Greenwood daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1919-1926, 1920-04-20
x X X x x x X x x X X :
= WASHINGTON
x NEWS LETTER
By The Washington Star !:
Copyright 1920.
THE ELEPHANT AND DONKEY
Their Origin AS Emblems For Car
toon PurpOses-'Tis Very inter-
esting, Mates; Draw Near.

cloak room the other day when a
young member of the House wanted
to know the origin of the use of the
elephant and the donkey as the en-
blem, for cartooning purposes, of the
republican and democratic parties
Several different versions of the adop-
ton of the caricatures were advanced
and finally one of the younger men
was detailed to set out on a kind of
political naturalists' expedition to
trace the custom to its lair; to find
out how, when and why it originated.
The trail led far afield but the quar-
ry was finally run down in New York
City. 'Tis an interesting yarn, mates;
draw near.
The elephant and the donkey were
mas Mast, in Harper's. The genesis
of the idea, however, was with the
New York Herald. One Sunday NOR
ming in November, 1874, the New York
Herald published a flake" story des-
cribing the escape of animals from the
zoo. 1t attracted widespread atten-
ton on account of its graphic por
trayal and vivid description. 1t was
accompanied by pictures of all kinds
of animals, elephants, donkeys, lions
and in fact regular Noah's ark col
lection. On November 7, Mr.. Mast
published a cartoon in Harper's, por
traying an elephant, and calling it
the republican party. The idea was
that the elephant, on account of its
great strength and burden of the cry
of nepotism then being raised against
Gen. Grant.
A Couple of weeks later Mr.. Mast
published another cartoon depicting
the donkey as the emblem Of the dem
ocratic party, because of the way the
democrats had handled things. A car
toon appearing in Harper's in jan
uary, 1870, was based on the fable of
the ass kicking the dead lion. The
ass was marked "The Copperhead
Press" while the lion bore the feat
ures of Edwin H. Stanton, who had
recently died. The cartoon was sup
posed to have reference to the Will
fication of the memory of Stanton by
the "coperhead" section of the demo-
cratic press.
Mr.. Nast's first use of the elephant
was in depicting that animal, mark
ed "The Republican Voters" crossing
bridge of planks from the republi-
can platform, which were breaking
under the burdens he had to carry.
Mr.. Mast continued to use the two an
imals for characterization of the res
pective parties, and other cartoonists
took up the idea, until today they are
in universal use for purposes of rid
iculing the two parties, or for hav
ing little good natured fun.
William Jennings Bryan, who has
a keen sense of humor and who en-
joys a cartoon even at his own expen-
Sc even if it's clever, has never re-
sented the adoption of the donkey to
tn caricaturing of the democratic par
ty. He likes to be pictured in it's com
pany. At notable public dinner in
Washington several years ago, he took
occasion to point with PRIDE to the
lowly donkey as emblematic of his
party. He glowingly described the
domestic virtues of the faithful ami
NAL, its patience under the infliction
of heavy burdens, as characteristic
of the long suffering of the ''plain
people" under theirs, and was glad
that the business end' of the donkey
its hoofs-can register emphatic
"kicks" when the burden becomes too
heavy.
The last cartoon in which Mr.. Bry
an and the donkey figured was one by
the famous cartoonist, Bergman,
showing Mr. Bryan standing on the
edge of the prohibition water trough,
trying to make the protesting demo-
cratic donkey drink, having dragged
it there by a halter. Mr.. Bryan, who
was in Washington at the time the
cartoon was published, laughed over
it heartily and congratulated his
Bryan delights in being presented
with the original drawings of the car
toons of him which are without malice
and which breathe a spirit Of good
natured raillery.
In the political campaigns OF sue
ceeding years, following the example
set by Mr.. Mast, the cartoon has been
regarded as powerful political wea-
non. and the use of it has grown.
Nast's cartoons were effective IN
breaking up the notorious Tweed ring
and had far-reaching effect IN many
campaigns, political. state and nat
ional.
One of the most effective cartoon
lists Of the present generation was
Davenport and every one remembers
how he depicted Mark Ham IN his
sulit of dcllar-maxk clothing dnring