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A Selection of Cartoons from Puck cover

A Selection of Cartoons from Puck

Chapter 37: HE BEATS BARNUM.
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.

HE BEATS BARNUM.

PUCK, February 19th, 1890.

This is neither the place nor the time to attempt any summing up of the character of the Rev. Dr. Talmage, of Brooklyn. In Puck’s earlier days the eccentricities of this clergyman and his peculiar notoriety made him the especial butt of the cartoonist; and this latter revival of a familiar figure was provoked by some uncommonly audacious performance whereby the Reverend gentleman startled most people and shocked many on his return from a European trip. It is unnecessary to recall the details: the cartoon is founded on Dr. Talmage’s own utterances.

Let us note here that through all this long period of fun-making, Dr. Talmage seems to have enjoyed the jokes upon himself even more than the general public did, and Puck has for many years preserved a formal blessing or benediction, couched in terms of cordial regard, and sent by the clergyman in exchange for a small cash and a large advertising contribution to the re-construction of his tabernacle.