Stripper's Guide

“A.B. Chapin, being of sound mind and in possession of such faculties as are his to be blessed with, does hereby, at the request and order of his new boss, depose and testify,” wrote A.B. Chapin, a Journalism Week speaker, when he became cartoonist of the St. Louis Republic. “He was born in Ohio. He was led out of Ohio while a boy by his parents, who resolutely set their faces to the plains of Kansas. He has, for the past twenty-five years, fought, bled and died two or three times a week defending the honor of his adopted state. He never was an infant prodigy, nor were his papers in the drawing classes the ‘marvels of neatness,’ or the indications of ‘wonderful talent.’ No ‘I knew him when’ clubs have ever been started in his honor and probably never will.

“He skinned through school somehow. He also went through high school. After he had surmounted the Alps of his high school days he became obsessed of the idea that it was his mission in life to break into the newspaper game. His start along that line was not accomplished by all the pyrotechnics of a flashing meteor. His desire to study art at this time was blocked by an embarrassing lack of funds, so he drove a fish wagon long enough to hoard up car fare to New York and buy a few ‘sinkers and coffee’ and there he stayed during 1899–1900.

“He returned to Kansas City and secured his first newspaper job on the old Kansas City Times. He went to the Kansas City Star late in 1901 and has since then been at the blacksmith’s business on said paper, and prays pardon for his many sins of commission.”

That was written before Chapin joined the Republic staff in St. Louis. “Before adopting the first-page cartoon,” says the Republic’s managing editor, “we set out to find a cartoonist of first-page caliber. We have not been disappointed in A.B. Chapin. His work is the kind that grows upon the public. A demand from outside has also arisen, and to meet this demand we are preparing to syndicate Chapin’s cartoons.”

A.B. Chapin, Cartoonist, Dies at 87
New Hartford — A. B. Chapin, 87, of 15 South Hills Drive, a political cartoonist, died today in his home after a long illness. 

He began his career on the Kansas City Times in 1900, and in 1902, joined the Kansas City Star, where he was the political cartoonist until 1913. Later, until 1922 [sic], he was with the St. Louis Republic and St. Louis Star. He moved to Philadelphia in 1922 [sic], and became associated with the Country Gentleman Magazine and the Philadelphia Morning Ledger until 1942. He then moved to Schenectady, where he continued to draw a weekly cartoon for the National Weekly News Service until retiring in August of this year. 

He leaves his wife, the former Lydia Emily Hale; two daughters, Mrs. Richard D. Hickox, with whom he lived, and Mrs. Harvey F. Mett, both of New Hartford. 

The funeral will be at 2 tomorrow from St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, with the Rev. William B. Schmidgall, rector, officiating. Burial arrangements are incomplete.