Independence Day, 1921

"When Dad Was a Boy and Today" by Goeta, July 4, 1921

It's Independence Eve, so while we anxiously await Thomas Jefferson's coming down our chimneys tonight to leave fireworks under our cherry tree, Sparklerback Saturday brings you the latest in 100-year-old cartoons celebrating the holiday.

"Just as the Youngsters Were Setting Off Their Big Firecracker" by Fontaine Fox in New York Evening Sun, July 1, 1921

Fontaine Fox's long-running cartoon feature included the very popular "Toonerville Trolley," which made the jump to animated shorts for the movie theatres. That might be before your time, so I'll add that one of its regular characters would be the inspiration for Looney Tunes's Yosemite Sam. And if you're too young to know who that is, I can't help you.

Fourth of July firecrackers blowing up unintended targets was a staple of Independence Day cartoons, as were admonitions to observe a "Safe and Sane Fourth." 

"The Safe and Sane Fourth" by Alfred G. "Zere" Ablitzere in New York Evening Post, July 2, 1921

Your great-grandparents were just as likely as you are to engage in unsafe and insane activities to celebrate our nation's birthday, although I don't think they ever managed to burn down everything west of the Rockies.

"Independence Day" by Harold T. Webster in New York Tribune, July 4, 1921

Prohibition showed up in a number of Independence Day cartoons in 1921. In case the print is too small to read on your iPhone, the book flying out of the cellar in H.T. Webster's cartoon is titled Recipes for Home Brew.

At the risk of stirring up some long-settled dirt: a year later, Fontaine Fox would use the same basic idea as Webster did for the holiday. Fox described his inspiration for the 1922 cartoon to Wesley Stout in a syndicated article that December:

“Cartoonists are supposed to work by inspiration. I do not, nor any I have known, We get our background from our own lives. In my case the particular idea almost invariably is the result of the impact of two disassociated ideas, produced after much thought and experiment. I first noticed the trick in the stories of O. Henry, who, like a cartoonist, first thought out his climax, then worked back. My last Fourth of July cartoon is an example. I thought over all the hackneyed subjects of the day; no idea there. I remembered a last-year’s cartoon contrasting the stealthy home-brewer with the title ‘Independence Day.’ That conception had been exhausted. Home-brewing and exploding firecrackers bear no relation to each other, but suddenly they came together and produced a cartoon.

"Neighborhood News" by Fontaine Fox, July 5, 1922

“Why not have the home-brewer’s still explode, but in the midst of the usual racket of the Fourth and thereby escape notice? There it was. It was original, it was laughable, and it was possible. That’s all there is to it.”

As Fox freely admitted, he had seen some cartoon linking home stills and fireworks, and it very well may not have been that of the widely syndicated Webster. It's quite possible that there is some other cartoon out there that Fox did see; Webster was not the only cartoonist in 1921 to contrast the ideals of the Founding Fathers with the ideals of the Parading Prohibitionists.

"When We Read History to the Children..." by Rube Goldberg, July 4, 1921

This Rube Goldberg cartoon just goes to show that there is absolutely nothing new in opinions about current events showing up on the comics page.

Since the print is so small, here is the text of the first panel:

Father: "'On July 4th, 1776, our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence and made us a free people."

Child: "But Daddy, I don't understand."

Picket sign: "Don't set off fireworks. Don't play cards. Don't drink. Don't smoke. Don't play pool. Don't laugh. Don't everything."

"Our National Birthright and Bulwark..." by Leo Bushnell for Central Press Assn., July 4, 1921

As always, there were enough politically neutral patriotic cartoons for newspapers in the Great American Middle to splash across Page One of the Fourth of July edition. 

"The Heart of the Nation" by Bill Satterfield for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., by July 4, 1921

"Zip —Boom—Bang" by Magnus Kettner for Western Newspaper Union, by July 5, 1921

(Side note: Independence Day fell on a Monday that year, and many evening papers did not publish on the holiday.)

"Political Freedom, 1776..." by John Baer, by July 1, 1921

Striking a more confrontational tone, labor cartoonist and former Congressman John Baer penned this cartoon for labor newspapers touting a pronouncement from the American Federation of Labor. Under Republican presidents and congresses, and in spite of Baer's cartoon, organized labor in the 1920's saw a decline in union membership and political influence.

The orator in Baer's cartoon does not much resemble AFL President Samuel Gompers, his successor William Green, or Baer himself. If anyone can identify him, I'd be pleased to hear it.

"Those Americans Don't Know What Real Independence Is" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, July 4, 1921

Meanwhile, Clifford Berryman draws a contrast between the United States and the workers' paradise in Soviet Russia, depicting Lenin and Trotsky standing incongruously in a field of Greek ruins.

"Safe and Sane" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Colliers, July 9, 1921

Making a more pointed observation, "Ding" Darling notes that the U.S. was celebrating its independence from an imperial power on the other side of an ocean despite having become a transoceanic imperial power itself.

As it happened, neither Russia nor the Philippines were the Big News that Independence Day weekend. Jack Dempsey's victory over Frenchman Georges Carpentier to retain the title of World Boxing Champion made banner headlines — and EXTRA! editions — in many newspapers around the country.

Nobody was able to watch it live Cable+ Pay Per View in those days, you know.

Some papers, on the other hand, had local news to report — in this case with a startling level of cheering-on:

Ah, but you were not expecting to run into any Critical Race Theory today, so let us blithely return to holiday hijinks and gentle giggles. 

"Polly and Her Pals" by Cliff Sterrett, July 4, 1921

To end today's post on a lighter note, here are the July 4 episode of "Polly and Her Pals" and Gluyas Williams's "Guide to Fourth of July Oratory." To those of you reading on a hand-held device, I apologize for not replacing Mr. Williams's captions with larger print or cutting the cartoon up into nine separate image files.  To the rest of you, enjoy the cartoon as it was originally meant to be seen. 

On a desktop computer screen.

"A Complete Guide to Fourth of July Oratory" by Gluyas Williams in Life, July 7, 1921