...In with the Old

In keeping with the turn to a fresh calendar this week, Our Graphical History Tour moves on to a New Year: 1926

"The Cut-in Dance" by Fred G. Cooper in Life, New York, Dec. 31, 1925

Judging from most cartoonists of the time, Americans entered 1926 with a carefree optimism for the future that we who dwell in it can only envy.

"Yes, Sir, He's Our Baby" by J.T. Alley in Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 1, 1926

As with every other holiday that year, editorial cartoonists celebrated the nation's apparent prosperity. Senate Republican leader Charles Curtis promised the Washington Times,

"Our nation greets the New Year healthy and prosperous with the benefits of a kindly Providence scattered far and wide. The outlook for the next twelve months is particularly encouraging, with all signs pointing to a continuing prosperity for all alike. The present wave of prosperity, in which all the people are sharing, will last throughout the year."

Senator Curtis would be Vice President when the wave of prosperity washed out in 1929.

"The Morning After" by Jim Ring in Washington [DC] Times, Jan. 1, 1926

In the meantime, Jim Ring depicted Father Time ditching the robe and scythe in favor of an apron and broom, the better to sweep away the bad habits of 1925.

"The New Broom" by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, Jan. 1, 1926

According to Grover Page, that was more appropriately the New Year Baby's job.

"The Skeptic" by H.T. Webster for New York World Pub. Co., Jan. 1, 1926

Harold Webster's New Year Kid was not about to settle for the post of janitor. The little man was already out of diapers and ready to take over as Operations Manager.

"I Wish Old Man '25 Had Left a Clean Desk" by William C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, Jan. 1, 1926

Would sitting down at Mr. Globehead’s desk bring the kid back down to size?

We have covered some of the tasks in Morris’s cartoon before: from coal mine strikes and lockouts, to French wartime debts, to colonial wars in Morocco and Iraq, to worldwide disarmament, to crime and Prohibition in the U.S., to whether to join the World Court.

But we haven’t mentioned the Tacna-Arica Situation, a border disagreement between Peru and Chile that would be settled by the Lima Agreement of 1929. So now you know.

"With Best Wishes for a Happy New Year" by J. Conagher in Life, New York, Dec. 31, 1925

J. (or F.?) Conagher's cartoon has little to do with the new year save for its caption. Rather, it's a complaint against the social reformers who brought about Prohibition and were pressing for further laws against smoking, restricting content of movies, and so forth.

And while we're on the topic of unresolved problems carrying over into the new year, Leslie Rogers had a specific issue:

"A Satisfactory Year for Him" by Leslie Rogers in Chicago Defender, Jan. 2, 1926

There had been 12 Black Americans lynched in 1925 by the Chicago Defender's count. A Rogers cartoon about the most recent, of Lindsey Coleman in Clarksdale, Mississippi, appeared in our Graphical History Tour just before Christmas.

"Low and Order at Last" by Fred B. Watson in Afro-American, Jan. 2, 1926

A jury had found Coleman, a Black veteran of World War I, innocent of the axe murder of plantation store manager Grover Nicholas, brother of one of the men who then seized Coleman as he was leaving the courthouse. They dragged him into their car, drove him out of town, and shot him 26 times.

Tom Nicholas, J.T. Trayham, H.S. Blockley and G.O. Kane were arrested and charged with Coleman's murder. But while it must have come as a disappointment to Fred Watson, it should come as no surprise to students of history today that the charges against the four were dropped before the case was ever brought to trial.

As for Grover Nicholas's murder, two Black men, Ray Ford Leonard and John Fisher were found guilty on the testimony, later recanted, of Albert Hobbs. Another alleged party to the crime, Smith Bunns, died in jail, supposedly from an epileptic fall, within hours of his arrest.

"Happy New Year" by Orville P. Williams in New York Evening Journal (?), Jan. 1, 1926

White editorial cartoonist O.P. Williams offered his readers a cartoon encouraging tolerance in the new year. I've posted a number of his cartoons against the Ku Klux Klan, so I'll give him credit for as much sincerity on the issue as I'll give President Coolidge, who may have inspired this cartoon.

Toward the end of his December 8, 1925 annual message to Congress, Coolidge had this to say about racial, ethnic, and religious tolerance in the U.S.:

"Our country has many elements in its population, many different modes of thinking and living, all of which are striving in their own way to be loyal to the high ideals worthy of the crown of American citizenship. It is fundamental of our institutions that they seek to guarantee to all our inhabitants the right to live their own lives under the protection of the public law. This does not include any license to injure others materially, physically, morally, to Incite revolution, or to violate the established customs which have long bad the sanction of enlightened society.

"But it does mean the full right to liberty and equality before the law without distinction of race or creed. This condition can not be granted to others, or enjoyed by ourselves, except by the application of the principle of broadest tolerance. Bigotry is only another name for slavery. It reduces to serfdom not only those against whom it is directed, but also those who seek to apply it. An enlarged freedom can only be secured by the application of the golden rule. No other utterance ever presented such a practical rule of life."

"Speeding the Transient" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 1, 1926

On that note, I'm afraid it's time to slide along ourselves. Thanks for coming along on this sweep through history!

Toons of Thankfulness and Praise

I hope you have saved some room for some leftover Thanksgiving cartoons today. Our Graphical History Tour has whipped up a tasty dish from the editorial and comic pages of 1924.

"Mr. Coolidge Breaks His Silence" by T.H. Webster for N.Y. World's Press Pub. Co., Nov. 27, 1924

Calvin Coolidge, in keeping with longstanding tradition, officially proclaimed that year's national day of Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 27, the last Thursday of the month. The troubled tom in T.H. Webster's cartoon would have waited in vain for a presidential pardon to save him from the butcher's axe.

The tradition of presidents pardoning a turkey or two at Thanksgiving was apparently inaugurated by John F. Kennedy (reports of meleagristic pardons by Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman are not supported by presidential records). The first official presidential pardon granted to a turkey was by George H.W. Bush in 1989.

"If We All Don't Get Our Share This Year It Won't Be Because the Turkey Isn't Big Enough" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Nov. 27, 1924

Prosperity Triumphant was the theme of editorial cartoons in many a Thanksgiving Day newspaper in 1924. It was the midpoint of the Roaring ’20's, of course. The stock market was booming, employers were hiring, speakeasies were jumping, and flappers were, uh, flapping.

"We Have with Us Today" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 27, 1924

Republican-leaning editorial cartoonists offered plenty of cartoons for the day crowing that Americans ought to be thankful to reelected President Calvin Coolidge for the apparently robust economy everyone was enjoying. 

"Even They Have Something to Be Thankful For" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Nov. 27, 1924

Democrats and Progressives, on the other hand, were still eating crow, and the editorial cartoonists who had advocated the election of John Davis or Robert LaFollette shied away from political ruminations for the holiday.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith for Chicago Tribune Service, Nov. 27, 1924

Speaking of unsuccessful presidential candidates: Andy Gump — whose campaign manager had neglected to file Gump's candidacy — used the holiday to wax philosophical about his loss.

"Me and Mine" by Clare Briggs for N.Y. Tribune Co., Nov. 27, 1924

Elsewhere on the comics page, even in 1924, one did not necessarily head home for the holidays. The ladies in Clare Briggs's cartoon agreed to disagree over the relative merits of a home-cooked meal and not having to clean up after one.

"Cap Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for George Matthew Adams Service, Nov. 27, 1924

It has been a long time since our tour has checked in on one of the very few female comic strip artists of the 1920's, so here is Edwina Dumm, presenting her titular "Cap" Stubbs with one of his typical conundra.

"Your Own Nightmare" by Jim Ring in Washington Times, Nov. 27, 1924

Returning to the editorial page: I guess Jim Ring didn't particularly care for the Thanksgiving holiday. Or perhaps being called upon to draw something for the Washington Times editorial page at the last minute because the editors or publisher there didn't care for whatever it was that their usual cartoonist, T.E. Powers, had offered them for the day.

"And Here's Another Problem" by John Knott in Dallas Morning News, ca. Nov. 26, 1924

As if Jim Ring hadn't burdened you with enough Thanksgiving nightmares, along came John Knott to remind us that it's time to flip the page on the calendar.

So therefore we bid you and yule a fond au revoir, a happy post-Thanksgiving, a toilichte St. Andrew's Day, and a merry month to come.

Gobble fa la la: la la la la!

Happy Valentoons Day

Our Graphical History Tour has been wrapped up in scandal and death lately, so it's time to lighten up a little bit. Let's check out what love notes the cartoonists had in store for their readers on Valentine's Day 100 years ago, when my grandparents were newlyweds!

"St. Valentine's Day" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Gazette, Feb. 14, 1924

And fortunately for me, they all abstained from the jakeloo new divorce craze sweeping their generation.

"To Our Valentines" by Rube Goldberg for McNaught Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

I don't know what 1920's-ese is for "snark," but Rube Goldberg has plenty of it in his Valentine. It is, however, a wonderful study in fashion styles of the time.

I tried looking up the phrase "the alligator's vest," coming up mostly with advertisements for actual alligator-skin vests, and a zillion posts of the following Dad Joke:

Q. What do you call an alligator in a vest?
A. An investigator!

Let us now get back to the topic at hand. Quickly.

"A Few Valentines We'd Like to Deliver" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., Feb. 14, 1924

Good gosh, such violence! Smith's was not the only "Outbursts of Everett True" sort of Valentines Day cartoon I came across while gathering today's assortment. What on earth had these cartoonists so cranky? Was this really what Valentines Day was all about in the heart of the Roaring '20's?

"The Leap Year Valentine" by Charles H. Kuhn in Indianapolis News, Feb. 14, 1924

American editorial cartoonists must have used up their Sadie Hawkins ideas earlier in the year (see John McCutcheon's and Sam Armstrong's cartoons back in January); Chas. Kuhn's valentine for Mr. Voter from Miss Presidential Year Politics is the sole example I ran across published on February 14 that year.

"Those Coolidge Valentines" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, Feb. 14, 1924

Carey Orr crams a front-page's worth of headline news into his Valentine's Day offering, from Teapot Dome and tax cuts and federal farm aid to dunning European nations in debt to the U.S.

"A Valentine" by Thomas E. Powers for Star Company, Feb. 14, 1924

But enough of politics! Valentine's Day is a day for l'amour (And a famous massacre, but not for a few years yet.)

"Somebody's Valentine" by Magnus Kettner for Western Newspaper Union, Feb. 14, 1924

Leaving politics, scandals, vamps, and divorces behind, many of the Valentines Day cartoons in 1924 celebrated the early pangs of love experienced by pre-teen lotharios. We lead off with the most straight-forward of the bunch, by Magnus Kettner, a well-established cartoonist who supplied his syndicate's mostly rural papers with a choice of political cartoons and homey, nostalgic stuff as this. 

By the way, how strange that Kettner didn't finish drawing the house in the background — only the overhang continues to the right of that tree!

"A St. Valentine's Day We'll Never Forget" by Bob Satterfield for Bonnet Brown Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

Bob Satterfield's work used to appear regularly in these century retrospectives when he drew editorial cartoons; but 1924, he was focusing instead on gag cartoons and strips. The above cartoon was part of his "Days We'll Never Forget" series for Bonnet Brown Syndicate. Before long, he dropped the panel in favor of a strip, "The Family Next Door," which lasted less than two years. 

Bonnet Brown Syndicate would be a casualty of the Great Depression, going bankrupt and out of business in 1933.

"Life's Darkest Moment" by Harold T. Webster for New York Tribune Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

H.T. Webster was considerably more successful with (and dedicated to) his series of panel cartoons, which regularly cycled the themes "Life's Darkest Moment," "The Thrill That Comes Once in a Lifetime," "How to Torture Your Wife/Husband," and "The Timid Soul." For that last one, he created the character Caspar Milquetoast, who was spun off into a very early television series and whose surname entered the English vernacular.

"Gee Whiz Junior" by William Holman for New York Tribune Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

Here's something that has been missing from the last several cartoons: the object of Gee Whiz Jr.'s affection actually has a name!

"Gee Whiz Junior" was one of Bill Holman's many short-lived attempts at creating a comic strip before he eventually hit the big time with Smokey Stover (1935-1972). You young whippersnappers may never have heard of Smokey Stover, but some of you might appreciate that he was the OG Foo Fighter.

I did want to make sure to include the woman's point of view today. Failing to find Valentines Day cartoons by Fay King or Juanita Hamel, here's a woman's point of view of a little boy's point of view:

"'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for George Matthew Adams Service, Feb. 14, 1924

Sticking with the women but returning to the adults' table, Nell Brinkley ends up more interested in expressing some fella's viewpoint than a woman's:

"His Saint Valentine" by Nell Brinkley for International Feature Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

"Saint Valentine was a gentleman," Brinkley begins, "a venerable man, in those gone days when bright St. Valentine's Day used to be taken so seriously that men did battle under their loves' windows... But Bill's Saint of Valentine's Day is a girl. ...

"'I don't believe in men-angels, anyway,' says Bill, as he ties to his offering of dark, fragrant, purple violets, his name with his love and his hope. 'Angels are girls. I know my Saint Valentine is a girl — all girl.'"

"Pop" by Gaar Williams in Chicago Tribune, Feb. 14, 1924

And just like that, we're back to the menfolk. Perhaps this anxious fellow in Gaar Williams's cartoon explains why some of the cartoonists at the top of today's post were in such a foul mood over the holiday.

"Gasoline Alley" by Frank King for Chicago Tribune Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

Finally, of special note to classic cartoon fans, Valentines Day 1921 was the day that infant Skeezix was left on Walt Wallet's doorstep, creating a family saga out of a strip that up to then had been entirely devoted to men and their jalopies. Over the years, Skeezix grew up, married, and had children and grandchildren of his own.

Because of the forced homogenization of newspaper comic pages by Gannett, McClatchy, Lee, and the other (aptly named) chains, you probably can't find "Gasoline Alley" in your local newspaper — even the Chicago Tribune doesn't run it any more — but 103-year-old Skeezix and 130-ish Walt are still out there on line.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 If you were looking for this week's cartoon, I posted it yesterday. 

"The Scoffer" by H.T. Webster, Nov., 1922

But thanks for stopping by anyway. Here's an oldie for your troubles.

August First

For reasons known only to my legions of Facebook friends, today's post is devoted to the cartoons your great-grandfather might have read when he opened the newspaper 100 years ago tomorrow.

"All in Readiness for the Home-coming" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, August 1, 1921

Cliff Berryman's cartoon concerns the brand spanking new Governor of Illinois, Republican Lennington Small, under indictment for embezzling state funds while state Treasurer. He would be found not guilty, but lost a later civil suit in which he was ordered to reimburse the state $650,000.

"The Handwriting on the Wall" by Rollin Kirby in New York Evening World, August 1, 1921

I have a couple examples here of complaints against profiteering landlords. Leo Bushnell's, and some of the other cartoons here today, appeared by syndication to the newspapers where I found them, and thus may have originally appeared in their home newspapers in July.

"Mr. Prof. I. Teer and Family Have Closed Their Town House..." by Leo Bushnell for Central Press Assn., ca. August 1, 1921

Bushnell's cartoon about landowner profiteers takes the unusual approach of criticizing them for depriving children of a place to play. Has society really changed so much that once upon a time the expansive estates of the rich were the playgrounds of the poor? 

Then somebody had to go and invent gates.

"Revising Our Tax Schedule" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, August 1, 1925

Leaping to the defense of the rich, we have Jay "Ding" Darling. For a whole month, his cartoons in Collier's had been crusading against the Excess Profits Tax. The Excess Profits tax had been created to help pay for the Great War; so now that the world was safe for democracy, Ding's reasoning was that the tax had become an unnecessary burden.

"Snoozing Won't Ripen This Crop" by Winsor McCay for Star Company, ca. August 1, 1921

Yet even with Republicans firmly in control of all three branches of government, the GOP couldn't quite bring itself to cut off that revenue entirely.

"The Relief of Disabled Veterans" by John McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, ca. August 1, 1921

For one thing, there was the matter of how the nation should repay its debt to disabled servicemembers who had done their part to ensure democracy's safety. In June, the House passed the Sweet Bill — named for Rep. Thaddeus Sweet (R-NY) and not to be confused with the Sugary Drinks Tax Act of 1921, also known (I kid you not) as the SWEET Act — mentioned in John McCutcheon's above cartoon. The Sweet Bill created a veterans insurance bureau out of discrete agencies already in existence, to handle veterans' claims for compensation.

Since McCutcheon's cut lines are difficult to read, here they are: "The noble performance of Congressman Flapdoodle during the war. / The performance of Congressman Flapdoodle nearly three years after the war." Flapdoodle's soaring patriotic wartime oratory is succeeded by a decision to procrastinate "till the weather is cooler."

The Senate must not have yet passed the Sweet Bill when McCutcheon drew this cartoon; I guess he didn't have a Senator character who would have been a more appropriate replacement for his Congressman Flapdoodle. 

President Harding signed the bill into law in August.

"Here's Your Summons..." by C. Boughton in Life magazine, August 4, 1921

I had almost used this Life cartoon last month in my post about men's summer fashions, but I've let it wait until today instead. I've never seen Father Time drawn with only his beard to maintain his modesty —often it's hard to distinguish him from Diogenes or Mr. Death — but apparently the summer of 1921 was too hot for the wearing of a black robe.

"Man the Master" by Alfred G. "Zere" Ablitzere in New York Post, August 1, 1921

Keep in mind that these were the days before air conditioning became widespread. You didn't have to have triple-digit temperatures outside to make summer unbearable inside. This is how most Americans kept cool back in 1921, so I'm a little surprised that this fellow made it to middle age without figuring out how to get a large block of ice into the icebox.

"And Right There Is Where I Made My Big Mistake" by Harold Webster in New York Herald, August 1, 1921

Well, you live and learn. And some guys take their sweet time about it.

"How to Hold a Husband" by T.E. Powers for Star Company, ca. August 1, 1921

And where would the comics be without such fellows?

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