The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-24
A TRIO OF ARTISTS.
THEY WRITE CHATTY LETTERS
ABOUT THEIR CALLING.

a DISTINGUISHED O2r1C6INTlSb uS4SSSS
Some Good Stories About Public
Men-Evarts Objects to the Ancient
Hat With Which Artists Have
Crowned Him-Mr. Gibson Discusses
the influence of Photo-Engreving
on American Art-William Chase on
the Art Outlook.
(Copyriohted1
NEW YORK Nov. 23--Ths aim of the
caricaturist is to lay hold of ideas and to
put them in pictorial form with all the
strength at his command. The caricaturist
therefore, does not read news as he finds il
printed in the papers; he turns to the edi-
torials and gets the drift of puplic opinion
from what the editors say. He does not
care for the speeches of politicians who
have their own purposes to serve, their
own axes to grind. He looks TO
the editorial page for an expression of pub
lie opinion, and catching the drift of the
public mind, seeks to follow as well as to
lead
Simple pictures, strangely enough, how
ever, always seem to be the most popular.
For instance, cartoon with an elephant
representing the Republican party, as its
central idea and figure, or, on the other
hand, cartoon with tiger representing
the democracy, ''takesn with the people
where an elaborate allegorical and historical
caricature would fail to accomplish its pur-
pose. The cartoon was formerly a very
complex thing. Hogarth, the greatest
caricaturist that England ever produced,
was fond Of making series of half
dozen o. dozen pictures
kLnN ha
wished to present While there was no
doubt strength and power in this work,
still the artist of day who can condense
the strong effects of a dozen pictures into
one is most striking in his originality and
most powerful with his pencil
There has been a decided change in the
last twenty or twenty-five years, perhaps [
might say the last eighteen years, in the
character of the political cartoons that have
taken" with the American people. For
merry, it seemed that the people wanted
public man cartooned with all the brutality
that the ingenuity of the artists could sug-
gest. He was pictured as hanging or wear
ing striped suit or in some other condi-
ton Of public humiliation. To-day party
feeling appears to be mellowed down, and
the public wants humor in a cartoon rather
than spite. ridicule rather than spleen.
Gov. Hill once remarked to me that he did
not care how much he was caricatured
provided it was done without a manifes-
tation of spite and an apparent desire to
offend.
Some public men are particularly
offended if they are presented in the garb
of anything but a gentleman Senator
Evarts, in discussing the subject in his
pleasant way, with me, objected to the
ancient style of hat that the caricaturists
always pictured him as wearing. He de-
clared that as a matter of fact ne bought
more new hats, he thought, than any other
man in Washington. Usually the feelings
of public men are not hurt because they
are caricatured. Great politicians have of
themselves, in more than one instance, sent
me scores of photographs taken in their
favorite attitudes. / remember that when
the late Congressman Cox was making
spirited canvass for the speakership | pict-
tured him as the clown of the House, and
he Straightway sent me not only very ex-
cellent photographs of himself so that |
might do justice to his face in the future,
but also with his compliments full set
of his interesting works bound in morocco
What the artists seeks for is ideas. The
drawing of picture consumes compare
lively little time 1t is the never-ending
search for satisfactory and suitable ideas
that gives him the most trouble and draws
most upon his resources. Men with ideas
adapted for cartoons are scarce. Most of
i
but they are not prolific in ideas that the
cartoonlst can utilize. One thing let me
observe, that no cartoonist, think, here or
In England, ever undertakes to caricature a
pretty woman, or, IN fact, any woman
The carlcatur1ng of women offend both
sexes, and is always unpopular. Most
caricaturists like to draw pretty women and
it is the drawback of political pictures that
they seldom permit the artist to give the
ladies a chance
1t occurs to me as | write hastily that
three things are necessary to make a sue
cessful cartoonist: First, he must be an
artist, that is obvious; second, he must
comprehend not little of politics and a
great deal Of changing political conditions:
third, he must have the reporters gift of
condensation. Webster's success as an
orator, it is said, was due to the fact that
he was able largely to dispense with the
use of adjectives. He had the faculty of
putting his thoughts in plain, strong Anglo
Saxon. So the successful carlcaturist
must be able to eliminate from his thoughts
and from his pictures all the non-essential
elements and get into the small compass of
page or two everything that is striking
and unique.
The colored cartoon has almost entirely
taken the place of the caricature in black
and white. The displacement must be per-
s1AoLOhOs HlS Is 6Nlu6lCSu ny pl6 GROWN
in popularity of the coiored pictures and
by the steady improvement of publications
that make them a special feature. In nothing
pertaining to the printing business has there
been a more acknowledgements of tai
ent than in the publication Of political pic
lures. Hogarth etched on copper and
painted in OIL and Leech etched on steel and
drew on wood. Now, wood is entirely
abandoned. Lithographiug stone has taken
its place, and by its use the caricaturist of
to-day obtains those soft and delicate effects
which were impossible to secure in other
days, and which make the political
cartoon in the weekly paper quite as hand
some, in color effects, at least, as the
chromos that were deemed so very attract
i've few years ago.
need not waste a word in analyzing the
reason for the popularity OF colored pictures.
Every one who recalls the black and white
show bills of twenty years ago, and who
now sees the artistic work that is put into
the displays Of the bill posters, will compre-
bend public appreciation of celored work
In everything nowadays, So far as my
observation goes, the tendency is to finer
work, more delicate colors, and better
paper and printing Fortunately there
cannot be in this line of work, under exist
ing.circumstances, that destructive COMPETE
ton which we see in other branches of the
publishing business. In the first place,
artists are few and i'll other branches of the
business, such as photography, engraving,