The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-11
THE BFFEcT OF oARIOATURB.

Conspicuous for its artistic caricatures,
there is a wonder in the minds of some as to
what effect Puck's cartoons will have upon the
Republican candidates, and their chances of
success. The fact that no one seems specially
singled out unless on account of conspicuous
greatness in his party, goes far toward robbing
these portraitures of their force. Democrats
have seen the face of Tilden screwed into
the most grotesque and repulsive man
ner by Keppler and others of Puck's
staff of ARTISTS" Ben Butler has
been presented in every possible deformed
shape; Cleveland, Carlisle. Bayard and Ran
dali have appeared in the menagerie of mon
strosities. Blaine has been represented as a
tattooed man, and a score OF more of Demo
Gratis and Republicans have been formed into
a presidential prize beauty show, their we'll
known features being placed on bodies of
to the feminine heart. Generals Grant, and
Sherman, and Hancock, Senators Sherman,
Mcdonald, Logan and others, have each
in turn been favored with a place in Puck's
diverting pages. There is nothing new in the
art of caricature, except that the finish of its
pictures is finer than in former years. At the
outbreak of and during the war Lincoln was
pictured as an ape; the heads of Union generals
were given the bodies of dogs, and the federal
co1dian vrae Jnox MN ru,kb n oo1lor oho7,4 h,o raoE
Yet the war went on, and 'Lincoln's dogs"
came off victorious, despite the insulting car
features made of them.
The publishers of Puck are after dollars,
and they know how to get them about as well
as any newspaper or magazine publishers in
the country. The enemies of Blaine-and he
is just big enough to have them-are tickled
to see him excoriated in caricature, while
such things have no effect whatever OIL the af-
lection felt for him by his friends and admir-
ers. There is no new fact developed by Puck;
it is not a newspaper, and when it
succeeds in gratifying any consider
able number of people by deity
portraying the opposing party's candidate, it
has succeeded in its purpose. Itmakes things
even by returning the compliment in the next
issue by equally pertinent pictures of the very
men it set roaring before. And so it goes.
Puck is all things to all men, if so be by so
conducting itself it may realize greater profit.
The great mass of the Republican party are
in favor of James G. Blaine as the party's can
didate for the presidency. They are
familiar with his record from beginning to
end. So brilliant a man as he could not hope
to escape calumny and abuse. His acts have
been performed under the iercest light, and
his enemies nave not been slow to take every
possible advantage of his record. They have
blazoned his faults and foibles, yet to-day he
is unquestionably the most popular man in
the United States. TIL people, the rank and
file, are for him. Without so much
as lifting a finger to secure
the coveted prize of nomination, and without
so much as consenting to answer the thousand
letters that were sent him urging his nomina-
ton, he has been given it with unmistakable
spontaneity. The questionable pictures in
Puck may represent him as the several artists
may see fit; in the hearts of the American
public he is heroic and patriotic above all the
men who dare to c~riticise and condemn him.
He is a typical American, and of proportions
to attract attention among the nations
of the world, a testimonial in his behalf
that has been accorded no man since the cleo
ton of General Grant. If national gratitude
is not a vain thing, if national pride be not
dead, this man from Maine, this plumed
knight of American citizenship, will lead his
admirers and all the people to a higher plane
of national importance and self-respect.