CARTOONS--CARTOONISTS AND THEIR WORK.
The Cartoon takes Shape--"The Parish Councils
Cockatoo"--Cartoonists and their Relative Achievements--John
Leech's First--Rapidity in Design "General Février turned
Traitor"--"The United Service"--Sir John Tenniel's Animal
Types--"The British Lion Smells a Rat"--The Indian Mutiny--A
Cartoon of Vengeance--_Punch_ and Cousin Jonathan--"Ave
Cæsar!"--The Franco-Prussian War--The Russo-Turkish War--"The
Political 'Mrs. Gummidge'"--"Dropping the Pilot," its Origin and
Present Ownership--"Forlorn Hope"--"The Old Crusaders"--Troubles of
the Cartoonist--The Obituary Cartoon.
In describing the _Punch_ Dinner I show how the merry meeting lapses, by
a natural transition, from pleasure to work, and ends with the evolution
of the cartoon; how the mist of talk, vague perhaps and undecided at
first, slowly develops a bright nebulous point, round which the
discussion revolves and revolves, until at last it takes form, slowly
and carefully, though changed a dozen times, and finally, after being
threshed and threshed again, stands in the ultimate form in which next
week it meets the public eye.
For when the meal is done, and cigars and pipes are duly lighted,
subjects are deliberately proposed in half-a-dozen quarters, until quite
a number may be before the Staff. They are fought all round the Table,
and, unless obviously and strikingly good, are probably rejected or
attacked with the good-humoured ridicule and withering scorn distinctive
of true friendship and cordial intimacy. Then is each fully and formally
debated, every tussle advancing it a stage, and none finally accepted
until all the others have fallen in the battledore-and-shuttlecock
process to which they have been subjected. Then, when the subject is
settled, comes the consideration of the details--what should the
grouping be? what the accessories? how many figures?--(during the
hunting season John Leech would decline to introduce more than two, as
his week-end would otherwise be spoiled)--and other minor yet still
important considerations; and then each man's opinion has its proper
weight in the Council of _Punch_. In this year of grace Mr. Lucy is
listened to with the respect due to his extraordinary Parliamentary
knowledge; Mr. Milliken is the chief literary authority since "the
Professor" (Percival Leigh) went to his rest; and so each man is counted
upon for the special or expert knowledge he may bring to bear on the
particular subject then before the meeting.
And when the subject of the cartoon is a political one, the debate grows
hot and the fun more furious, and it usually ends by Tories and Radicals
accepting a compromise--for the parties are pretty evenly balanced at
the Table; while Mr. Burnand assails both sides with perfect
indifference. At last, when the intellectual tug-of-war, lasting usually
from half-past eight for just an hour and three-quarters by the clock,
is brought to a conclusion, the cartoon in all its details is discussed
and determined; and then comes the fight over the title and the
"cackle," amid all the good-natured chaff and banter of a pack of
boisterous, high-spirited schoolboys.
More than once it has happened that notwithstanding a subject being well
on the way to becoming a cartoon--the raw material of an idea having
been almost hammered into a presentable political missile or social
criticism by the heads of the company--a side remark may arrest further
labour, and turn attention in an entirely different direction. Such was
the case with one of the most successful cartoons of recent years. The
topic of the week was the Parish Councils Bill, which was then before
the Lords, and was receiving severe handling in that House. In the
course of discussion came an "aside" from Mr. Arthur à Beckett, to the
effect that "Gladstone is having a deuce of a time." "Like the
cockatoo," assented Mr. Lehmann, referring to the story of the unhappy
bird which was left for a short while alone with a monkey, and which,
when the owner returned to the room and found his bird clean plucked of
its feathers by the monkey--all but a single plume in the tail--looked
up dejectedly, and croaked in tones of almost voiceless horror, "I've
been having a doose of a time!" The remarks were caught at by Mr.
Burnand as a happy thought, and the new idea was tossed like a ball from
one to another until there issued from it the well-known design of the
monkey in its coronet, as the House of Lords, having plucked the
cockatoo-Bill of most of its feather-clauses--a drawing which, under the
title of "The Parish Councils Cockatoo," hit off the situation with
singular felicity, and reaped the reward of the public applause. In a
similar manner there developed Mr. Sambourne's peculiarly happy "Cartoon
Junior," representing Mr. Gladstone, newly retired, looking up from the
perusal of the first speech made by Lord Rosebery on his promotion to
the Premiership--a speech some of the points of which he afterwards had
to withdraw or explain away--with the words, "Pity a Prime Minister
should be so ambiguous!" In the arrangement of these second cartoons,
which, as is elsewhere described, immediately follows the handing of the
written-out subject of the main picture to Sir John Tenniel, a contrast
is always the first thing sought for. If the first deals with foreign
politics, the second must treat of home matters, political or social; if
the "senior" is social, the "junior" will be political; if Sir John is
realistic, Mr. Sambourne is idealistic. And if it is impossible so to
differentiate them, the prominent figures at least which appear in the
one are carefully avoided in the other.
But in the early years of _Punch_ the method was not so democratic. The
matter was discussed, but the preponderance of two or three of the Staff
made their opinions felt to such a degree that when a subject was
proposed by one of them, that subject, when it appeared, was
unmistakably theirs and nobody else's. I have before me the full details
of these matters during a considerable period, and I find that on the
whole Douglas Jerrold was the most prolific of suggestors, while Henry
Mayhew (so long as he remained), Gilbert Abbot à Beckett, Mark Lemon,
and Horace Mayhew, roughly speaking, divided the honours between them.
Thackeray seldom made a suggestion, and it is not very often that the
entry "Leech _solus_" is credited to the great cartoonist before 1848.
During the years 1845, 1846, and 1847, for instance, Leech alone
proposed eleven subjects, Mark Lemon thirty-five, Henry Mayhew twenty,
Horace Mayhew fifteen, Douglas Jerrold sixteen, Thackeray four, Tom
Taylor four, Gilbert à Beckett two, and Percival Leigh two, leaving the
rest to be shared by the united Staff.
The men who have borne the title of _Punch's_ Cartoonist are fifteen in
number. Taking them in the chronological order of their first
contribution, not of drawings, but of cartoons to the paper, they are:
1841, A. S. Henning, W. Newman, Brine, John Leech, and Birket Foster;
1842, A. "Crowquill," Kenny Meadows, H. G. Hine, and H. Heath; 1843, R.
J. Hamerton; 1844, R. Doyle; 1851, John Tenniel; 1852, W. McConnell;
1864, Charles Keene; and 1884 and 1894, Linley Sambourne.[16]
From March 4th, 1843, to September 30th, 1848 (after which, with the
exception of one cartoon in 1849 from Newman, and a few from McConnell
in 1852, John Leech and John Tenniel shared the cartoon-drawing
absolutely between them--no other hand making one at all for
six-and-thirty years), there appeared 314 cartoons in about 286 weeks.
It sometimes happened that _Punch_ appeared without a cartoon at all,
especially in those parlous cashless days of 1842, and again in 1846 and
1848; but, on the other hand, two cartoons were frequently given in the
same number, usually from different hands, though occasionally Leech
would do both. The 314 designs were made up thus:--
J. Leech 223
R. Doyle 53
Kenny Meadows 14
R. J. Hamerton 10
H. G. Hine 8
W. Newman 6
----
314 (exclusive of the Almanacs)
--Hamerton having taken Hine's place, Doyle having superseded Hamerton,
and Meadows, after 1844, having disappeared. Roughly speaking, from the
commencement of _Punch_ to the end of 1894, there have been 2,750
cartoons in all, and these have been contributed approximately thus:
Sir John Tenniel 1,860
John Leech 720
R. Doyle 70
Other Cartoonists 100
----
2,750
--representing an amount of thought and artistic achievement colossal in
the aggregate, and perfectly appalling in the case of Leech and Tenniel.
Does it not speak well for the good sense and good digestion of these
men that in all these hundreds and thousands of skits--satires going by
their very nature into personal motives and perhaps into private
actions--that the lapses and the mistakes have been nearly as rare as
great auks' eggs? Mr. Gladstone had good reason to say, as he did one
day at dinner, that "in his early days, when an artist was engaged to
produce political satires, he nearly always descended to gross personal
caricature, and sometimes to indecency. To-day he noted in the humorous
press (speaking more particularly of _Punch_) a total absence of
vulgarity and a fairer treatment, which made this department of warfare
always pleasing"--which is all very true if we admit that the function
of ridicule and banter as political weapons is to be merely "pleasing."
At any rate, if it be so, it is the knell of all great satire--with the
corresponding effect of making the more caustic and grosser sides of men
like Swift impossible. Yet, on the other hand, so late as 1860,
according to Sir Theodore Martin, _Punch_ more than any other paper
reflected the national feeling in such matters as our naval defences; so
that in its support of Lord Lyndhurst in his patriotic agitation it
greatly assisted in strengthening the hands of the Government.
It is interesting, when you know your _Punch_ as you should your Bible,
to lean back in your chair and recall the most striking and important
among the three thousand designs, more or less, that stand out as
landmarks in _Punch's_ pages.
The first, of course, for association's sake, is that pageful of
"Foreign Affairs" which introduced Leech to _Punch's_ readers. It
appeared in the fourth number, on August 7th, 1841. The "Foreign
Affairs" consist chiefly of groups of foreign refugees to be seen at
that time, and even now in some measure, in the vicinity of Soho and
Leicester Square--the political scum of Paris ("Parisites," may they not
be called?) and of Berlin. The scroll bearing the title in the middle of
the page is fully signed, with the addition of the artist's sign-manual,
which was afterwards to become known throughout the whole artistic and
laughter-loving world--a leech wriggling in a water-bottle. This début
did little justice to Percival Leigh's introduction, for the block was
delivered so late that, containing as it did a considerable amount of
work, it made it impossible for the engraver to finish it in time for
the ordinary publishing hour. The usual means of publication and
despatch were consequently missed, and the result was a very serious
fall in that week's circulation. For some time after that Leech drew no
more, learning meanwhile the elementary lesson that large blocks take
longer to cut than small ones--or, at least, did then, before Charles
Wells had introduced his great invention of a block that could be taken
to pieces in order that each small square might be given to different
hands to engrave. Nevertheless, even to the end Leech always had a
tendency to be late with his cartoons, and half Mark Lemon's time,
according to Edmund Yates and others, was passed in hansom-cabs bowling
away to Notting Hill, Brunswick Square, or to Kensington, where in
succession Leech resided.
Yet he could be astonishingly rapid when he liked, and often would he
complete a cartoon on the wood while his Editor smoked a cigar at his
elbow. Such a drawing--such a feat--was that remarkable block of
"L'Empire c'est la Paix" (1859), representing Louis Napoleon as a
hedgehog bristling with bayonets, admirable in expression and execution,
yet not original in idea--though it is as likely as not that Leech had
never seen, or else had forgotten, the cartoon in the "Puppet Show"
(June, 1854), wherein the Tsar Nicholas appears in a manner precisely
similar. The Dinner had by exception been held on Thursday (March 10th,
1859) instead of on the previous day; every moment was precious; and
Leech proposed the idea for the cartoon, drew it in two hours, and
caught his midday train on the following day, speeding away into the
country with John Tenniel for their usual Saturday hunt.
But in accordance with that strange law of memory that horror, ugliness,
and power should spring to the mind before humour, grace, or beauty, it
is the tragic side and passionate purpose of _Punch's_ career as shown
in his cartoons that first arise in one's recollection. And it is (with
but one or two exceptions) exclusively in his cartoons that Leech showed
his tragic power. "The Poor Man's Friend" (1845), in which Death, gaunt
and grisly, comes to the relief of a wretch in the very desolation of
misery and poverty, tells as much in one page as Jerrold's pen, with all
its strength and intensity, could make us feel in a score. Ten years
later the same idea was splendidly developed and magnificently realised
in the cartoon entitled "General Février turned Traitor," which not more
than once or twice in the whole of _Punch's_ history has been surpassed
either in loftiness of conception or depth of tragedy, or in the
tremendous effect that immediately attended its publication throughout
the country.
During the Crimean War the winter of 1854-55 was terrible in its
severity, and the sufferings of our soldiers were appalling. The
suspense at home increased the country's emotion as to the terrors they
knew of in the field. The callous statement of the Tsar, therefore,
about that time reported, that "Russia has two generals in whom she can
confide--Generals Janvier and Février," struck indignation and disgust
into every British soul. On February 2nd the news arrived of the death
of the Emperor. Popular excitement was intense. Consols rose 2 per
cent., and the foreign market was in a state of such confusion that
brokers refused to cite even a nominal quotation. Eight days later
appeared Leech's cartoon, with its double meaning of superb power,
though it was, no doubt, not the most favourable specimen of the
draughtsman's art. Received by most with wild enthusiasm, by others with
condemnation as a cruel use of a cruel fate, it none the less
electrified the country. "Never," writes Mr. Frith, "can I forget the
impression that Leech's drawing made upon me! There lay the Tsar, a
noble figure in death, as he was in life, and by his side a stronger
King than he--a bony figure, in General's uniform, snow-besprinkled,
who 'beckons him away.' Of all Leech's work, this seems to be the finest
example. Think how savage Gillray or vulgar Rowlandson would have
handled such a theme!--the Emperor would have been caricatured into a
repulsive monster, and Death would have lost his terrors."
[Illustration: GENERAL FEVRIER TURNED TRAITOR.
(_Reduced from the Cartoon by John Leech. "Punch" 10th February, 1855._)]
Ruskin compares this cartoon for impressiveness in the perfect
manifestation of the grotesque and caricature in art with Hood's "Song
of the Shirt" in poetry. "The reception of the last-named wood-cut,"
says he, "was in several respects a curious test of modern feeling....
There are some points to be regretted in the execution of the design,
but the thought was a grand one; the memory of the word spoken and of
its answer, could hardly in any more impressive way have been recorded
for the people; and I believe that to all persons accustomed to the
earnest forms of art it contained a profound and touching lesson. The
notable thing was, however, that it offended persons _not_ in earnest,
and was loudly cried out against by the polite journalism of Society.
This fate is, I believe, the almost inevitable one of thoroughly genuine
work in these days, whether poetry or painting; but what added to the
singularity in this case was that _coarse_ heartlessness was even more
offended than polite heartlessness."
Just before this Tenniel had given us a fine drawing of England and
France--the new allies--as typified by two splendid specimens of Guards
of both nations, standing back to back in friendly rivalry of height;
and the cut achieved such popularity that, under its title of "The
United Service," it was reproduced broadcast on many articles of use,
and decorated the backs of playing-cards.
The following year Sir John Tenniel (who though hardly more convincing
than Leech, yet by his power of draughtsmanship and bigness of
conception could be far more imposing) produced the earliest of his
magnificent studies of what may be called his "Animal Types" in "The
British Lion Smells a Rat" (1856). This heralded what are in some
respects his masterpieces, the Cawnpore cartoons (1857), the chief of
which is "The British Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger." Once this
fine drawing is seen, of the royal beast springing on its snarling foe,
whose victims lie mangled under its paw, it can never be forgotten. It
is a double-page cartoon, splendidly wrought by the artist at the
suggestion of Shirley Brooks; and while it responded and gave expression
to the feelings of revenge which agitated England at the awful events
that had passed at the time of the Indian Mutiny, and served as a banner
when they raised the cry of vengeance, it alarmed the authorities, who
feared that they would thereby be forced on a road which both policy and
the gentler dictates of civilisation forbade. Vengeance was the cry; and
the wise and humane counsels of Lord Canning met only with contempt and
anger, and rendered him the most unpopular man of the day.
Soon it was Tenniel's destiny to shine alone in the cartoons of _Punch_.
Leech, in the last few years of his life, tired with the strain of
over-work and ill-health, withdrew more and more from the making of "big
cuts," till towards the end they were left almost entirely in the hands
of his well-loved colleague. Tenniel rose to the position and to the
full height of the great events that courted his pencil. The great
American struggle of North and South gave unlimited opportunity, and for
four years _Punch_, first taking sides hotly against slave-trading,
became at times simply pedagogic in his attitude towards both the
combatants. From the time (January 26th, 1861) when there was published
"Mrs. Carolina asserting her Right to Larrup her Nigger," down to the
crowning cartoon of "Habet"--the combatants as gladiators before the
enthroned and imperial negroes ("Ave Cæsar!")--many fine cartoons were
issued; but the last-named has been held by many to be the finest that
has ever issued from the artist's pencil. But, in sentiment at least, a
greater was to come--one which helped to melt for us in a measure the
hardened heart of the American nation, at that time distrustful of
England, and righteously indignant at many a taunt that had been
launched against her. This was the affecting picture of Britannia's
tribute and _Punch's_ _amende honorable_, called simply, "Abraham Lincoln:
Foully Assassinated April 14th, 1865," while Shirley Brooks's verses
which accompany them take highest rank among poetry of its kind--lines
which, rugged perhaps in themselves, come straight from the heart, and
speak to a whole nation with true emotion and deep sincerity.
[Illustration: THE "PAS DE DEUX."
From the "Scène de Triomphe" in the Grand Anglo-Turkish _Ballet
d'Action_. (_The Finished Sketch by Sir John Tenniel for the Cartoon in
"Punch," 3rd August, 1878._)]
Then came "A Leap in the Dark" (1867)--Britannia on her hunter, Dizzy,
"going blind" through the hedge of Reform; and soon after the series on
the Franco-Prussian War and the situation that immediately preceded the
outbreak of hostilities, more particularly that (proposed by Mr. du
Maurier) in which the shade of the great Napoleon stands warningly in
the path of the infatuated Emperor; while those that illustrated the
close of the struggle, aroused a deeper sympathy for France than all the
leading-articles and descriptive essays put together. Tenniel's
hell-hounds of war, who menace the fallen figure of France distraught,
are again seen in the series, almost as fine, that accompanied and
followed the Russo-Turkish struggle. A few months later heroics were
once more set aside for humour, and the celebrated cartoon representing
the successful termination of the Berlin Treaty was given forth--"The
_Pas de Deux_" (1878)--in which Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury in
official dress are executing their _pas de triomphe_ with characteristic
grace and ineffable mock-seriousness of mien.
Another cartoon that attracted general attention for its exquisite
fooling, and that still haunts the mind of those who can appreciate a
completely happy adaptation of text to subject and situation, is "The
Political 'Mrs. Gummidge'" (May, 1885). Mr. Gladstone, as Mrs. Gummidge,
sits in the Peggotty boathouse by the fire, on which a pot of Russian
stew is simmering, while her knitting, marked "Egypt," has fallen from
her weary hands, and, the very picture of misery, moans out: "I ain't
what I could wish to be. My troubles make me contrairy. I feel my
troubles, and they make me contrairy. I make the House uncomfortable. I
don't wonder at it!!!" To which Mr. John Peggotty-Bull, pointing with
his pipe-stem at the portrait of Beaconsfield on the wall, mutters
(deeply sympathising, aside), "She's been thinking of the old 'un!" It
was proposed by Mr. Burnand.
But Sir John Tenniel's greatest success of all in recent
years--artistically and popularly successful--is undoubtedly the great
picture illustrative of Prince Bismarck's resignation in 1889, entitled
"Dropping the Pilot." The subject, it may be stated, was not a
suggestion made at the Table, but it was handed in from the late
Gilbert Arthur à Beckett, who was too ill to attend the Dinner--(he died
very soon after)--and who thus, as so many other _Punch_ contributors
have done--Thomas Hood, Artemus Ward, Leech, Gilbert Abbott à Beckett,
Charles Bennett, and others--sent in one of the most valuable of all his
suggestions just as his career was drawing to its close. The idea was
immediately accepted, and its excellence fully appreciated. It was
decided that it should occupy a double-page; and Sir John Tenniel, who
has always risen to a great occasion, did the fullest justice to the
subject. When the paper was sent round to the Staff, as it always is, on
the Monday night, they foresaw with delight that here was a great
_coup_, and their conviction received ample confirmation on the
publishing-day from the country at large. There was a world of pathos in
the weather-beaten old mariner who goes thoughtfully, full of doubt and
care, down the side of the ship he had originally designed and had since
piloted so long and so well--now discharged as no longer wanted; and
there was a world of meaning in the ambitious and self-reliant young
Commander who looks over the ship's bulwark and gazes at the bent figure
of his departing counsellor. The cartoon, said Mr. Smalley, pleased
equally the Emperor and the Prince, for there was that in it which both
felt and sought for. The original sketch for the drawing on the wood was
finished by the artist as a commission from Lord Rosebery, who then
presented it to Prince Bismarck. In acknowledging the drawing the
ex-Chancellor declared, "It is indeed a fine one!" "The Hidden Hand"--a
criticism on Irish political crime and its incitement--was another of
Gilbert à Beckett's most striking suggestions. It appears on p. 103,
Vol. LXXXIV., 1883.
Next I would mention--besides Mr. Sambourne's admirable Jubilee picture
of "The Mahogany Tree," in which the Proprietors and Staff are gathered
round the Table as they toast triumphant _Punch_ (_see_
Frontispiece)--another cartoon which, nobly conceived, if not quite so
fine in execution, under the title of "Forlorn Hope" (October,
1893--proposed by Mr. Milliken), has been held by some as second only to
"Dropping the Pilot." It is the pathetic picture of Mr. Gladstone at
the moment of his retirement leading the attack against the House of
Lords. A grand old fortress crowning an enormous cliff stands out
strongly in evening light against the distant sky, and the grand old
warrior, in coat of mail, is struggling up the steep and slippery
side--a hopeless task, eloquent of the courage of despair.
[Illustration: THE POLITICAL MRS. GUMMIDGE.
(_The finished Sketch by Sir John Tenniel for the "Punch" Cartoon, 2nd
May, 1885. By Permission of Gilbert E. Samuel, Esq._)]
Last of all upon this list, on May 15th, 1895, was the grand design,
also suggested by Mr. Milliken, entitled "The Old Crusaders!"--Mr.
Gladstone and the Duke of Argyll "brothers-in-arms again" in their
crusade against the Turkish persecutions in Christian Armenia--the full
significance being insisted on by parallel dates--"Bulgaria 1876:
Armenia 1895." There is an air of unsurpassable dignity in the design of
the two old comrade-statesmen, mounted knights armed _cap à pie_, riding
forth, representative of Christendom and the nation's conscience.
Immediately on seeing the week's _Punch_ the Marquis of Lorne
telegraphed from Windsor to Sir John Tenniel, asking to be allowed to
acquire the original drawing; but he had been forestalled by the other
Champion's son, Mr. Henry Gladstone, who was then in town, and had
secured the prize for his family an hour or two before.
It must not be imagined that the _Punch_ cartoons have always been
matters, so to speak, of routine. The unexpected has more than once left
_Punch_ in a terribly awkward fix. On one occasion, in 1877, it was
confidently expected that Lord Beaconsfield's Government would be thrown
out on the Monday night or Tuesday morning, when, of course, it would be
too late to begin to think of drawing and engraving a cartoon; besides,
the matter was a foregone conclusion. So Beaconsfield was represented in
his robes, leaning back "in a heap" upon his bench, his chin on his
breast, and his hands thrust deep into his breeches pockets, the very
picture of a beaten Minister. But, as it happened, the Government was
_not_ defeated--and there was the cartoon! Providentially, however, the
Government had been severely badgered about some matter of trivial
importance, such as the amount of sealing-wax employed in Her Majesty's
Stationery Office, and the cartoon was used with a legend to the effect:
"After all the big things I have been in, to be pulled up for _this_!"
The public wondered, and thought that _Punch_ had taken the situation a
little too seriously; but it was a _pis-aller_, and the best had been
made of a shocking bad job.
Mr. Linley Sambourne, writing on this very matter in the "Magazine of
Art," tells something more of _Punch's_ tribulations: "Difficulties in
the production of cartoons sometimes arise in the impossibilities of
foretelling what, not a day only, but a week may bring forth. In
December, 1871, when His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, to the
profound sorrow of the entire nation, hovered between life and death,
Tenniel drew two cartoons, to be used as events might dictate. To the
intense relief and joy of all, the one that was issued was called
'Suspense,' with some beautiful verses entitled 'Queen, People, and
Princess: "Three Hearts in One";' while the other, a grief-stricken
figure of Britannia, lay almost forgotten in the engraver's bureau, but
was remembered, and had unhappily occasion to appear thirteen years
after, on April 5th, 1884, to note the sudden loss of His Royal Highness
the Duke of Albany. _Punch_ is not infallible. The most serious slip he
ever made in the 'cock-sure' line was a cartoon appearing on February
7th, 1885, representing the lamented General Gordon shaking hands with
General Sir Henry Stewart (who himself lay stiff and cold after glorious
action) _inside_ the fated city of Khartoum. When the number appeared
(although at the moment unconfirmed), Gordon himself had been butchered
by the Mahdi's fanatics; and another whole week had to elapse before it
could be corrected by a cartoon of baffled Britannia, with the heading
'Too Late!' I well remember being inside a picture gallery in Bond
Street with the Editor, and hearing newsboys shouting without; the
Editor turned to me and smilingly said, 'All right for our cut. There!
they're shouting "The fall of Khartoum"!' When we got outside, our faces
fell on finding the boot was on the other leg with a vengeance."
A more recent example of the tricks played upon _Punch_ by Fate was on
August 11th, 1894 (p. 66, Vol. CVII.), when Sir William Harcourt was
represented as an artilleryman mowing down the host of amendments put
upon the paper against the Irish Evictions Bill with a Gatling gun
labelled "Closure." Closure had, indeed, been promised, and upon that
the cartoon was based; but the Tory tactics threw out all calculations,
for the party declined to move their amendments, and took no further
part in the proceedings, so that there was no question whatever of
closure. The Bill passed _en bloc_, and the Gatling remained silent.
Finally, there is that class of cartoon always graceful in intention,
and invariably received by the public with respect and approval--the
Obituary Cartoon. It was invented by _Punch_ when Wellington died. The
nation was overpowered with a sense of its loss, and _Punch_, with his
finger, as ever, on the public pulse, reflected the national emotion
with a deep and noble sincerity that was gratefully felt and recognised.
From that day onwards the great occasions of a people's loss--either of
our own mourning or of our sympathy with that of others--have been
touched with a dignity and grace in accord with their lofty and solemn
purpose, in drawings which have rarely failed to touch a responsive
chord in the people's heart, and which, judged as compositions, have
often marked the highest point to which Sir John Tenniel's art has
reached.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] Contributed one cartoon on July 12th, 1884, and another November
3rd, 1894, when the expected death of the Tsar Alexander III., on the
subject of which Sir John Tenniel's cartoon had been prepared, did not
occur. "Cartoon Junior" was then promoted to "Cartoon Senior."