Re: The Pages of Punch

1914: How To Impress an Actress 6,000 Miles Away?

Here is another cartoon about the early days of the cinema. Cuthbert is under the impression that the star of the film is present for the performance. He hasn’t managed to put aside his habits as a Stage Door Johnny when he would lay siege to the object of his affections at a theatre or music hall. No doubt Claude will put him right.

The artist has chosen to portray both the young men as effete weaklings. In the early days of the war recruiting officers would turn away volunteers with this kind of physique. Later on with conscription breathing seemed to be the only qualification.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1914: On Seeing a Celebrity in the Flesh

Ethel and her friend will have studied the magazines containing pictures of prominent people in the news who would nowadays called celebrities. She has mixed up the names of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and George Alexander. Both are highly respected actor managers.

The two young women are witnessing the same effect that people have today when they actually meet someone previously only seen on television.

'Sir Beerbohm' looks entirely convinced of his pre-eminence.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1914: “Equality”?

This cartoon seeks to take a light-hearted look at the women’s movement in 1914. It reminds us that women were not just demanding the vote. There was a strongly expressed desire for women to be able to earn a decent living in their own right. Medicine and the law were obvious targets. The church was not immune for these demands. All were strenuously resisted by the male establishment.

Here the cartoonist looks at another all male institution: prize fighting. His drawing takes a typical scene from this activity and replaces all the people present with female equivalents. So we see women contestants, the seconds, the audience and (splendidly) the referee. The seconds are supporting their champions by typically female methods.

I doubt that the artist wants us to think that they have really traded heavy punches with each other although boxing gloves are present. I suppose that the matronly referee is counting out the champion on the right while her seconds are trying to revive with the use of a fan and some perfume. The woman on the left is already preening herself ready to be declared the champion.

I can’t imagine that there was any demand at that time for women to be allowed to batter each other senseless for public display though I did notice that women’s boxing had become an official event in the 2012 Olympic Games.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1914: Making Light of It

I suppose the joke is simply that the householder appears to be neither outraged nor frightened though in reality he might well be both. Here he is shown to be calmly accepting the situation and making light of it.

It would have been unwise to take on this burglar.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1914: On The Threshold of Catastrophe

18 June 1914: Assassination of the Austrian Archduke

3 August 1914: Britain declares war on Germany

This cartoon appeared on 29 July – a mere five days before Britain entered the war though it might have actually been drawn a week earlier. It is the first reference in Punch to this situation in the Balkans. With hindsight it seems remarkably unaware of the perils to come. The cartoonist correctly reflected the view of his fellow citizens that this was a mere continental dispute in which Britain had no interest.

The eagle is double headed because it represents the dual monarchy of both Austria and Hungary. The intransigent cockerel represents the much smaller kingdom of Serbia. Behind the boulder lurks the Tsarist Russian bear. As anticipated in this cartoon, as soon as Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia, Russia declared war on the Dual Monarchy in defence of its Slav ally. As soon as Austria was attacked Germany was treaty bound to declare war on Russia. France was then obliged by treaty to declare war on Germany. For a short time Britain’s position remained in doubt but as soon as Germany attacked Belgium, Britain was bound by treaty to attack Germany.

The British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, probably did say the lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. Some would say that they never really have been relit.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1914: Which One of Them is Right?

Unperturbed by the goings-on in the Balkans the question here is whether the new maid or the debutante is in the right. Although I am a complete ignoramus on the subject I would say that the consensus today is that the maid is right on the grounds that less is more.

I suspect that in (just) pre-war 1914 people would have agreed with the deb.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1914: The Scrap of Paper

This cartoon shows exactly how Britain became a willing participant in the war. The understanding with France reached in the previous decade might or might not have persuaded the Asquith government to join in the war. That issue was never put to the test because of the German demand that her troops be allowed to pass through Belgium in order to attack Northern France. Obviously this would be a violation of Belgian sovereignty but the Germans expected it nonetheless because of their overwhelming superiority.

When Belgium refused the Germans simply invaded their small neighbour. As this cartoon shows there was widespread British admiration for ‘plucky little Belgium.’ Indeed, there existed a British treaty to guarantee Belgian independence. The official British response was now inevitable and almost universally popular. A German diplomat expressed dismay that Britain would do this for a mere ‘scrap of paper.’

In this way right from the start the British public came to see the war not just a matter of power politics and alliances but of morality. The German war machine was to provide additional reasons to buttress that sense of moral superiority for the allied cause.

From now on the war would continue to dominate the pages of Punch as it was to do in all aspects of the nation’s life.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1914: Early Example of Anti-German Sentiment

Before I looked at these cartoons in detail I had expected anti German feelings to develop in response to major battles which caused enormous numbers of British casualties. However the date of this cartoon demonstrates that this feeling had developed almost overnight.

Herr Schmidt had many years earlier settled in Britain in order to make an honest living providing German wares which had been very popular. Had he really been a spy he would not have identified himself so strongly with the country of his origin. The cartoonist seems to condemn him for trying to anglicise his name, his wares and even his dog. Thus he was being condemned not for what he had done but for what he was.

This early in the war the popular mood seems to have been a case of mass hysteria which was being egged on by the popular press such as Lord Northcliffe’s Daily Mail. I understand that there was an equally irrational anti British mood in Germany.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1914: Thinking About the War at the Seaside

The war had started during the peak holiday season. This cartoon shows how quickly the war was beginning to permeate the daily lives of the entire population.

By contrast the letters of Jane Austen more than a century earlier contain very few references to the long wars with France, first against the revolutionaries and then against Napoleon. By 1914 far more people could read and now there were newspapers available with ‘popular’ appeal. Jane knew about the war, of course, but apart from concern for her two brothers in the Navy she didn’t feel personally concerned. She would not have considered knitting socks for soldiers!

We are also treated to a view of how people were dressed when enjoying their seaside holiday.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1914: Too Many Chiefs and Not Enough Indians

This cartoon illustrates how bossy upper middle class women became hyperactive right from the start of the war. Whereas previously their energies could only go into church bazaars and garden fetes now suddenly they could spread their wings and organise far and wide to their hearts content.

This scene depicts a limit to the ambitions of these busybodies. The lady of the house has two helpers, who do the actual work. Each is either directly employed by her or is in some was beholden to her. She wrongly assumes that her visitor, who is as well heeled as she is, can be drafted in to do the actual work. The trouble is that her visitor had come looking for another ‘mere’ committee member. Each is equally convinced that it is she who should be directing ‘her’ committees.

On matters of attire it seems that the visitor has outclassed the lady of the house.