Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: Attitudes to Glasgow

They are both self-made men from Glasgow. They are now really living it up in London. We see the table furnishings, the food, the cigars, the brandy and the butler. From the dialogue we know that they started life living in very rough conditions.

It is hard now to imagine why either of them would want to return. Yet the speaker seems surprised that he doesn’t. Perhaps all there is to this cartoon is that he is surprised but we aren’t.

It is also just possible that here is another jibe at self-made men. We have witnessed them before in this thread. This would mean that Jimsie and his host ought to be content with their good fortune and stop even thinking of Glasgow. They are both very much not the sort of people who would want to read Punch. I put this forward as a mere possibility.

Re: The Pages of Punch

The thing with many self made men is their willingness to take the blame.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: Good For Whom?

The boy’s mother regards herself as a lady and would very much like to think that her little boy is becoming a little gentleman. The son is an active (and possibly hyperactive) boy. He has no wish to be a little gentleman. Indeed he likes to play with the Timson boys because they clearly are not little gentlemen. If asked, his mother would say that they are ‘rough’. What she really would mean is that they are ‘common’.

The boy’s answer cuts no ice with his mother. She is not at all interested in what is good for the Timsons. It does however reveal how determined he is to go on associating with his friends.

I have tried, without any success, to discover the identity of the two objects that he is holding. They obviously belong to some (presumably outdoor) game but the question is which game. It is obviously not a coconut that he is holding in the crook of his right arm. Could it be junior size rugger ball? Is that a helmet that he is holding with both hands? What game would that be?

Any ideas?

Re: The Pages of Punch

Mr Magoo my guess is the boy is holding a baseball under his arm and holding the baseball glove with both hands ....

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: Good at Gardening: Not So Good at English

Oh dear! Laughing at people who are less educated than oneself. This sort of thing was quite common at the time.

I suppose the word that Thomson was trying to say was ‘prodigious’.

Re: The Pages of Punch

MONDAY



1932: Eat Nice!

Once again upper middle class people are making fun of what they called ‘the lower orders.’

Alfie is letting his mother down. The only thing that Dad is doing ‘nice’ is to sit up reasonably straight. His use of a table knife reminds me of the ditty that I first encountered more than 60 years ago:

I eat my peas with honey
I’ve done it all my life
It makes the peas taste funny
But it keeps them on the knife.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: How to Cope With Severe Financial Problems

Frequent references to the Great Depression in 1932 seem quite topical these days.

The man in the armchair hasn’t any idea of how to cope with his inability to pay his many bills. He seems not to know how to reduce his expenditure. At least he understands that there is a serious problem. He feels that he ought to worry. Since all his life he has got other people to do things for him he now tells Perkins to do his worrying for him.

The readers of Punch are not expected to feel sorry for him. He belongs (or used to belong) to the super rich. I see him as a man who was brought up in the expectation that he would never need to do a single day’s work throughout his life. Indeed, I would guess that his father had lived his entire life without any need to work. His grandfather I imagine used to work extremely hard all his life. He would have been a Victorian entrepreneur who amassed great riches having started life extremely poor. There were many such in the Nineteenth Century. With his great wealth behind him he would then see to it that his offspring would become ‘gentlemen’. It was a very common story.

The only plan that Perkins could come up with after looking at the bills would be to start to seek alternative employment.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: Identifying the Loss

I realise that the modern ‘take’ on this picture is that there had been an erotic relationship between Henry and his employer. I can’t prove it but I feel certain that this was not in the cartoonist’s mind – even by implication.

In the first place such a relationship was at that time illegal. More than that it was not the sort of crime which attracted unspoken tolerance – like the wide spread attitude to drug taking today. The great majority of the population would have viewed such activities with deep revulsion. I can’t imagine that the readers of Punch would have been at all comfortable with the modern interpretation.

My own theory is that the deserted husband so little values his departed wife that he misses a mere chauffeur more than he misses her. End of story.

Re: The Pages of Punch

Yes I'm sure that would be the modern take on that cartoon Mr. Magoo. I agree with your theory.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: Which Are the Sheep and Which Are the Goats?

Another well observed drawing by George Belcher. I would guess that this is a lower middle class household. Note the boy’s dangling shoelace.

In my own case it took me some time to identify who my real friends were. First impressions were not necessarily the best.

I don’t think that I really regarded anyone as an enemy.