The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-22
NEW BOOK NEWS
CONDUCTED BY. MARTHA YOUNG

esse esss
 The History of the Nineteenth Gen. tury in Caricature-A more striking piece of history was never put into book form. M ,
 It is the flood of events taken at the very foam crest of the wave.
 Old soldiers always, in telling or their many battles have some incident to tell of how, at the utmost strain or sinew and nerve came a joke or laugh to relieve the tension ana so bring things back to a sense of reaAity.
 Such in aadegree. is the ofice Of the caricaturist, to relieve the tension
 To make the mighty world moving events of the time attune again to tho chords of nature, human nature.
 To describe the tang of the vocai chord that resounds even in the sym- phony of the music of the spheres
 Also the caricaturist must be some what of a prophet. If he IS 10 snow The form of the foam on the crest or the wave he must be able to guess pc. forehand what form the foap-crest will take so that in looking rom ms lines to the white crest line peop.e n,.ss ss. SeeI that tbey see what they already know. Our best loved artists In all i,nea ten us not something new, but somethine we knew-but knowledge or which had not before taken shape In line, word or score.
 The clever authors of this volume AIearly state the position of the best of the school:
 "The best and most telling cartoons are those which do not merely reflect current public opinion, but guide 1t. Tn looking back over a century of car feature. we are apt to overlook this sfIstinction. A cartoon which cleverly Illustrates some important historical event. and throws light upon the con- temporary attitude of the public. IS equally interesting today, whether 1t anticipated the event or was puolisned a month afterward. But in order to influence public opinion, caricature must contain a certain element of prophecy It must suggest danger or point an interrogation"
 The first part of the volume deals with The Napoleonic era. so rich In political cartoons. The work of Ho- garth and Gi1lray are ably reviewed Hogarth's work. antedating the food tide of political scaricature oy ntty years, was of utmost importance. So much of nature. history and art his works hold that they appeal to larger audiences. and hold them closer through the centuries than that of any other cartoonist.
 Lacking the element of complexity and obscurity they are of more appeal ing and lasting value. Balloons or talk floating from peoples mouths over a picture are always disturbing to the mind of one who loves art.
 It is delightful to almost learn from Hokarth that people must be saying and doing without a written record to tell us.
 "He (Hogarth) was by instinct a realist, endowed with a keen sense Of hufnor-a quality in which many modern realist is deficient He satir- ized life as he saw it, the good and the had together, with a frankness which at times was somewhat brutal. like the frankness of the age they lived in. Judged by the standards of his day. there is little offense in Hogarth's work. even when measured by our own, he is not deliberately licentious. on the contrary, he set an example or moderation which his successors would have done we'll to initiate. He real fzed, as the later caricaturists of his century did not, that the great strength of pictorial satire lies in ridi- cule rather than in invectfve; that the subtlest irony often lies in a close ad- herence to truth, where riotous and un- restrained exaggeration defeats its own end"
 And aRaln. III SO OA AAN rarth's work one feels that the carica- turist is forced to yield place to the realistic artist, the student of human like. His chief gift to caricature Is his unprecedented development of the narrative quality in pictorial art. He nointed a road along which his imita" tors could follow him only at dis tance."
 This most discriminating and appre- ciative valuation of this prince of pic- torial satire tempts to pages of quota- tion. ..~.
 There follows a chapter upon the Rehelais-life work of Gillroy.
 "There is but one of the hall marks of great caricature in the work of Gill; roy, and that is the lasting impression which they make. They refuse to be forgotten Throughout the Napoleonlc wars. caricature and the name of Gill; rov are convertible terms"
 Fine illustrations of Gillroy's work are reprinted here--the deliciously fun nv one of Napoleon and Pitt dividing the world" Gan excellent Plum Pud- dingD between them. After Gillroy, the works of his contemporaries and