Part 16 (2/2)

After Sampson's scalp.

America's Real Desire.

Castelar writes a letter.

”This is for you if you don't behave.”

Spanish Cartoons of the Spanish-American War.

_From the ”Don Quijote” (Madrid)._]

CHAPTER x.x.xII

THE BOER WAR AND THE DREYFUS CASE

A cartoon which was a forerunner of the Transvaal War and the railway between Capetown and Cairo was that ent.i.tled ”The Rhodes Colossus,”

which appeared in _Punch_ December 10, 1892. It was by the hand of Linley Sambourne. It shows a colossal figure of Cecil Rhodes standing on a map of Africa with one foot planted in Egypt and the other at the Cape. In his hands he holds a line suggesting the telegraph wire connecting the two places.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Rhodes Colossus.

_By Linley Sambourne._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Situation in South Africa.

_By Gillam in ”Judge.”_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The English World Kingdom, or b.l.o.o.d.y Cartography.

_From the ”l.u.s.tige Blatter.”_]

Although the German Government refused to interfere in the protracted struggle in the Transvaal, the sympathy of Germany with the Boers found expression in a host of cartoons, bitterly inveighing against British aggression. Thoroughly characteristic is one which appeared in the _l.u.s.tige Blatter_ ent.i.tled ”English World-Kingdom; or, b.l.o.o.d.y Cartography.” A grossly distorted caricature of Victoria is standing before a map of the world, and dipping her pen in a cup of blood, held for her by an army officer. Chamberlain, at her elbow, is explaining that ”the lowest corner down yonder, must be painted red!” Another of the _l.u.s.tige Blatter's_ grim cartoons, alluding to the terrible price in human life that England paid for her ultimate victory in the Transvaal, depicts Britannia, as Lady Macbeth, vainly trying to wash the stain from her b.l.o.o.d.y hands. ”Out, d.a.m.ned spot!” In lighter vein is the cartoon which is here reproduced from the _Wiener Humoristische Blatter_ showing ”Oom Paul at His Favorite Sport.” Kruger, rakishly arrayed in tennis garb, is extracting infinite enjoyment from the congenial exercise of volleying English soldiers, dressed up as shuttlec.o.c.ks, over the ”Transvaal net” into the watery ditch beyond.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Britannia as Lady Macbeth trying to wash away the Stains of the Boer War.

_From the ”l.u.s.tige Blatter.”_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Flying Dutchman.

_Minneapolis ”Journal.”_]

Judged by the manner it was mirrored in the caricature of Europe and America, the Dreyfus Case a.s.sumed the magnitude of a great war or a crisis in national existence. During the last two or three years that the degraded Captain of Artillery was a prisoner at Devil's Island, when Zola was furiously accusing, and the General Staff was talking about ”the Honor of the Army,” and France was divided into two angry camps, one had only to glance at the current cartoons to realize that Dreyfus was, as the late G. W. Steevens called him, ”the most famous man in the world.” For a time the great personages of the earth were relegated to the background. The monarchs and statesmen of Europe were of interest and importance only so far as their careers affected that of the formerly obscure Jewish officer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Oom Paul's Favorite Pastime.

_From the ”Wiener Humoristische Blatter.”_]

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