The History of the Nineteenth Century in Caricature Part 11

Nevertheless, to the close student of political history there is in the American cartoon of this period, with all its flamboyant colorings, its reckless exaggeration, its puerile animosity, material which the more sober and dignified British cartoon does not offer. It does not sum up so adequately the sober second thought of the nation, but it does keep us in touch with the changing mood of popular opinion, its varying pulse-beat from hour to hour. To glance over the old files throughout any one of the Presidential campaigns is the next best thing to living them over again, listening once more to the daily heated arguments, the inflammable stump speeches, the rancorous vituperation which meant so much at the time, and which seemed so idle the day after the election.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Poor France! The Branches are broken, but the Trunk still holds."

_By Daumier in "Charivari."_]

It is not strange that during these years American cartoonists concerned themselves but little with matters outside of their own country. For more than a decade after the close of the Franco-Prussian War there were very few episodes which a.s.sumed international importance, and still fewer in which the United States had any personal interest. France was amply occupied in recovering from the effects of her exhaustive struggle; United Germany was undergoing the process of crystallizing into definite form. Europe, as a whole, had no more energy than was needed to attend to domestic affairs and to keeping a jealous eye upon English ambition in Egypt and Russian aggression in the Balkan States. For some little time after the French Commune echoes of that internecine struggle were still to be found in the work of caricaturists, both in France and Germany. Before taking final leave of that veteran French artist, Honore Daumier, it seems necessary to allude briefly to a few of the cartoons of that splendidly tragic series of his old age dealing with the France which, having undergone the horrors of the Germanic invasion and of the Commune, is shattered but not broken, and begins to look forward with wistful eyes to a time when she shall have recovered her strength and her prosperity. One of the most striking of these cartoons represents France as a deep-rooted tree which has been bent and rent by the pa.s.sing whirlwind. "Poor France! The branches are broken, but the trunk holds always." Simple as the design is, the artist by countless touches of light and of shadow has given it a somber significance which long remains in the memory. It was to Napoleon that Daumier bitterly ascribed the misfortunes of _La Patrie_, and in these cartoons he lost no opportunity of attacking Napoleonic legend. Stark and dead, nailed to the Book of History is the Imperial eagle. "You will remain outside, nailed fast on the cover, a hideous warning to future generations of Frenchmen," is Daumier's moral. Of brighter nature is the cartoon called "The New Year." It represents the dawning of 1872, and portrays France sweeping away the last broken relics of her period of disaster.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "You shall stay there, nailed to the Cover, a Warning to Future Generations of Frenchmen."

_By Daumier in "Charivari."_]

In Germany, also, one finds a few tardy cartoons bearing upon Napoleon III. Even in the _Fliegende Blatter_, a periodical which throughout its history has confined itself, with few exceptions, to social satire, perennial skits upon the dignified Herr Professor, the self-important young lieutenant, the punctilious university student, one famous cartoon appeared late in the year 1871, ent.i.tled "The Root of All Evil." It portrayed Napoleon III., as a gigantic, distorted vegetable of the carrot or turnip order, his flabby features distended into tuberous rotundity, the familiar hall-mark of his sweeping mustache and imperial lengthened grotesquely into the semblance of a threefold root. Still better known is a series of cartoons which ran through half a dozen numbers of the _Fliegende Blatter_, ent.i.tled "The Franco-Prussian War: A Tragedy in Five Acts," in which the captions are all clever applications of lines from Schiller's "Maid of Orleans". As compared with the work of really great cartoonists, this series has little to make it memorable. But as an expression of a victorious nation's good-natured contempt, its tendency to view the whole fierce struggle of 1870-71 as an amusing farce enacted by a company of grotesque marionettes, it is not without significance and interest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The New Year brings New Hope for France.

_By Daumier in "Charivari."_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "The Root of all Evil."

_From the "Fliegende Blatter" in 1871._]

Almost as Germanic in sentiment and in execution as the "Maid of Orleans" series in the _Fliegende Blatter_ was the curious little volume ent.i.tled "The Fight at Dame Europa's School," written and ill.u.s.trated by Thomas Nast. This skit, which was printed in New York after the close of the War, contained thirty-three drawings which are remarkable chiefly in that they are comparatively different from anything else that Nast ever did and bear a striking resemblance to the war cartoons of the German papers. The Louis Napoleon of this book is so much like the Louis Napoleon of the _Fliegende Blatter_ that one is bound to feel that one was the direct inspiration of the other. The text of the book, though nothing astonishing, serves its purpose in elucidating the drawings. It tells of the well-ordered educational establishment kept by Dame Europa in which the five largest boys acted as monitors, to keep the unruly pupils in order.

These boys were Louis, William, Aleck, Joseph, and John. If a dispute arose among any of the smaller boys, the monitors had to examine into its cause, and, if possible, to settle it amicably. Should it be necessary to fight the matter out, they were to see fair play, stop the encounter when it had gone far enough, and at all times to uphold justice, and to prevent tyranny and bullying. In this work Master Louis and Master John were particularly prominent. There was a tradition in the school of a terrific row in times past, when a monitor named Nicholas attacked a very dirty little boy called Constantine. John and Louis pitched in, and gave Nicholas such a thrashing that he never got over it, and soon afterward left the school. Now each of the upper boys had a little garden of his own in which he took great pride and interest. In the center of each garden there was an arbor, fitted up according to the taste and means of its owner. Louis had the prettiest arbor of all, while that of John was a mere tool-house. When the latter wished to enjoy a holiday he would punt himself across the brook and enjoy himself in the arbor of his friend Louis. By the side of Louis's domain was that of William, who, though proud of his own garden, never went to work in it without casting an envious glance on two little flower beds which now belonged to Louis, but which ought by rights he thought to belong to him. Over these flower beds he often talked with his favorite f.a.g, a shrewd lad named Mark, full of deep tricks and dodges.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The whole spirit of these pictures, which appeared in the _Fliegende Blatter_ after the Napoleonic downfall in 1871, is a travesty on the splendid lines of Schiller in the "Maid of Orleans"

(Jungfrau von Orleans).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 294. La situation politique en France. (Novembre 1873.)

Caricature de Felix Regamey, publiee dans le _Harper's Weekly_ de New-York.]

"There is only one way to do it," said Mark. "If you want the flower beds, you must fight Louis for them, and I believe you will lick him all to smash; but you must fight him alone."

"How do you mean?" replied William.

"I mean, you must take care that the other monitors don't interfere in the quarrel. If they do, they will be sure to go against you. Remember what a grudge Joseph owes you for the licking you gave him not along ago; and Aleck, though to be sure Louis took little Constantine's part against him in that great bullying row, is evidently beginning to grow jealous of your influence in the school. You see, old fellow, you have grown so much lately, and filled out so wonderfully that you are getting really quite formidable. Why, I recollect the time when you were quite a little chap!"

Thereupon the astute Mark designs a plan by which William may provoke the encounter while making Louis seem the aggressor. And so on, under the guise of fistfight between two schoolboys, Nast tells of all the events of the struggle of 1871; the outbreak of hostilities, the Baptism of Fire, Sedan, the German march on Paris, the Siege, and the different att.i.tudes a.s.sumed by the other monitors.

CHAPTER XXV

GENERAL EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

[Ill.u.s.tration: "New Crowns for Old."

Disraeli offering Victoria the Imperial crown of India.]

Punch, however, is really the most satisfactory and comprehensive source for the history of political caricature during the years following the siege of Paris down to 1886. From the indefatigable pencil of Tenniel and Sambourne we get an exhaustive and pungent record of the whole period of Disraeli's ascendency, the fruits of his much-criticised foreign policy, England's att.i.tude regarding the Suez Ca.n.a.l, her share in the Turco-Russian conflict, her acquisition of the island of Cyprus, the fall of Khartoum, the Fenian difficulties of 1885, and the history of Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule policy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Tightening the Grip."]

Throughout the cartoons of this period there is no one figure which appears with more persistent regularity than that of Lord Beaconsfield, and with scarcely an exception he is uniformly treated with an air of indulgent contempt. Of course, his strongly marked features, the unmistakably Semitic cast of nose and lips, the closely curled black ringlets cl.u.s.tering above his ears, all offered irresistible temptation to the cartoonist, with the result that throughout the entire series, in whatever guise he is portrayed, the suggestion of charlatan, of necromancer, of mountebank, of one kind or another of the endless genus "fake," is never wholly absent. Even in Tenniel's cartoon, "New Crowns for Old," which commemorates the pa.s.sage of the Royal t.i.tles Bill, conferring upon the Queen the t.i.tle of Empress of India, the scene is confessedly adapted from Aladdin, and "Dizzy" is portrayed as a slippery Oriental with an oily smile, in the act of trading a gaudy-looking piece of tinsel headgear for the more modest, but genuine, regal crown topped with the cross of Malta.

The bestowal of the t.i.tle of Earl of Beaconsfield upon Mr. Disraeli, which followed within a very few weeks, was too good a chance for satire for Mr. Tenniel to let pa.s.s, and he hit it off in a page ent.i.tled "One Good Turn Deserves Another," in which Victoria, with the Imperial crown of India upon her head, is conferring a coronet upon "Dizzy," kneeling obsequiously at her feet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: aeolus--Ruler of the Storms. The Easterly Wind too much for Bismarck.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "L'etat C'est Moi!"]

At this time the one international question which bade fair to a.s.sume any considerable importance was that of Russia's att.i.tude in the Balkan peninsula. Already in June, 1886, we find _Punch_ portraying the Czar of Russia as a master of the hounds, just ready to let slip the leash from his "dogs of war." Servia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, in pursuit of the unsuspecting Sultan of Turkey, while John Bull in the guise of a policeman, is cautiously peering from behind a fence, evidently wondering whether this is a case which calls for active interference. It is only a few days later that the outbreak of an insurrection in Bosnia and Herzegovina hastens a decision on the part of Europe to "keep the Ring" and let the Sultan ward off the "dogs of war" single-handed--an incident duly commemorated in _Punch_ on June 19. The Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria, however, aroused public sentiment throughout the Continent to such a degree that the Powers united in demanding an armistice. Tenniel's interpretation of this incident takes the form of a sick-chamber, in which the Sick Man of Europe is surrounded by a corps of ill.u.s.trious physicians, Drs.

Bull, William I., Francis Joseph and Company, who are firmly insisting that their patient shall swallow a huge pill labeled "Armistice"--"or else there's no knowing what might happen!" The protocol on Turkish affairs which soon after this was proposed by Russia and supported by Disraeli, forms the subject of two suggestive cartoons in _Punch_. The first, ent.i.tled "Pons Asinorum," depicts the protocol as a make-shift bridge supported on the docile shoulders of John Bull and the other European Powers, and spanning a lagoon ent.i.tled "Eastern Question." Over this bridge the Russian bear is stealthily crawling to his desired goal, his eye half closed in a sly wink, his sides bristling like a veritable a.r.s.enal with weapons. The second cartoon, alluding to the Porte's rejection of the protocol, represents Disraeli looking disconsolately upon a smoldering pile of powder kegs and ammunition, over which he has placed the protocol, twisted into the shape of a candle-snuffer. "Confound the thing! It is all ablaze!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.es, while Lord Hartington reminds him, "Ah, my dear D., paper will burn, you know!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Hidden Hand.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Irish Frankenstein.]

The next significant caricature in the _Punch_ series belongs to the period of actual hostilities between Turkey and Russia, after Plevna had been completely invested and the Turks were at all points being steadily beaten back. This caricature, ent.i.tled "Tightening the Grip,"

showing the struggling Turk being slowly crushed to death in the relentless hug of the gigantic bear, may safely be left to speak for itself without further description. Meanwhile, England was watching with growing disquiet Russia's actions in the Balkans. In one cartoon of this period, Mr. Bull is bluntly refusing to be drawn into a game of "Blind Hookey" with the other European Powers. "Now then, Mr. Bull, we're only waiting for you," says Russia; and John Bull rejoins: "Thank you, I don't like the game. I like to see the cards!" Prince Bismarck at this time was doing his best to bring about an understanding between England and Russia, but the difficulties of the situation threatened to prove too much even for that veteran diplomat.

_Punch_ cleverly hit off the situation by representing Bismarck aeolus, the wind-G.o.d, struggling desperately with an unmanageable wind-bag, which is swelling threateningly in the direction of the East and a.s.suming the form of a dangerous war-cloud. Eventually all misunderstandings were peacefully smoothed away at the Berlin Congress, which Tenniel commemorates with a cartoon showing "Dizzy" in the guise of a tight-rope performer triumphantly carrying the Sultan on his shoulders along a rope labeled "Congress," his inherent double-dealing being suggested by his balancing pole, which he sways back and forth indifferently, and the opposite ends of which are labeled "peace" and "war."

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Daring Duckling. June, 1883.

An early appearance of Mr. Chamberlain in caricature.]

Comparatively few cartoons of this period touch upon American matters. All the more noteworthy is the one which Mr. Tenniel dedicated to the memory of President Garfield at the time of the latter's a.s.sa.s.sination. It is a worthy example of the artist's most serious manner, at once dignified and impressive. It bears the inscription, "A Common Sorrow," and shows a weeping Columbia clasped closely in the arms of a sorrowing and sympathetic Britannia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Settling the Alabama Claims.]

M. Gambetta seldom received attention at the hands of English caricaturists; but in 1881, when the resignation of Jules Ferry and his colleagues resulted in the formation of a new ministry with Gambetta at the head, and both English and German newspapers were sarcastically saying that "the Gambetta Cabinet represented only himself," _Punch_ had to have his little fling at the French statesman, portraying him as beaming with self-complacence, and striking an att.i.tude in front of a statue of Louis XIV., while he echoes the latter's famous dictum, "L'etat c'est moi!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Mirage._

Gordon Waiting at Khartoum.]

Two cartoons which tell their own story are devoted to Fenianism. The first commemorates the Phoenix Park outrage in which Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly appointed Chief Secretary, lost his life. The cartoon is called "The Irish Frankenstein," and is certainly baleful enough to do full justice to the hideousness of the crime it is intended to symbolize. The second cartoon, ent.i.tled "The Hidden Hand,"

shows the Fenian monster receiving a bag of gold from a mysterious hand stretched from behind a curtain. The reference is to a supposed inner circle of a.s.sa.s.sins, directed and paid by greater villains who kept themselves carefully behind the scenes.

The tragedy of Khartoum formed the subject of several grim and forceful pages. "Mirage" was almost prophetic in its conception, representing General Gordon gazing across the desert, where, by the tantalizing refraction of the air, he can plainly see the advancing British hosts, which in reality are destined to arrive too late. "Too late," in fact, are the very words which serve as a caption of the next cartoon. Khartoum has fallen, and Britannia, having come upon a fruitless mission, stands a picture of despair, her face buried upon her arm, her useless shield lying neglected upon the ground.