Wow! Just made it to the end of Page 20.
I’ll catch up eventually!
Well done JBR. Perseverance really does pay off!
Here is another one.
I really doubt that, unlike today, the Yiddish word ‘chutzpa’ was widely understood in 1938 but here is a clear example of it in action.
The most glaring example of chutzpa that I ever encountered occurred in Hong Kong. I was on leave there with some army friends and we met up in a bar with some sailors in the New Zealand Navy. My colleague, Jim, was slight in build and about five foot two in height. He was sitting next to a Maori Chief Petty Officer who was massive in build and about six foot two tall. There was some question of whether someone had spilt some of Jim’s beer. The CPO assured Jim that he hadn’t done it. Jim replied ‘That’s lucky for you!’
We all smiled, especially the bearded NZ matelot.
1938: Modernism Itself has a History
The artist is here drawing our attention to how some ‘advanced’ people were behaving in the 1930s. Assuming that this is not a deliberate exaggeration, the freedom allowed to the daughter of the house would have been quite rare for the time.
The clothes (and body language) of the two are carefully observed. It is strange that most of the furnishing here are not ‘modern’ at all. Apart from the lampshade what we see is decidedly old-fashioned for the time. It took me some time to realise that what we see in the window is the bearded gardener pruning a tree outside the house.
What the visitor is saying is a correct description of late Victorian Britain: 18 year old ‘gels’ really were not allowed to smoke. ‘Collapse of Elderly Visitor’ indeed.
1938: Story Without Words
No caption is needed here as this charming little story is self-explanatory. I am surprised to see that Mr Snip feels the need to stand in the doorway of his establishment.
1938: Shopping in ‘Less Enlightened’ Times
Customers didn’t expect to have to lug their shopping home. Young lads at the onset of their careers would deliver it to your door. There would have been a lot of deliveries to be made since supermarkets didn’t exist.
Online ordering from the said supermarkets is the modern equivalent but that leaves out the customer seeing what she or he is purchasing.
It’s called ‘progress’ or something.
1938: A Voice from the Past
The drawing shows a Seventeenth Century battle about to take place. The General is not interested in the Captain’s tactical suggestion preferring to slug it out until one side has no-one left alive. At that time it wouldn’t have been called attrition. In 1938 it would, and there were keen memories of the Western Front in 1914 -1918 and I feel certain that this exactly what this drawing is about. I put it down as an anti-war cartoon.
1938: We Know What is at the Centre of her Map
London has nothing of interest to offer her.
1938: Look Out, Ramblers
I need to work out the complete meaning of this cartoon. I already know that during the 1920s and 30s there was a growing interest in hiking in the countryside. My father-in-law was an enthusiastic rambler at the time.
Now I need to draw some inferences. It looks to me that visiting hikers were not very welcome in the villages that they visited – they disturbed the peace. If, in great numbers, they would knock on the doors of people’s homes and ask for refreshments that would certainly cause resentment. What puzzles me though is why some enterprising inhabitant would not set up to meet this demand.
Strange, really.
1938: Competition on the High Street
Two different retail offerings are in conflict. The lady in the hat is selling traditional manufactured ware. The lady in the sandals on the right is selling hand crafted ware. This is also traditional but the traditions are different.
1938: Surprise!
An interesting way for the zoo to display this tall animal.
1938: Town Dwellers - What Can You Expect?
I don’t get the impression that the readers of Punch were very keen on opening up the countryside to town dwellers.
1938: The Importance of Golf
Golf figures prominently in the pages of Punch. An abiding concern among the leisured classes was what to do with all this leisure. Sport of many kinds was usually the answer and was taken very seriously as a result.
Here we see a keen lady golfer who has just made a serious mistake. I rather think that the point is that she reckons that she is the expert and therefore can’t bear the idea of being corrected by the man.
The artist has convincingly caught the postures of the two in a brief moment in time.
1938: Latin Spoken by the Working Classes!
How quaint! Ordinary people shouting out the correct Latin names of the plants that they are selling from their barrow! That, my friends, is the joke! They ought to be dropping their aitches…
My Google research tells me that the plants in question are clove pink, English wallflower and tussock bellflower.
So they hadn’t made up imaginary Latin names.
1938: Not the Behaviour of a Real Gentleman
This precious young man isn’t being appreciated by the waiter or by the other diners. He can’t be bothered to read the wine list himself and feels compelled to use fancy language.
Bad Show!
1938: The Colonising Mentality
Clearly this is more than a bit of an exaggeration. (How would they have got the cow into her precarious pen?)
But the underlying view really was that the world was one’s oyster if you were British. We note the pet monkey on the roof of the shack also waving off the visitor. There is also the loyal bearer bringing up supplies to the ‘bwana’ and his lady. The hosts clearly aren’t that wealthy but they still enjoy imperial privilege.
1938: How Not to Make Friends With and Influence the ‘Natives’
This cartoon is just making fun of the British Empire.
Everything surely is a caricature particularly the ‘natives’. The ‘empire builders’ look pretty silly having disembarked from their ship flying the Union Jack especially as they haven’t got any soldiers with them. The reception committee look suitably ‘sambo’ like. (I assume that we are looking at the local queen and her entourage.) The most absurd part is the ‘present’ that Jenkinson has prematurely revealed.
Well, I’ve finally caught up! I should say that it has been an excellent thread and long may it continue. Hopefully, you have access to even more of these wonderful cartoons.
The first thing I thought when I saw this last one was ‘how times have changed’! I can’t imagine such an image being published these days in the ‘PC Age’, even though I’m sure no offence to the people of the ‘reception committee’ was intended.
1938: The Price of Failure
The skipper in the Wavy Navy (that is, Merchant Navy, not Royal Navy) has greatly under estimated the effect that this accident will have on his career. Five pounds doesn’t begin to cover the losses that he is going to sustain.
1938: A Charming Picture
I rather think that bell making remains the same however large or small the bell is. Is it possible to pre-determine the note that is emitted? I wouldn’t know.
1938: Parisian Fantasy
Without noticing it the two Frenchmen about Town find themselves on the inside looking out instead of on the outside looking in.