They are both self-made men from Glasgow. They are now really living it up in London. We see the table furnishings, the food, the cigars, the brandy and the butler. From the dialogue we know that they started life living in very rough conditions.
It is hard now to imagine why either of them would want to return. Yet the speaker seems surprised that he doesn’t. Perhaps all there is to this cartoon is that he is surprised but we aren’t.
It is also just possible that here is another jibe at self-made men. We have witnessed them before in this thread. This would mean that Jimsie and his host ought to be content with their good fortune and stop even thinking of Glasgow. They are both very much not the sort of people who would want to read Punch. I put this forward as a mere possibility.
The boy’s mother regards herself as a lady and would very much like to think that her little boy is becoming a little gentleman. The son is an active (and possibly hyperactive) boy. He has no wish to be a little gentleman. Indeed he likes to play with the Timson boys because they clearly are not little gentlemen. If asked, his mother would say that they are ‘rough’. What she really would mean is that they are ‘common’.
The boy’s answer cuts no ice with his mother. She is not at all interested in what is good for the Timsons. It does however reveal how determined he is to go on associating with his friends.
I have tried, without any success, to discover the identity of the two objects that he is holding. They obviously belong to some (presumably outdoor) game but the question is which game. It is obviously not a coconut that he is holding in the crook of his right arm. Could it be junior size rugger ball? Is that a helmet that he is holding with both hands? What game would that be?
Once again upper middle class people are making fun of what they called ‘the lower orders.’
Alfie is letting his mother down. The only thing that Dad is doing ‘nice’ is to sit up reasonably straight. His use of a table knife reminds me of the ditty that I first encountered more than 60 years ago:
I eat my peas with honey
I’ve done it all my life
It makes the peas taste funny
But it keeps them on the knife.
Frequent references to the Great Depression in 1932 seem quite topical these days.
The man in the armchair hasn’t any idea of how to cope with his inability to pay his many bills. He seems not to know how to reduce his expenditure. At least he understands that there is a serious problem. He feels that he ought to worry. Since all his life he has got other people to do things for him he now tells Perkins to do his worrying for him.
The readers of Punch are not expected to feel sorry for him. He belongs (or used to belong) to the super rich. I see him as a man who was brought up in the expectation that he would never need to do a single day’s work throughout his life. Indeed, I would guess that his father had lived his entire life without any need to work. His grandfather I imagine used to work extremely hard all his life. He would have been a Victorian entrepreneur who amassed great riches having started life extremely poor. There were many such in the Nineteenth Century. With his great wealth behind him he would then see to it that his offspring would become ‘gentlemen’. It was a very common story.
The only plan that Perkins could come up with after looking at the bills would be to start to seek alternative employment.
I realise that the modern ‘take’ on this picture is that there had been an erotic relationship between Henry and his employer. I can’t prove it but I feel certain that this was not in the cartoonist’s mind – even by implication.
In the first place such a relationship was at that time illegal. More than that it was not the sort of crime which attracted unspoken tolerance – like the wide spread attitude to drug taking today. The great majority of the population would have viewed such activities with deep revulsion. I can’t imagine that the readers of Punch would have been at all comfortable with the modern interpretation.
My own theory is that the deserted husband so little values his departed wife that he misses a mere chauffeur more than he misses her. End of story.
Gentle fun is being poked at Dolores and her mistress. I am assuming that Attar of Hydrangeas doesn’t come that cheap.
Dropping all your clothes on the floor? Well, that’s what maids are for!
I don’t suppose the young lady had ever read the following by Hillaire Belloc.
Lord Finchley tried to mend the electric light
It struck him dead, and serve him right.
It is the duty of the wealthy man
To give employment to the artisan.
She did, however, behave according to this precept.
1932: I’m Absolutely Brilliant, You Are Quite Ordinary
I can’t help feeling that she is not anything like as special as she thinks she is. Note that she sees nothing wrong in openly referring to her so-called superiority over the alarmed looking young man. I wonder what she really thinks she is going to learn from him?
Perhaps she is going to get him to tell her his (obviously boring) life history so that she can use it to create a minor character for a novel she is writing. This practice was quite common in the 30s and is by no means unknown today. It wouldn’t lead one to admire her ‘genius’.
Here is another George Belcher drawing in his usual style. Since the elderly lady is just minding the shop it is quite likely that she won’t be aware of the hardware meaning of the gentleman’s question and is therefore entitled to feel offended. Puns are always popular especially when they aren’t too obvious.
Belcher’s cartoons usually remain aloof from the general upper middle class atmosphere of the other Punch jokes. The shop certainly conforms to this standard of his. But what about this would-be customer, in his top hat and spats? Perhaps he doesn’t represent an exception to the norm since he is more upper than middle.
I may well be taking the cartoon too seriously but I can’t help wondering what Belcher thinks that this gent is doing. Why on earth would he want to come and purchase a small vice? If he owns a business that might use such an object then surely he would send an employee to go and get it. He is hardly going to carry it out of the shop. If his chauffeur needs one then he would be making the purchase.
Then I start to wonder if he needs a vice for his personal use. That would imply that he has a workshop in his home where he does a bit of woodwork or metalwork as a hobby. Looking at him this seems highly unlikely.
I don’t see any really plausible solution to this little puzzle.
What makes this man so inconsiderate and why does he think that he can get away with it?
The answer I feel is the substantial disparity in the number of eligible men and women. The man in the cartoon could have had his pick of many young women.
The original message, I feel sure, is that these women don’t understand business at all. It is alleged that they think that if the shopkeepers don’t have enough business then the answer is simply to do what they always do and go on a shopping spree. ‘Problem solved’ they appear to be thinking. The better informed readers of Punch are expected to realise that that the speaker’s husband looks understandably unconvinced since his own business is in the same doldrums.
Nowadays there is a feeling that up to a point they may be right. After 2008 this conundrum was being aired again. I particularly recall what Boris Johnson wrote after he had heard that the Queen, mindful of people having to economise, had decided to have fewer dresses made for her. He commented that, on the contrary, she should be ordering more dresses to be made since that would actually help the economy. The relevant fact is that she can afford it. The man in the cartoon is wondering whether he can.
The customer is determined to start an argument. She is probably annoyed by something other than the fairly innocuous object that the young salesman is holding out. Although clearly inexperienced even he realises that he must try to defuse the situation but he is overdoing it. It is unwise to criticise your wares so openly.
When he is more experienced he will be saying something like this:
Madam, not all our customers are as discriminating as you are. I regret to say that we have to cater for all sorts of people here. Please allow me show you something else that will be more to your taste.
Note the date. The enterprising quartet have gone ‘up West’ to try and gain a few coppers. Their problem is the date. The end of November is clearly too late for Guy Fawkes Night and equally too early for Christmas.
The lady in the fur coat looks benevolent but she is not to be taken in. The boys look remarkably clean and tidy by modern standards.
There is no doubting her benevolence. The trouble is that she seems to have forgotten why the cheese is placed in the mousetraps. Jenkins can’t bring himself to point this out.
my guess is the boy is holding a baseball under his arm and holding the baseball glove with both hands …
