to bear him ashore. The original sketch of this
cartoon was finished by Tenniel as a commission from Lord Rosebery,
who gave it to Bismarck. The picture is said to have pleased both the
Emperor and the Prince.
[Illustration: William Bluebeard.
"My first two wives are dead. Take care, Hohenlohe, lest the same fate
overtake you."
_From "La Silhouette" (Paris)._]
The baccarat scandal at Tranby Croft and the subsequent trial at which
the then Prince of Wales was present as a witness was a rich morsel
for the caricaturist in the early summer of 1891. Not only in England,
but on the Continent and in this country, the press was full of jibes
and banter at the Prince's expense. The German comic paper, _Ulk_,
suggested pictorially a new coat-of-arms for his Royal Highness in
which various playing cards, dice, and chips were much in evidence. In
another issue the same paper gives a German reading from Shakspere in
which it censures the Prince in much the same manner that Falstaff
censured the wild Harry of Henry IV. The London cartoonists all had
their slings with varying good nature. _Fun_ represented the Prince as
the Prodigal Son being forgiven by the paternal British nation. Point
to this cartoon was given by the fact that the pantomime "L'Enfant
Prodigue" was being played at the time in the Prince of Wales'
Theater. The _Pall Mall Budget_ showed the Queen and the Heir Apparent
enjoying a quiet evening over the card table at home. The Prince is
saying: "Ah, well! I must give up baccarat and take to cribbage with
mamma."
[Illustration: Christianity and the Bible in China.
_An exact copy of a Chinese native cartoon. Reproduced in the San
Francisco "Wasp," Jan. 2, 1982._]
_Moonshine_, in a cartoon entitled "Aren't they Rather Overdoing it?"
took a kindlier and a more charitable view of the whole affair. His
Royal Highness is explaining the matter to a most horrible looking
British Pharisee. "Don't be too hard on me, Mr. Stiggins," he says. "I
am not such a bad sort of a fellow, on the whole. You mustn't believe
all that you read in the papers." The nature of the American
caricature of the scandal may be understood from the cartoon which we
reproduce from _Puck_. This cartoon speaks for itself.
[Illustration: Japan--"Does it hurt up There?"
_From "Kladderadatsch."_]
[Illustration: Business at the Death-Bed--Uncle Sam as Undertaker.
_From "Kladderadatsch" (Berlin)._]
[Illustration: The Start for the China Cup.
_From "Moonshine" (London)._]
The Emperor William and his chancellors inspired _La Silhouette_, of
Paris, to a very felicitous cartoon entitled "William Bluebeard."
William is warning Hohenlohe and pointing to a closet in which are
hanging the bodies of Bismarck and Caprivi, robed in feminine apparel.
"My first two wives are dead," says Bluebeard. "Take care, Hohenlohe,
lest the same fate overtake you!"
The increase in European armament in 1892 suggested to Tenniel the
idea of the cartoon "The Road to Ruin," which appeared November 5 of
that year. It shows the figures of two armed horsemen, France and
Germany, each burdened with armies of four million men, riding along
"The Road to Ruin." Their steeds, weighed down by the burdens they
bear, are faltering in their strides. A cartoon published shortly
afterwards in the London _Fun_ shows the figure of Peace welcoming the
emperors of Germany and Austria, and urging them hospitably to lay
aside their sword-belts. "Thanks, Madam," rejoins Kaiser Wilhelm, "but
we would rather retain them--in your behalf!"
[Illustration: Tableau.
End of the Chinese-Japanese War.
_From Toronto "Grip."_]
The brief war between China and Japan was necessarily of a nature to
suggest cartoons of infinite variety. It was the quick, aggressive
bantam against a huge but unwieldy opponent, and one of the earliest
cartoons in _Punch_ utilized this idea in "The Corean Cock Fight." The
big and clumsy Shanghai is warily watching his diminutive foe, while
the Russian bear, contentedly squatting in the background, is saying
softly to himself: "Hi! whichever wins, I see my way to a dinner."
Every feature of Chinese life offered something to the caricaturists.
For instance, in a cartoon entitled "The First Installment," London
_Fun_ shows the Jap slashing off the Chinaman's pigtail. Now this idea
of the pigtail in one form or another was carried through to the end
of the war. For example the Berlin _Ulk_ offers a simple solution of
the whole controversy in a picture entitled "How the Northern
Alexander Might Cut the Corean Knot." China and Japan, with their
pigtails hopelessly tangled in a knot labeled "Corea," are tugging
desperately in opposite directions, while Russia, knife in one hand
and scissors in the other, is preparing to cut off both pigtails close
to the heads of his two victims.
[Illustration: The Chinese Exclusion Act.
From The San Francisco "Wasp."]
[Illustration: The Great Republican Circus.
This is considered by Mr. Opper as one of his most effective political
cartoons.]
[Illustration: To the Rescue!]
_Punch_ characteristically represented the contending nations as two
boys engaged in a street fight, while the various powers of Europe are
looking on. John Chinaman has obviously had very much the worst of the
fray; his features are battered; he is on the ground, and bawling
lustily, "Boo-hoo! he hurtee me welly much! No peacey man come stoppy
him!" The end of the war was commemorated by Toronto _Grip_ in a
tableau showing a huge Chinaman on his knees, while a little Jap is
standing on top of the Chinaman's head toying with the defeated man's
pigtail. _Kladderadatsch_, of Berlin, printed a very amusing and
characteristic cartoon when the war was at an end: "Business at the
death-bed--Uncle Sam as Undertaker." This pictorial skit alludes to
the proposition from the United States that China pay her war
indemnity to Japan in silver. It shows a stricken Chinaman tucked in a
ludicrous bed and about to breathe his last. Uncle Sam, as an
enterprising undertaker, has thrust his way in and insists on showing
the dying man his handsome new style of coffin.
[Illustration: Mr. Gladstone in the Valley.]
[Illustration: The Boulanger Excitement.
The Noisy Boy in the European Lodging House.
_From "Judge."_]
[Illustration: "Yes, Citizens, since the Disarmament This has been
made into a Telescope. Fortunately it was not a Muzzle-loader, so they
have been able to put a Lens at both Ends."
_A French cartoon aimed at the Peace Conference._]
[Illustration: A Fixture.]
[Illustration: A Group of modern French Caricaturists.]
Still another clever cartoon in which the _Kladderadatsch_ summed up
the situation at the close of the war shows a map of the eastern
hemisphere, distorted into a likeness of a much-perturbed lady, the
British Isles forming her coiffure, Europe her arms and body, and Asia
the flowing drapery of her skirts. Japan, saw in hand, has just
completed the amputation of one of her feet--Formosa--and has the
other--Corea--half sawn off. "Does it hurt you up there?" he is
asking, gazing up at the European portion of his victim. The same
periodical a few months later forcibly called attention to the fact
that while France and Russia were both profiting by the outcome of the
war, Germany was likely to go away empty-handed. It is entitled "The
Partition of the Earth: an Epilogue to the Chinese Loan." China,
represented as a fat, overgrown mandarin, squatting comfortably on his
throne, serene in the consciousness that his financial difficulties
are adjusted for the time being, is explaining the situation to Prince
Hohenlohe, who is waiting, basket in hand, for a share of the spoils.
On one side Russia is bearing off a toy engine and train of cars,
labeled "Manchuria," and on the other France is contentedly jingling
the keys to a number of Chinese seaports. "The world has been given
away," China is saying; "Kwangtung, Kwangsi, and Yuennan are no longer
mine. But if you will live in my celestial kingdom you need not feel
any embarrassment; your uselessness has charmed us immensely."
The Boulanger excitement, which so roused France until the bubble was
effectually pricked by the lawyer Floquet's fencing sword, was
satirized by _Judge_ in a cartoon entitled "The Noisy Boy in the
European Lodging House." The scene is a huge dormitory in which the
various European powers have just settled down in their separate beds
for a quiet night's rest when Boulanger, with a paper cap on his head,
comes marching through, loudly beating a drum. In an instant all is
turmoil. King Humbert of Italy is shown in the act of hurling his
royal boot at the offending intruder. The Czar of Russia has opened
his eyes and his features are distorted with wrath. Bismarck is
shaking his iron fist. The Emperor of Austria is getting out of bed,
apparently with the intention of inflicting dire punishment on the
interrupter of his slumbers. Even the Sultan of Turkey, long
accustomed to disturbances from all quarters, has joined in the
popular outcry. The lodgers with one voice are shouting, "Drat that
Boy! Why doesn't he let us have some rest?"
The old allegorical ideal of Christian passing through the dangers of
the Valley of the Shadow of Death in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress,"
which has been appearing in caricature every now and then since
Gillray used it against Napoleon, was employed by Tenniel in a cartoon
of Mr. Gladstone and Home Rule published in _Punch_, April 15, 1893.
The old warrior, sword in hand, is making his way slowly along the
narrow and perilous wall of Home Rule. On either side are the bogs of
disaster, suggestive of his fate in case his foot should slip.
The Panama scandals in France and the ensuing revelations of general
political trickery suggested one of Sambourne's best cartoons, that
depicting France descending into the maelstrom of corruption. This
cartoon appeared in the beginning of 1893. It shows France in the
figure of a woman going supinely over the rapids, to be hurled into
the whirlpool below.
[Illustration: The Anglo-French War Barometer.
Fashoda!!! Fashoda!! FASHODA! Fashoda.
_From "Kladderadatsch" (Berlin)._]
British feeling on the Fashoda affair was summed up by Tenniel in two
cartoons which appeared in October and November, in 1898. The first
of these called "Quit-Pro Quo?" was marked by a vindictive bitterness
which appeared rather out of place in the _Punch_ of the last quarter
of the century. But it must be remembered that for a brief time
feeling ran very high in both countries over the affair. In this
cartoon France is represented as an organ-grinder who persists in
grinding out the obnoxious Fashoda tune to the intense annoyance of
the British householder. The second cartoon represents the Sphinx with
the head of John Bull. John Bull is grimly winking his left eye, to
signify that he regards himself very much of a "fixture" in Egypt.