The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-12-11
Thomas Mast.

The London journal. All the Year Round,
in an article entitled "Csricature in America.
speaks appreciatively of Mr.. Thomas Mast as
follows:
GAS a matter of course, in country where
public affairs form the paramount topic, two
thirds of the pictorial satire of the United
States is political. In this field, beyond all
question or rivalry, one caricaturst has at
tained pre- -eminence, namely, Thomas Mast,
whose cartoons, as they are called, invariably
appear In Harper's Weekly, which Journal has
had the monopoly of his powerful and most
industrious pencil for over dozen years.
Mast is a BavarIsu by birth, whose parents
emigrated to the United States duiiog his
childhood. His first success as an iartist was
achieved during the great civil war, when be
could not have .een more than Lhree-and-
twenty. Like the times, his designs were then
generally of a serious character, setting forth,
sometimes emblematically in pictorial allego-
ry, sometimes in direct but always str king and
imaginative presentment, the many and muta-
BILE phases CT that tremendous conflict. They
| argued the case to the eye, and conciusiyely,
and were at once tabiesux, poems and speeches
Their power of hitting the nail on the head in
telling, coDse cutive OWE, and driving it home
was extraordinary. Drawn in a strOog, bold,
hard styl in which might be detected a sug-
gestion Of the artists nationality, with bat lit
tie attempt at refioement or beautv the uude-
niabie merits of these pictures rendered them
enormously Influential Ini the words Of us-
tive writer, 'Harpel's Weekly, circulating in
every town, army, camp, fort aud ship, placed
the whole country within Nast's reach and he
fully improved that magnificent opportunity.
Thencsforth he became a power in the land.
Indeed, when some very foolish person asked
General Grant whom he regarded as the most
notable individual developed by the war be
shrewdly replied, Il think Thomas Mast
Two years subsequent Mast Obtained a more
praiseworthy triumph, because wholly discon-
| nected with party. AT that period, in couse-
| quence of universal suffrage and the prepOu-
derance of ignorant foreis voters, the rich city
| of New York had fallen uuder the sbsolute con-
troll of about half q dozen uumitigAted sconn-
| drels, who had reduced tbefs to a science, and
were depicting the b)dy -politic III the most
| shameless manner They stole so enormously
| that they had got the entire metropolis and
| State in their grasp, and actually aspired to rale
| and rob the nation by placing one of the gang
| in the highest office within it's gift. Sach was
the notorious 'rammany Ring aud against il
Mast and the press, albeit the latter at first was
not wholly free from the guilt Of completely
| fought desperate and at length successful IL
| tie. The artists work at this crisis was wholly
unexampled in the history of caIicature; he
| scOurged the criminals as with a whip of scor-
pions. Itis not too much TO say that but for
| Mast, their overthrow and pun s1ment could
not have been accomplished. Their chief char
acteristicaly remarked that he didn'G care what
| was printed about hlm-tbe majority Of his sup-
| porters never read; but they couldn't help sat.
ing those (adjectiyt) pictures, and being iuflu-
enced by them; also, tnat Mast had caricatared
him so Cften and go villainOusly that he wa.
getting to look like his counter felt prt seutmeut
That coarse, obese figure, those ibsolent, deep
set, moony eyes, that 'fift, er-.housand-nve
hundIed-t0llar DIAMOND IN the shirt front
glared at you from every street corner, and b ,
came identified in the public mind win frau,
incarnate-ey uical, remorseless, Unsuitable rs,