Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-08-11
QD5io STATESMAN
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
The Ohio Statesman Company.
THURSDAY MORNING, AUGUST II
COMIC CUTS AT THE WAR.
The Carlcaturists and the Subjects,
Old Abe, Father Welles and Jeff.
Davis.


The comic papers extract kind of lu-
gubrious fun from the war;. 1t is generally
in bad taste; it Is often unfeeling; but it
makes people laugh. The gravest of phil
osophers, the man penetrated most deeply
with the .sufferings and sorrows of his
country, must yield the tribute of smile
to some of the monstrous caricatures of the
comic papers.
For man who is discouraged about the
war, and needs powerful tonic to keep his
spirits up, nothing can be more bracing
than the pictorial defeats which the rebels
are continually sustaining. Every comic
paper in this city has at least one vignette
weekly in which "King jeff" is represent
ed on his last thin, shaky legs. Sometimes
he is drawn with the horns, cloven feet,
caudal appendage and general outfit of
Mephistopheles. Sometimes he plays the
role of bloody tyrant, and then he wears
a crown whose points are tipped with little
sculls, and holds in one hand dagger drip
ping with gore, and in the other band COB
lot labeled "blood." A serpent sluirms in
familiar proximity to his wasted shanks,
and legions of imps fill the air in the back
ground. Sometimes he is dressed out as
pauper in the exit emest state of dilapida-
tion, on whose cheek starvation has set its
seal. But under whatever circumstances
"King JEFF" is portrayed, his doom is al
ways close at hand, in the folm of the
avenging Goddess of Liberty, who is about
to cleave him in twaine; or a shadowy host
of Northern soldiers who are knowing on
his works." or the Goliath-like figure OF
Abraham Lincoln, who, in one picture that
we have seen, is knocking his antagonist
out of time with blow ON the "potato
trap at the end of the 59th round. An
other picture, lately done, serves up the
great rebel as ''Richard the Third" He is
standing in the center at bay, and sees "Six
RichmOnds in the field" namely, Grant,
Meade, Burnside, Butler, and two others
whose faces are not readily identified but
probably belong to Wright and Hlncock.-
1t is plain enough from the picture that
Davis is in for it, and had better surrender
at discretion. The only drawba * upon
the enthusiasm which this work of art eX-
cites, is the reflection that the obstinate sub
ject has been in just as bad pictorial fixes
hundred times before.
Nothing is sacred from the pencils of the
caricaturists. If liking jeff" is repulsve,
Lincoln is hideous at their hands. Certain
characteristics of the Presidential face and
figure seem to invite eXaggeration; and the
resulting caricature is a cross between Don
QuiXote and an old clo' man. The Presi-
dent was most amusingly done up at the
time of one of Stonewall Jackson's raids.
The artist exhibited him dressed as a cook,
in the kitchen, broiling Stonewall Jackson
on gridiron, over bed of live Goals. The
moral of the picture was not apparent-it
rarely is-but the picture itself was eX-
ceedingly funny by virtue of the extraor-
dinary pOrtraiture of Mr.. Lincoln. 1t re-
minded one of Pagan cooking his rasher of
bacon, in Oliver Twist. Some of the sketches
"do" the President cleverly as "Brother
Jonathan" or the tutelary saint of the Yam
kee nation; just as the Punch artists put
Queen Victoria's face under the helmet of
britannia, 7" whenever that pleasanter
type of the English character is substi-
tuted for traditional John Bull. The
members of the cabinet-at least those
who show salient points for caricature-
are treated as familiarity as the President.
That fierce fountain of hair which bursts
up from the brow of Mr.. Welles, and pours
down both cheeks and flows in a cascade
from his chin, is now historical. 1t has been
n large source of revenue to the artists.
They manage it in as many ways as French
CoifeT. A ludicrous picture of Mr.. Welles,
at which he must have laughed, if he has
seen it, was one representing him asleep i'm
his official arm chair, with spiders weaving
webs among his hyacinthine locks, while
the marine view, as seen from his office
window, Is filled up with rebel rams and
blockade runners. Secretary Stanton offers
a good handle to the caricaturists i'm his
spectacles, square face and beard; and Sec
retary Seward in his shaggy eyebrows and
Roman features. The artists never got
good hold of Secretary Chase; and all the
other secretaries are exempt by reason of
the absence of any remarkable facial pc
culiarities. Secretary Fessenden is pictori-
ally unknown as yet. .. |
The generals come in for their share of
artistic good nature or i'll nature. General
Halleck's large head used to be very happi-
ly rendered before he disappeared from
public view. Its enormous cerebral exag-
geration recalled the monster heads of
pantomime. Gen. McClellan's strong, reso-
lutte, characteristic face, has served the ar
lists many stead; and, though the govern
ment dispenses with him, the designers can
not. Every week his portrait appears in
some one of the funny papers, sometimes as
the target of partisan injustice, sometimes |
as tribute of friendship fer the man, but |
always in recognition of his great, vital, |
popularity. Private life does not throw |
him into an eclipse. When he ceases to be |
a topic of public interest and discussion,
the caricaturists will drop. him, but that |
day seems not near. Burnside's bald head |
affords a strong point for the artists; and |
they make a Micawber of him. Fremont is, |
in several respects, available, and the artists
are using him to good purpose since his ac-
ceptance Of the Radical Democratic nomi-
nation. Both Grant and Meade figure fire.
quently and effectively in the caricatures
Of the day. H''t
War is a sad and serious thing. But hui
man nature cannot always be melancholy
under its grim intliction. Men will seek for
a laugh even in their direst troubles. And
that is how the comic papers contrive to
make out living just now. 10.
iA9p,4. ~ -------- t,i-.-
THE residence of Charles j. Faulkner, of
Martinsburg Alexander r. Boteler and