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A Selection of Cartoons from Puck cover

A Selection of Cartoons from Puck

Chapter 45: THE SUCKERS OF THE WORKING-MAN’S SUSTENANCE.
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.

THE SUCKERS OF THE WORKING-MAN’S SUSTENANCE.

PUCK, May 19th, 1886.

The labor struggle of 1886 was not far advanced before the agency of the professional agitator became apparent—to those, at least, who honestly tried to look below the surface of things. That the whole fight was got up and kept up by these false friends of the laboring man, and that they were the only gainers by the disorder of the time is well known now. But it was not so well known then, and when this cartoon was put forth it had all the interest that attaches to the bold presentation of a truth for which the public is not prepared.

“The Suckers of the Working-man’s Sustenance” was published in Puck of May 19th, 1886. The three bearded men under the table have features which more or less suggest those of certain professional agitators of the hour—John Most, the editor of a dirty little paper that preached blood-and-thunder anarchy, and a couple of other scamps of the same sort.