Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12
IDA GILBERT MYERS.

ularity. The daily press every
where gives evidence of this as
does also the increasing host of
periodicals devoted chiefly to this form
of illustrative art. The cartoon is sup
ported by an authentic history of its
owrl-somewhat ancient, as history
runs and certainly honorable. It's family
tree is of impressive height and spread.
There is good reason for such distinc-
ton on its part.
That which is known as high art,
classic in origin and therefore of
mandarinic authority, Is likely to
idealiZe its subject quite out of the
common reach and often quite out of
common sight. Contrariwise, the car
toon stands by. close to the ground
where the rest of us are. 1t is real
presence-a nudging, prodding, shoul-
dering, Fostering personality, bound to
catch attentive eyes and ears at it's
every performance. It is, moreover,
absorbed in the passing moment--our
moment. 1t deals with the great and
the near-great of our own day and
hour. Besides-and strong point, this
it presents these transient big men at
their humanest, in stockinged feet and
sagging galluses, so to speak. Such
stark exposure tickles Tom and Dick
and Harry into irrepressible approvals
and growing fealties for the cartoon, a
practical tool for the up-spading and
over-turning Of the soil Of daily ex-
istence. In purpose, therefore. the
cartoon is propaganda, often Of re-
forming stripe. Or so 1t says. To meet
this role the cartoon must know history
for illuminating comparisons and con-
trasts. It does know history. It is also
on a tip-toe intimacy with current
doings. 1t is keenly intelligent. some
thing OF necromancer upon occasion
even. 1t is keen witted, many-sided
agency OF advance, with q turn now
and then for sheer torture.
1t is the Comic Spirit that animates
the cartoon. In neat division of labor
Comedy erected two lookout towers
To one of these she assigned Humor.
To the other, Wit. These her prime
! ministers, her eyes and ears. From the
one Humor looks down in smiling SYM
pathy upon world more or less dis
traught with its own over-reachings.
its own short -comings. Laughter, genial
understanding. kindly fun-making.
! friendly admonitions-these are the
work-tools of Humor. Wit. on the other
satire and irony. ridicule and jibe, for
the public hagellation Of its hurt and
! Inundated victims. And-so truly are
we built on the wild-beast plan-Wit
wins out with us more often than does
| humor. Yet for the long run 1t is the
kindly humor of Comedy that produces
the finally impressive and effective
| cartoon.
Like glove to hand does the cartoon
! fit politics and the political idiosvn-
crasies of succeeding campaigns. They
appear to have been made for each
other. The speedy action and swift
| turn. the exuberance of spirit and in
| tensity of feeling, the excuses Of speech
! eloquent canoniZation on the one
hand, devastating philippe and diatribe
on the other-these familiar ebullient
behaviors Of campaign politics are
caught In the air, so to speak, by the
cartoonist and planked down red-hot
for the excited passer to snatch at.
plain and too cool to give pause to his
| sprinting speed And when the cam
| paign dies away 1t Is still with the
more normal activities Of political
| parties and legislative bodies that the
cartoon finds its richest field of achieve
ment.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A Cartoon His
| tory BY Albert Shaw. New York
The Review of Reviews Corporation
mixed together by q running ex-
/ planatory thread Of text, here are
! two volumes Of cartoon history-the
essence Of event. the highlights Of sig
nificant national attitude. the indi-
| vidual course and influence Of the out
! standing public men of the time. A
moving picture by way Of the special
art of the cartoon that covers the Lin
coin period, its approaches, its sudden
| termination in the death Of Lincoln,
its most salient and lasting effects. A
novel and original plan for so big and
| important a theme. A book of imme-
date and striking effect, one, too. that
tunes in completely and eff1ciently with
the need of the hurrying day--that
even he who runs may read.
| The first of these volumes includes,
| in picture and binding text, the main
! facts in the life of Lincoln up to his
election to the presidency. The sec
ond one covers the swift and mo-
mentous year from March to March,
| 1860 to 1861. And here, as If one were
! travelling some political scenic high
way-as in fact he isis the long
march of vital events and those who
gave to these body and direction.
Jackson. doughty fighter for democ-
racy against the reactionary Of his
! day, as rabid against monopoly and
| the financial magnate as his spiritual
| successors have been. The Mexican
war, with the accusations and counter
! charges which that International con-
| flict brought out. stands here in long
! line of accusatory scenes. Van Buren,.
smooth politician; Buchanan. timid and
uncertain; the rather tragic Henry
be for him complete political nisad-
ventures: the unfriendly British In car
toons of sympathy for the South and
| ridicule for the "rail-splitter"-these
and innumerable other timely themes
| Of the period stand along the way, each
Offering a substantial gift out OF the
immediate past Of the United states
to us who are passing by, heirs to that
| past. The second volume, only year
long, partakes of the tempo Of our own
day-a swift march through the IL
months-when Seward and Douglas
engage much of the cartoonist's atten-
ton, when Tammany was In the lime
| light Of condemnation on the one
hand, of extenuation on the other
much as it has been for the TO years
lying in between then and now. A
host Of men. great in their own Gay
many Of them still great. are assem-
bled here by the surprising vivioness
and vitality OF the cartoon-Jene
Davis, Salmon Chase. John Quincy
Adams, Sumner, Webster, Calhoun.
Alexander Stephens, Marshall and
many another service man OF That
lusty day and age. A book Of clear
usefulness and Of clear delight. An
ingenious mind has brought together
here from many sources, but under the
single aegis Of the cartoon. a strikingly
fascinating history that, authentic In
the main, reliable in substance, re.
embodies the actual spirit that moved
events forward 10 years ago toward the
spot where we now stand looking BACK
ward upon the living content OF the
day that then was the passing hour, a
day dominated by the personality ana
career Of our great man-Abraham