The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-23
GERMAN WAR cAn1CAruREs.

is only those that win who can laugh, and the
French are unquestionably better hands at
laughing than the Germans. Any one who
knows Paris and its humors can imagine the
crop of caricatures that would be now on
view at the kiosks, along the Boulevards, and
in the Palais Royal if the armies of France
were in Germany as conquerors and not as
prisoners. What acres of pictorial ''chaf'
there would have been about Bismarck and
Moltke and zee vieux Guillaume." What
bold exaggerations of the Pickelhaube
and the pipe of the Prussian soldier;
what fun would have been made of the many
awkward positions in which the latter would
have been perpetually finding himself through
the elan and astuteness of his adversaries; and,
above all, what number OF good things,
smart and epigrammatic, would have been
given as coming out of the mouths of Zouaves
and Turcos. All this has been lost to the
world, and nothing comes from the other side
that at all adequately fills the void. The
German hand is heavy in war, as poor France
has discovered to her cost, and it is by no
means light in caricature. 1t rarely plays
with the subject in an allegorcal or fanciful
way, but rather comes down upon 1t with
sound thump, which leaves very little doubt
as to what an artist means. German philoso-
piers may be obscure, but the German war
caricaturists certainly are not. As Thackeray
said of Hogarth, there is very little mistake
about their satire; if they have to draw man
with his throat cut they draw him
with head almost off. They are plain
spoken, even to coarseness sometimes. The
most popular war caricature in Germany, or
at least the most widely circulated, is that
one which called forth the protest of our
correspondent 'Nemo" the other day, in
which half-a-dozen German soldiers, repre-
senting the constituency of the Confederate
army, are shown administering to the En-
peror, Empress, and Prince Imperial, toge-
ther with "Plon-Plon," Gramont, and Olli-
vier, that simple form of manual chastise-
ment with which delinquencies are visited in
the nursery. Some, even more coarse, are
quite as broad as any of Bunburys produc-
tions, to which, in execution and treatment,
they bear strong resemblance. Indeed, If
caricatures were classified, like fossils, ac-
cording to strata of different periods, large
number of the German war caricatures of this
autumn would be without hesitation set down
byscientitic men as belonging to the Bunbury
formation. Their structure and functions
are entirely of that age. We have to go back
a long way now to arrive at the time when
the myth about frogs being the staple article
of food with Frenchmen had still sufficient
vitality in it to serve as q foundation for the
artist. Nevertheless, in several of these Ger
man sketches it turns up quite fresh aud
lively. In very grotesque birds-eye view
of the Camp at Chalons, published at the
time the Crown Prince was marching on it,
the French soldiers are shown hunting frogs,
splitting splitting then them 9 on ramrods , AN, and
the frog makes his appearance,
obviously as a general emblem of French
diet. This is very curious and interesting.
In the first place it is new illustration of the
wide range of popular myths and legends.
Most people here, we imagine, would have
said that this idea of frogs and Frenchmen
was purely Britannia, and coald only flourish
among uneplightened islanders. And then it
is curious to find it cropping up now among
the Germans, the people of all others among
whom accurate information on all subject is
most widely diffused, and who are supposed
to be pre-emin emily skeptical in matters not
warranted by reason and experience, while
among our beuighted and superstitious pea
santry it would be difficult to find man who
did not regard the notion of the French living
on frogs as a fable too long exploded to be
even available for Joking purposes.
The series published under the title of
''Flugblatter' is mainly of this sort; but
though there is not much refinement in the
drawings there is sometimes a good deal of
rude humor. An illustration of the famous
Saarbrucken despatch from the Emperor to
the Empress, or as it is facetiously put 'from
mitrailleur to mitrailleuse," announcing the
fire baptism of the Imperial Prince, has a
certain rough comicality about it. The
Prince is on his knees playing with the very
large ball (which fell quite close to him,
while his father regards him with admiration
and uplfted hands, and soldiers of various
arms standing round with most grotesquely
sentimental expressions of countenance
dropping tears of portentous size. The Em
peror, it may be observed, in almost
all these portraits is endowed with
mighty paunch Just as Immediately on the
breaking out of the Crimean war the EMpe
ror Nicholas swelled out in the hands of the
comic draughtsmaD. This seems to be
common practice with the political carica
turists. The only notable exception we car
recollect is Gilray, whose portraits of ths
First Napoleon nearly always suggest extreme
lankness. Another of the same series, whict
seems to be very popular in Germany, i,
entitled "Das lange Pferd" The animal
however, is an funmistakable donkey, and il
labelled ''Frankreich." Under the fore leg
is the date 1900, under the hind 1870
and on its back are figures intended 70
the first Republic, the First Napoleon
Louis XVIII, Charles Y, Louis Philippe
the second Republic, Napoleon III, and
lastly, the present republic-a very dminu
tive figure, trying hard to preserve precari
ous seat Just over the root of the tail. Il
front is a swamp, or morass of some sort
with (of course) frogs in it, and behind
Prussian soldier with whip is driving tn
donkey into it: while above, on each side, II
retreats like sentry try-boxes-emblematic n
doubt, of the place where good aolders g.
when they die-are the figures of old Fritz
and Blucher, looking down approvingly, an
saying Bravo" Another shows the Empe
ror blowing bubbles labelled Mexico, "Bel
gium, 'The Rhine, ETC., while the littl
Prince saws ''Oh paDa. what beautiful bub