Evening star., 1925-01-04
FOREIGN VIEWS OF UNCLE SAM.

process is easily traced to the type of
today, the well-to-do country gentle
man, whose good humor and evident
breeding were the gifts of John
Leech and Sir John Tenniel in London
Punch the middle of last century. No
comic journal has a higher grade Of
humor than this world-famous week
~. 1t Is surely the epitome of Eng
lish wit, often so subtle that the Brit
ish have a reputation for not possess
ing any sense of humor whatsoever
Punch appeals to the class of readers
who do not take the Police Gazette
Punch extensively employs satire and
directs sharp and often singing
shafts against his victims. But so
much of his wit is universally funny
without causing i'll feelings in any
one concerned that he well deserves
his place upon the library tables of
the most intellectual class of readers
X X
IN all countries where cartooning is
employed symbolic figures repre-
senting the various nations are used
out of necessity. And though the
standards vary, the conceptions have
been most potently influenced by
Punch. And woe to him who at
tempts to change the types with
which the whole world is now IA
miliar! Uncle Sam, John Bull Cousin
Michel, John Chinaman, Germania
Madame France, the Russian Bear
and others of Importance were chiefly
conyentionalized by Sir John Tenniel.
They have become institutions with
us, as much so as the Constitution,
base ball and breakfast bacon, and all
efforts to overthrow any of these are
met with vociferous protests. An
early fault-finder with Punchs John
Bull was John Ruskin, who pointed
out that the country gentleman type
doesn't at all express the true char
acter of Britain's subjects. For Great
Britain is the last nation on earth to
be considered a country of farmers.
The most recent criticism is that of
a few months ago by a former uni
versity president of Sheffield, who
finds John Bull extensively mercantile
in appearance, when he should be
poetic!
Analogous to these statements are
frequent denunciations of Uncle Sam
as our representative, mainly because
Of his physical characteristics. The
tall, gaunt Yankee type with sharp
features and twinkling eyes is sup
posed to have long ago become ex-
tinct. But isn't that type the way we
love to think of ourselves?
development to the pages of the Lon
don weekly, though he grew by hard
knocks. 1t is highly probable that
his first definite appearance was in
Punch since political cartooning in
this country was very haphaZard
affair until about 1880. For the next
10 years here the feminine symbolic
figure appeared frequently, some
times old, sometimes young, but al
ways she was distinguished by the
national colors. 1t might be said that
Uncle Sam fell heir to his mothers
clothes when she discarded them to
adopt the classic" style now fash
ionable among the symbolic elite. For
in Il quaint old caricature now in the
New York Public Library collection,
entitled New Edition of Macbeth
Bank-Oh Ghost. 1887" the old lady
wears a spangled sleeveless
jacket and striped skirt. A fero-
cious-looking dagger thrust in her
belt bellies her innocent frilled cap
and specs.
r TNCLE SANS debut in Punch took
place the second week of Au-
gust, 1912. in volume 8, No. 81, when
the English weekly was little over
year old. A humorous letter signed
Sam Slick, the Younger" requests
Punch to permit America to look
from his pages. The sketch repre-
sents Sam in wide brimmed hat and
| a farmer boys suit, the galluses much
in evidence, and wearing what Punch
! calls double sQuint-one eye con-
| templating a dollar, the other watch
| ing a slave. About two months later
the United States is again represented
| in Punch as ferocious Indian smok-
| ing a long black stogie and clad only
| in our flag for a skirt.
Early American cartoonists. how
ever, are wholly responsible for the
coupling of both the name Uncle
| Sam and the type. The English,
curiously enough. always labeled him
Cousin" or Brother Jonathan This