COMIC ART IN GERMANY.
Upon the news-stands in St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia,
Milwaukee, New York, and other cities, we find the comic periodicals of
Germany, particularly the _Fliegende Blaetter_ of Berlin, and the
_Beilage der Fliegenden Blaetter_ of Munchen, papers resembling _Punch_
in form and design. The American reader who turns over their leaves can
not but remark the mildness of the German jokes. Compared with the
tremendous and sometimes ghastly efforts of the dreadful Funny Man of
the American press, the jests of the Germans are as lager-beer to the
goading "cocktail" and the maddening "smash!" But, then, they are
delightfully innocent. Coming from the French comic albums and papers to
those of the Germans, is like emerging, after sunrise, from a masquerade
ball, all gas, rouge, heat, and frenzy, into a field full of children
playing till the bell rings for school. Nevertheless, the impression
remains that an extremely mild joke suffices to amuse the German reader
of comic periodicals.
The pictured jests, as in _Punch_, are the attractive feature. Observe
the infantile simplicity of a few of these, taken almost at random from
recent volumes of the papers just mentioned:
Two young girls, about twelve, are sitting upon a bench in a public
garden. Two dandies walk past, who are dressed alike, and resemble one
another. "Tell me, Fanny," says one of the girls, "are not those two
gentlemen brothers?" This is the reply: "One of them is, I know for
certain; but I am not quite sure about the other."
A strapping woman, sooty, wearing a man's hat, and carrying a ladder and
brushes, is striding along the street. The explanation vouchsafed is the
following: "The very eminent magistrate has determined to permit the
widow of the meritorious chimney-sweep, Spazzicammino, to continue the
business."
A silly-looking gentleman is seen conversing with a lady upon whom he
has called, while a number of cats are playing about the room. "Why have
you so many cats?" he asks. The lady replies: "Well, you see, my cook
kept giving warning because I locked up the milk and meat, and so I got
the cats as a pretext."
Two ladies are conversing. The elder says: "Why do you quarrel with your
husband so often?" The younger replies: "Oh, you know the making-up is
extremely entertaining, and getting good again is so lovely!"
[Illustration: Evolution of the Piano, according to Darwin. (Berlin,
1872.)]
A scene in a cheap book-store. A young lady says to the clerk: "I want a
Lovers' Letter-writer--a cheap one." "Here, miss?" "How much is it?"
"Eighteen kreutzers." "That is too dear for me." "Oh, but I beg your
pardon, miss, if you take the Letter-writer, you get Schiller's works
thrown in; and if a young lady buys at this shop a tract upon potatoes,
she gets the whole of Goethe into the bargain."
The steps of a church are exhibited, with a clergyman assisting an old
woman down to the sidewalk. A long explanation is given, as follows:
"Parson Friedel, a thoroughly good fellow, though not a particularly
good preacher, goes on Sunday morning to church to edify his flock. On
his arrival he sees an old dame trying in vain to get up the icy steps.
'Oh, sir,' she says, not recognizing the holy man, 'pray help me up.' He
does so, and when they have reached the top she thanks him, and adds,
'Oblige me also, dear sir, by telling me who preaches to-day?' 'Parson
Friedel,' he courteously replies. 'Oh, sir, then help me down again.'
The parson, smiling, rejoins: 'Quite right; I wouldn't go in myself if I
were not obliged to.'"
A very tall man is bending over to light his cigar at an exceedingly
short man's cigar. "What!" says the short man, "you wonder that your
light goes out so often? That is owing to the rarity of the atmosphere
in the elevated regions in which your cigar moves."
A stable scene, in which figure a horse, an officer, and a horse-dealer.
The officer says: "The horse I bought of you yesterday has a fault; he
is lame in the off fore-leg." The dealer replies: "Ah! and do you call
that a fault? I call it a misfortune."
A clergyman's study. Enter a very ill-favored pair, to whom the
clergyman says: "So you wish to be married, do you? Well, have you
maturely reflected upon it?" The man replies: "Yes, we have asked
beforehand about how much it will cost."
[Illustration: A Corporal, who is about to be promoted, presents Himself
before the Major.
"Can you read?" "At your service, major." "Can you write?" "At your
service, major." "Can you cipher?" "At your service, major." "What are
you in civil life?" "Doctor of philosophy and lecturer in the
university."--_Fliegende Blaetter_, Berlin, 1872.]
A compartment of a railway carriage, in which are two passengers, one of
whom has two little pigs under the seat, and the other a small curly
lap-dog in his lap. _Conductor_ (standing outside). "Have you a dog's
ticket?" "No." "Then get one." "But my dog troubles no one." "That makes
no difference." "But this countryman here has two pigs in the carriage."
"No matter for that; we have a rule about dogs, but none for pigs."
A boat on a Swiss lake with a party about to lunch. A lady, in great
alarm, says to the boatman: "Stop, for Heaven's sake, stop! You told the
people, when we got in, that your boat would sink if it were heavier by
half an ounce. But if these men eat all that, we shall go to the bottom
for a certainty."
A restaurant scene. A customer, handing back to a waiter a plate of
meat, says: "Waiter, this meat is so tough I can't chew it." _Waiter._
"Excuse me, I will bring you a sharp knife immediately."
An aged clergyman parting with a young soldier about to join the army,
says: "Augustus, you now enter upon a military career. Take care of your
health, and mind you lead a good life." _Augustus._ "Same to you,
pastor."
A boy up a tree, and a gentleman standing under it. "I'll teach you to
steal my plums, you scoundrel! I'll tell your father." "What do I care?
My father steals himself." This picture is headed, "Good Fruit."
A family seated at dinner. _Mother._ "But, Elsie, naughty girl! what
horrid manners you have! You eat only the cream, and leave the
dumplings." _Elsie._ "Why, papa can eat them."
A man and woman of Jewish cast of countenance are seen at a pawnbroker's
sale. _Woman._ "Well, what will you buy for mother's birthday?" _Man._
"A handsome dress, I think." _Woman._ "How unpractical you are! She can
only live three or four years at most; and even in that short time a
dress will be in rags. Let us buy for the dear old soul a pair of silver
candlesticks. Then when she dies we shall have them back again."
Under the heading of "Cheap Illumination," we are presented with a
picture of an Esquimau with a lighted wick held in his mouth, and the
following explanation: "The Esquimaux, as is well known, live on the fat
of the reindeer, the seal, and the whale. This suggested to the arctic
traveler, Warnie, the idea of drawing a wick through the body of one of
the natives, and in this way obtaining a brilliant train-oil lamp for
the long winter nights."
[Illustration: A Bold Comparison. (Berlin, 1873.)
_Pastor's Wife._ "But half the cracknels are scorched to-day."
_Cracknel Man._ "So they are. But, you see, I have the same luck as the
pastor: all his sermons do not turn out equally good."]
Two noble ladies chatting over their tea: "Only think, my dear, we are
obliged to discharge our man." "Why?" "Oh, he begins to be too familiar.
What do you think? I saw him cleaning the boots, and I discovered, to my
horror, that he had my husband's boots, my son's, and _his own_, all
mixed together!"
A lady hurrying home from an approaching shower, dragging her little boy
with her. _Boy._ "But, mother, why should we be so afraid of the thunder
storm? Those hay-makers yonder don't care." _Mother._ "Child, they are
poor people, who don't attract the lightning as we do, who always have
gold and ready cash about us."
A scene in a police court, the magistrate questioning a witness: "You
are a carpenter, are you not?" "I am." "You were at work in the vicinity
of the place where the scuffle occurred?" "I was." "How far from the two
combatants were you standing?" "Thirty-six feet and a half, Rhenish
measure." "How can you speak so exactly?" "Because I measured it. I
thought that most likely some fool would be asking about that at the
trial."
These may suffice as examples of the average comic force of the German
joke. A very few of the above--perhaps four or five in all--might have
been accepted by the editors of _Punch_, with the requisite changes of
scene and dialect. We must also bear in mind that the dialect counts for
much in a comic scene, as we can easily perceive by changing a Yorkshire
bumpkin's language in a comedy into London English. Half of the
laugh-compelling power of some of the specimens given may lie in
peculiarities of dialect and grammar of which no one but a native of the
country can feel the force. A few of the more vivid and telling examples
are given in the accompanying illustrations.
The glimpses of German life which the comic artists afford remind us
that the children of men are of one family, the several branches of
which do not differ from one another so much as we are apt to suppose.
German fathers, too, as we see in these pictures, stand amazed at the
quantity of property their daughters can carry about with them in the
form of wearing apparel. A domestic scene exhibits a young lady putting
the last fond touches to her toilet, while a clerk presents a long bill
to the father of the family, who throws his hands aloft, and exclaims,
"Oh, blessed God! Thou who clothest the lilies of the field, provide
also for my daughter, at least during the Carnival!"
[Illustration: Strict Discipline in the Field--Major going the Rounds at
Night.
_Sentinel._ "Who goes there? Halt!" (Major, not regarding the summons,
the soldier fires, and misses.)
_Major._ "Three days in the guard-house for your bad shooting."]
Germany, not less than England and America, laughs at "the modern
mother," who dawdles over Goethe, and is "literary," and wears
eyeglasses, while delegating to bottles and goats her peculiar duties.
An extravagant burlesque of this form of self-indulgence presents to
view a baby lying on its back upon a centre-table, its head upon a
pillow, taking nourishment _direct_ from a goat standing over it; the
mother sitting near in a luxurious chair, reading. Enter the family
doctor, who cries, aghast, "Why, what's this, baroness? I did not mean
it _in that way_! A she-goat is not a wet-nurse." To which the baroness
languidly replies, looking from her book, "Why not?"
And here is the German version of _Punch's_ widely disseminated joke
upon marriage: "If you are going to be married, my son, I will give you
some good advice." "And what is it?" "Better not."
The Woman's Rights agitation gave rise to burlesques precisely similar
in inane extravagance to those which appeared in England, America, and
France. We have the "Students of the Future," a series representing
buxom lasses in dashing bloomers, smoking, dissecting, fighting duels,
and hunting. The young lady who has on her dissecting-table a bearded
"subject" is leaning against it nonchalantly, drinking a pot of beer,
and another young lady is using the pointed heel of her fashionable boot
as a tobacco-stopper. Here, too, is the husband who comes home late, and
whose wife _will_ sit up for him.
The great servant-girl question is also up for discussion in Germany,
after occupying womankind for three thousand years. Here is a group of
servants talking together. "Yesterday I gave warning," says one. "Why?"
asks another; "the wages are high, the food is good, and you have every
Sunday out." The reply is: "Well, you must know, my Fritz don't like it.
Mistress buys her wine at the wine-merchant's, where I get the bottles
all sealed. Don't you see?"
[Illustration: Ahead of Time.
The aged and extremely absent-minded prince of a little territory visits
the public institutions every year. On leaving the high school, he says
to the teacher: "I am very much pleased with every thing, only the soup
is a little too thin."
_Teacher_ (aside to aid-de-camp). "What does his Highness mean by thin
soup?"
_Aid-de-camp._ "It is only a slip. His Highness should have said that in
the hospital."]
In the same spirit, as every reader knows, the drawing-room judges the
kitchen in other lands besides Germany, and is supported in its judgment
by satiric artists who evolve preposterously impossible servants from
the shallows of their own ignorance.
Rarely, indeed, does a German caricaturist presume to meddle with
politics, and still more rarely does he do it with impunity. The
Germans, with all their excellences, seem wanting in the spirit that has
given us our turbulent, ill-organized freedom. Perhaps their beer has
offered too ready and cheap a resource against the chafing resentments
that tyranny excites; for a narcotized brain is indolently submissive to
whatever is very difficult of remedy. Coffee and tobacco keep the Turk a
slave. The wisest act of Louis Napoleon's usurpation was his giving a
daily ration of tobacco to every soldier. Woe to despots when men cease
to dull and pollute their brains with tobacco and alcohol! There will
then be a speedy end put to the system that takes five millions of the
_elite_ of Europe from industry, and consigns them to the business of
suppression and massacre. Whatever may be the cause, Germany has
scarcely yet begun her apprenticeship to freedom; and, consequently, her
public men lose the inestimable advantage of seeing their measures as
the public sees them. Let us hope that the German people may be able to
appropriate part of our experience, and so work their way to rational
and orderly freedom without passing through the stage of ignorant
suffrage and thief-politicians. Meanwhile there is no political
caricature in Germany.
[Illustration: A Journeyman's Leave-taking.
"Hear me, all of you. You, and you, and you, and you! Good-bye,
mistresses. I tell you freely to your faces, your bacon and greens are
not to my taste. I am going to try my luck. I will march on."--LUDWIG
RICHTER, _Leipsic_, 1848.]
As a set-off to this defect, I may mention again the absence from the
German comic periodicals of the class of subjects which, at present,
seems to be the sole inspiration of French art and French humor. It is
evident that the Germans do not regard illicit love as the chief end of
man. The reason of the superior decency of German satire is, probably,
that German methods of education awaken the intelligence and store the
mind with the food of thought. Indecency is the natural resource of a
thoughtless mind, because the physical facts of our existence constitute
a very large proportion of all the knowledge it possesses. Suppose those
facts and the ideas growing directly out of them to be one hundred in
number. The whole number of facts and ideas in an ignorant mind may not
exceed two hundred; while in the intellect of a Goethe or a Lessing
there may live and revolve twenty thousand. Convent education is
probably the cause of French indecency, simply from its leaving the mind
dull and the imagination active. Many Frenchmen must think _bodily_, or
not think at all. This conjecture I hazard because I have observed in
Protestant schools, professedly and distinctively religious, the same
morbid tendency in the pupils that we notice in French art and drama.
The French are right in not trusting their convent-bred girls out of
sight. The convent-bred boys, who can not be so closely watched, show
the untrustworthiness of moral principle which is not fortified by
intelligent conviction. The Germans, from their better mental culture
and greater variety of topics, are not reduced to the necessity of
amusing themselves by "bodily wit."