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A Selection of Cartoons from Puck cover

A Selection of Cartoons from Puck

Chapter 27: SIEGFRIED, THE FEARLESS, IN THE POLITICAL DISMAL SWAMP.
By Joseph Ferdinand Keppler
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About This Book

This collection gathers satirical pictorial essays and caricatures originally published in a humor magazine, pairing sharp visual exaggeration with allegorical scenes to comment on political and social issues of the late nineteenth century. An introductory essay explains the artist’s German-influenced approach that fuses caricature and cartooning into dramatic parables, and the plates reproduce large, detailed cartoons with accompanying captions and an index to aid interpretation. The volume emphasizes visual wit, topical parody, and the interplay of character drawing and symbolic narrative.

SIEGFRIED, THE FEARLESS, IN THE POLITICAL DISMAL SWAMP.

PUCK, December 28th, 1887.

When Mr. Cleveland began his now historic struggle for Tariff Reform he found that he had to encounter more ignorance and apathy among the public at large than he had reckoned on. In fact, he began his fight in a very mist or fog of popular misconception, and his surroundings in these first days were such as naturally suggested the grewsome allegory which Puck published on December 28th, 1887.

The animal-portraits in this picture are for the most part readily recognizable—J. G. Blaine, John Sherman, Whitelaw Reid, W. M. Evarts, B. F. Butler, T. C. Platt, (dead, but floating,) C. A. Dana and Joseph Pulitzer. The owl in the left hand upper corner is Secretary Folger. In the corner below him is Most, the anarchist. The hedge-hog and the wild boar on the extreme right are Jacob Sharp and J. B. Foraker. The two tails protruding from holes in the ground are reminders of the brief period of activity enjoyed by Mr. Henry George and his clerical ally.