Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: Hunting

By 1932 hunting scenes had become quite rare in Punch cartoons. This one, however, ignores the Depression completely and shows us a glimpse of life among the really wealthy. The words would not have looked out of place 50 years earlier although the style of the drawing would have been different.

It seems that Old Buster goes hunting with two horses. This means that when his current horse gets tired he can summon up his spare horse. I am assuming that some underling gently rides along with the spare horse so as to keep it fresh for the exertions of carrying OB to whom such extravagance is of no real consequence.

The cigar smoking huntsman on the left confides in the lady riding next to him. It seems that the first horse is not really tired at all but that its rider has emptied the flask (containing neat whiskey?) that was attached to the saddle. I don’t suppose that being drunk in charge of a horse has ever been an indictable offence.

Note that the lady is riding side saddle which she is confidently doing with poise. I seem to recall reading that this would have been called having a ‘good seat.’ It would be a long time before a hunt would break with tradition and decree that ladies should ride astride while wearing jodhpurs. I don’t expect that it would have been a decision left to the individuals concerned. Riding side saddle has, I think, long been consigned to the past.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: Blotting out the Landscape

The hostess is the lady smoking through a long holder. She prides herself in being ‘very modern’ and we can see the results of her efforts. It rankles her that her window reveals a world outside that refuses to conform to her preferences. Her solution is to blot out this depressing view and get someone to paint an avante garde picture onto the glass.

She chooses to describe the unsatisfactory view as ‘Victorian’. That is what the Modernists were reacting against. I recall that in the early 1960s I was telling my future father-in-law that his daughter and I were going to a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta in the near future. He said quite apologetically that his generation would not have done that since they were reacting against anything that was Victorian.

Now of course there is quite a cult of Victoriana and Gilbert & Sullivan is frequently revived in London’s West End.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: The Old School Tie

Here is another burglary joke. The artist here belongs to the more modern school of cartoonists though the picture is not so sparse in details. It is also a joke about public schools.

The perception of public schools is today rather different to what it was in the 1930s. For example, politicians nowadays seeking election don’t make a point of mentioning this aspect of their education, although quite a number of them still have received that education. In the 1930s this fact would always appear prominently in the election leaflet, irrespective of party. This high esteem was by no means always deserved. Some of these schools could be pretty ropey. Novels and autobiographies of the time would show that some of them had more than their fair share of social misfits on the staff – if not something even worse. Nevertheless most people believed in the benefits of a public school education.

In this cartoon the householder has surprised the burglar in the process of placing his loot in a suitcase now lying open on the table on the right of the picture. Threatened with a pistol the intruder has surrendered. The police have been called and the constable has now handcuffed the burglar.

The readers of Punch will not be surprised that the householder went to a public school. But what is this? The burglar also did and amazingly it was the same school as the man he was trying to rob. This burglar we see looks like a gent. Apparently he wears his old school tie even when out on a job. This of course is pure fantasy. The cartoonist doesn’t expect us to believe that this would actually happen. It is surely the kernel of the joke. The arrested man is looking very contrite. No doubt he is thinking that he has not only let the school down but, worst of all, he has let himself down.

The joke now reaches an extra level of absurdity. The clean-limbed young constable, far from being a PC Plod type, also went to the same school. How impossibly unlikely and how utterly hilarious!

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: American Motoring Tourist Confronts London Bobby

Unlike the previous cartoon this scenario is entirely plausible. The cartoonist has carefully studied these tourists with regard to their clothes, their spoken words and their body language.

I can remember a time when visiting Americans used to say that London’s policemen were wonderful. I suppose they were comparing their respectful demeanour with their American equivalents. In this instance I assume that Miss de Grass has fallen foul of some quaint rule such as speeding or illegal parking. It may be that she has made the quite common mistake of thinking because Brits also speak English then all the regulations must be identical to those she had known back home.

The policeman’s posture suggests that he is being both polite and officious at the same time. How unlike his counterpart in the US of A.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: Ask Another Silly Question

We recently looked at a cartoon by the same artist where a policeman was asked whether the strap on his helmet was there to keep it on his head. This time the answer to the new question is obvious: a catastrophic accident. So the bus conductor picks on an outrageously silly answer.

Note again that the two workaday participants are drawn in great (and convincing) detail while the rest of the scene is only hazily hinted at.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: An Alternative Silent Service

This charming little scene could no doubt have been replicated all over the country at the time. The constable on the beat has been invited to rest his feet and consume a welcome cup of tea. This is probably something that the maid’s employer would not permit. On the other hand a policeman is eminently respectable and furthermore there is no reason why anyone should find out.

She tries to draw him out and he manages to be reticent and yet claim the credit at the same time.

Re: The Pages of Punch

I remember the first visit I paid to the UK (London 1964) and one thing struck me as odd, it was the size of the policemen, some of them were very small compared to the Dublin coppers, and you had policewomen, unheard of here then, you had to be at least 5’11” to even be considered for the force over here at that time. It’s changed now of course.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: You Can’t Get the Staff

The boss is trying to shame the typist into producing better work. She is getting her own back by praising the grammar. That would be his responsibility when dictating the copy.

A One-One Draw?

There is a petulant look about this quite seedy boss and she isn’t exactly thrilled to be working for him.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: A New Treatment for Gout

I think that this cartoon was aimed at the various forms of ‘faith healing’ that abounded at this time. Christian Science in particular was very fashionable. Instead of going to a doctor you were expected to visit a Christian Science Practitioner who would ‘heal’ you by prayer and meditation. I understand that this service is still available but I don’t think that it has anything like the hold that it had in the 1920s and 30s. From the article on the subject in Wikipedia I gather that a consultation with a C.S. Practitioner is considered an allowable medical expense by the United States Inland Revenue Service. Only in America!

At the time faith healing gave rise to the debunking limerick:

There was a faith healer from Deal
Who said ‘though it’s not pain that I feel
When I sit on a pin
And it goes right in
I don’t like what I fancy I feel.’

The general is furious at the suggestion that his gout can be wished away and the nurse is deeply shocked. Gout was then a common complaint among the affluent.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1932: You Still Can’t get the Staff!


The artist here is George Belcher who was famous for his innovative style of drawing. But surely this joke was not new in 1932. It not only has whiskers but it also has a long white beard.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there existed a four thousand-year-old Sumerian baked clay tablet with the following text inscribed in cuneiform script:

Master: “Thou shouldst have been here in the scriptorium within the hour after sunrise”.

Apprentice scribe: “Indeed noble master? Pray tell me what amazing event would I have witnessed”?

Unfortunately it is no longer possible to employ a truly diligent scribe.