1938: Quick Thinking Charity Worker
Change the patter in order to make a favourable impression on the stuck-up snobs. The butler is out-sneering his employers.
1938: What is Wrong About Wilkins?
She doesn’t mind him giving away his worn-out clothes but she draws the line at Wilkins. Why should that be?
There is a suggestion here that he isn’t one of ‘our sort people.’ However I can’t help noticing the complete similarity between donor and recipient. The artist hasn’t shown this by accident. Even the posture is the same. Does this imply that Wilkins is the result of an illicit liaison between the donor’s father and some lower class girl? That would account for her comment since the outfit draws attention to the similarity. But what is such a scenario doing in the pages of Punch?
My solution seems rather far-fetched but I can’t think of any other. Any other suggestions?
1938: Portrait of a City
This is not meant as a joke. It is simply an artist’s impression of the bustle and diversity of life in New York. It is a vivid account and is in complete harmony with what we can see in the films of the time.
1938: Another Scottish Stereotype
This is one of many jokes about the Scots being very ‘careful’ with their money. Here the humour is not far-fetched – this scenario is entirely plausible.
1938: Doubts About Hitler
Without the benefit of hindsight this cartoon reflects a sense of unease about the massive German rearmament taking place at the time. By portraying Hitler as a dodgy, down-at-heel street vendor the cartoonist suggests that his justification is probably untrue. For 1938 this represents a noticeable shift from the ‘let us hope that at all costs we can avoid another war’ feeling that was very much the popular view even at what we now know to be a very late stage.
1938: The Alarmist
This cartoon is the other side of the coin to yesterday’s example in which Hitler’s motives are viewed with suspicion.
Here the man in the gas mask is the object of the joke. He is obviously over reacting but the underlying message is that we don’t really need to worry. It is difficult for later generations to comprehend this short sightedness but it was based on a deeply-held fear of a repeat of the bloodshed of the previous war.
1938: Footpads Again
They weren’t called muggers then but that is what they were doing. The idea that they didn’t want to be ‘put in the wrong’ was obviously absurd. They certainly looked shabby. Their intended victim doesn’t look all that prosperous either.
1938: Mental Arithmetic
The child is applying her recently acquired numeracy skills to something to which she can relate. How different this was to the sort of questions I remember solving which consisted of how long does it take to fill a bath (cubic capacity given) or to mow a field (area stated).
1938: Metropolitan Life
It comes as a surprise to us now but in 1938 the pace of life in London was considered to be absolutely frantic. The ‘country cousins’ are quite bewildered at the eternal rushing about and consequently keep getting in the way. The graphics are a quite compelling illustration of this phenomenon though it exaggerates quite a lot.
1938: Celebs as they were then known
The body language has changed now but this activity is still very much with us.
1938: Non Communication
I wonder where it is that she has been. Quite possibly it is nothing illicit but she objects to her mother’s intrusive line of questioning.
The young lady’s attitude is the same today 
1938: The Classically Educated Master Criminal
Most Latin tags encapsulate quite complex ideas into very few words. The English language rarely supports such economy. So I prefer the following longer, freer translation:
The object must be pursued without compromise but if it can be achieved without unpleasantness then so much the better.
The master criminal is addressing this message – in Latin – to a dodgy set of shady characters, including the obligatory gangster’s moll. We clearly aren’t expected to believe that any of them will understand what he is saying nor that they would appreciate the instruction even if they understood it. Looking at the gang it is highly likely that there will indeed be some unpleasantness. We are expected to find it amusing that the arch criminal is so literate. Possibly he is meant to have attended a Public School in his youth and then ‘gone to the bad’. (Jane Austen once described Winchester College as a place for future heroes, legislators, fools and villains.)
Presumably the cartoonist assumed that a reasonable proportion of Punch’s readers would have understood the quotation. Even those that didn’t would at least get part of the joke.
Interestingly this quotation does not stem from classical antiquity at all. It comes from the writings of a Superior General of the Jesuits and dates from the late Sixteenth Century.
1938: Class and the Spoken Language
This cartoon is satirically drawing attention to the different ways in which classical and popular musicians address their audiences. Such distinctions remain today but are probably not quite as polarised.
1938: Modernism
Quite a number of Punch cartoons focus on the minimal furnishings of the period. I reckon that this trend represents a conscious departure from the fussy clutter of Victorian homes.
1938: Life Among the Bargees
(Very) close proximity adds weight to her threat.
1938: Grasp of Statistics
The young paper seller seems to speak only in clichés and clearly does not understand the words coming out of his mouth.
1938: A Seriously Flawed Policy
I have encountered this kind of approach in a number of business circumstances. George Belcher takes his readers into conditions of which other Punch cartoonists seem to be totally unaware.
1938: Cinema Violence
By 1938 films were all of the talking variety though still black and white. Going to the flics was a treat at the time and all sorts of people indulged in this activity. This was the time when every urban area offered a choice of picture houses to attend ranging from the grandiose to the simple which was always called the fleapit.
1938: Bathchair Race
There are many cartoons dating from this time in which people are being wheeled about in bathchairs. The suggestion is that the occupants were either too old or disabled in some way to walk. I have the impression that they often were elderly men suffering from gout. The man talking in the cartoon looks rather fit and not that old. Perhaps he just can’t be bothered to walk.
Ten pounds would have been a considerable inducement at the time.
Nowadays wheelchairs are available making a ‘driver’ unnecessary. For those who can’t propel the device with their hands a motorised version exists.