Stripper's Guide

Well Known Fort Worth Cartoonist to California.

Fort Worth, Texas, Feb. 3.—Announcement was made tonight that Heppner Blackman, cartoonist of the Star-Telegram and editor of the “Sunday Sandwich,” a Sunday feature of that paper, would leave shortly for California, where he will enter the moving picture business. He has been with the local paper for several years and enjoyed the distinction of being one of the leading cartoonists of the State.

He has considered entering the moving picture field for several months, but only announced his final decision today.

One Time Oregonian Joins Fox Publicity Staff.

Heppner Blackman Signs Up for Position in Hollywood.

Heppner Blackman, New York city newspaper man and former Oregonian, has joined the publicity staff at William Fox’s west coast studios, Hollywood.

Blackman was a member of the editorial staff of the New York Daily News for more than three years, serving in the capacity of reporter, labor editor and night city editor. For eight years he acted as current event cartoonist and columnist on the Fort Worth, Tex., Star-Telegram, and has worked at various times on the staffs of the New York American, International News service and on San Antonio, San Francisco and Los Angeles newspapers.

He is a son of the Henry Blackman, internal revenue collector of Oregon, Washington and Alaska during one of the Cleveland administrations.

Former Resident Passes

A short note from Abe Blackman in Portland informed this paper that his brother, Heppner Blackman, passed away in San Francisco March 13 at the age of 68 years. Hep will be remembered by the older residents hereabouts as the family resided in Heppner many years. His father, the late Henry Blackman, was associated in the mercantile business with Henry Heppner, the town’s founder. Hep took up cartooning as a career, working on papers in Texas and other southern states, later engaging in commercial art work in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He was a cousin of Harold Cohn of Heppner.

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

 

Heppner Blackman seems to have only pursued newspaper cartooning in New York City for a short period, but he penned one quite interesting feature in his short foray there, plus a few that are less memorable. Epitaphs For Live Ones was a series of cartoons in which we see famous peoples' final resting places along with a humorous take on what might be chiselled thereon.

The weekday series was done for the New York Herald, but only one episode was printed in that morning paper, on September 7 1906. After that the series was moved to their evening paper, the Telegram, where it ran from November 10 1906  to August 5 1907. 

If you're wondering who the bewhiskered chap above is, James Bryce was appointed Britain's ambassador to the United States in 1907 at the time of this cartoon. He was also a noted historian, and had earlier written a very influential book about the U.S. titled The American Commonwealth. The epitaph Blackman came up with seeks to wring humour out of all these aspects of this accomplished fellow, and succeeds for an audience more than a century removed in producing mostly head-scratching. 

Come on back on Wednesday when Alex Jay will enlighten us more about Mr. Blackman's life story.

Labels: Obscurities

Here's a group of cartoonist death notices, all gleaned from the Washington Post.

12/31/39
Walter Blackman, Cartoonist, Dies

Cleveland, Dec.29 - Walter W. Blackman, 65, for 21 years political cartoonist for the Birmingham, Ala., Age-Herald, died today at his home in Willowick, Ohio, east of here. He was a member of the Gridiron Club and the National Press Club of Washington.

Originator of one of the first animated motion picture cartoons, he used the idea in connection with the Government's Liberty Loan campaigns. Years ago he obtained a patent on a process for making motion pictures in natural color. While a cartoonist for the Birmingham Age-Herald he was sent by his paper to campaign on political issues.

11/23/39
"Jerry on the Job"Artist Dies at 49

New York, Nov.22 - Walter C. Hoban, 49, widely known comic artist and cartoonist, died last night after a two-month illness. He was with King Features Syndicate for more than 20 years. He was best known perhaps for his comic strip "Jerry on the Job."

8/15/39
Powers, Noted Cartoonist, Dies

New York, Aug.14 - T.E. Powers, 69, noted political cartoonist of the Hearst newspapers for more than 40 years, died today after a two-year illness.

One of the earliest political caricaturists of modern journalism, Powers was the favorite political cartoonist of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Powers retired several years ago due to ill health.

9/11/39
Bob Edgren, Sports Cartoonist, Dies

Carmel, Calif., Sept. 10 - Bob Edgren, 65, famous sports editor and cartoonist, died here last night after a series of heart attacks.

Edgren for many years was sports editor of the old New York World.

Surviving are his wife, a son and three sisters.

1/10/39
Joseph McGurk Dies

Philadelphia, Jan. 9 - Joseph W. McGurk, 52, illustrator and one-time sports cartoonist, died last night.

3/7/38
McDougall, 80, First Cartoonist in U.S., Suicide
White House Writer in Days of First Roosevelt Shoots Self

Waterford, Conn., March 6 - Walt McDougall, 80, dean of American cartoonists, author and humorist, was found dead today on a couch in his Fern Lane farmhouse.

Dr. Frank Dunn, medical examiner, said McDougall's right hand clutched an old-fashioned "horse pistol" and that his death was suicide.

McDougall, generally regarded as the first American [daily newspaper] cartoonist, contributed to the old New York World and to the Philadelphia North American. He also did strips for the McClure Syndicate and nationally known magazines.

Among his better known ones were "Absent Minded Abner," "Fatty Felix," "Hank The Hermit," "Teddy In Africa" and the Rambillaux Series.

His cartoon "The Feast of Belshazzar" was credited with helping to elect Grover Cleveland president.

McDougall was once rebuked by the Supreme Court of the United States for drawing a cartoon showing justices of the high court chewing tobacco behind the bench.

He was a personal friend of the late Theodore Roosevelt and covered the White House as a newspaperman in his Presidential regime.

10/17/37
Will Chapin Dies

Hollywood, Calif., Oct. 15 - Will E. Chapin, 80, cartoonist and writer, died at his home here yesterday.

8/28/37
Frederick Opper Dies at 80; Happy Hooligan's Creator

New Rochelle, N.Y., Aug. 27 - Heart disease brought death today to Frederick Burr Opper, 80, creator of Happy Hooligan, Alphonse and Gaston, and other comic strip characters read around the world.

He was forced by failing eyesight a few years ago to retire from active work for newspapers with which he had been connected since 1899.

Born in Madison, Ohio, the son of an Austro-Hungarian immigrant, Opper left school at 14 to work on the Madison Gazette, a weekly newspaper. A year later he went to New York.

When he submitted some of his sketches to magazines they were promptly purchased. Then Col. Frank Leslie hired him as a staff artist for Leslie's weekly. Three years later he went to Puck, with which he remained until engaged for the New York Journal.

With the rise of the syndicate system, his cartoons were circulated throughout the world.

In 1900 he created the tramp with the tin hat, Happy Hooligan, best known of his characters.

Opper for many years was an outstanding political cartoonist, during the McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt campaigns. His "Willie and Teddy" series had the nation roaring.

12/28/36
Cartoonist Weed Dies of Pneumonia

New York, Dec. 27 - Clive Weed, artist and political cartoonist, died today in a hospital here of pneumonia. He was 52.

Weed studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he was a favorite pupil of the late Thomas Pollock Anshutz, instructor of many noted American artists.

In 1910 he joined the staff of the Philadelphia Record, and a year later went to the Philadelphia Press, where his chief work was illustrating news stories. He joined the New York Evening Sun in 1912, and one of his first assignments was to sketch the survivors of the Titanic disaster.

He became political cartoonist for the old New York Tribune, the Philadelphia Public Ledger, and editorial cartoonist for the magazine Judge. His drawings also appeared in Colliers, the American Magazine, Leslie's and Life.

Weed returned to newspaper work in 1927 as cartoonist for the New York Evening World, and once the last edition of that paper was published he had been with the King Features Syndicate.


7/5/36
Charles C. Reese, Cartoonist, Dead

Glendale, Calif., July 4 - Charles Chandler Reese, 74, newspaper illustrator and cartoonist, died at a hospital yesterday of the infirmities of age.

His career included prominent posts of New York, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia newspapers. During the Spanish-American war his sketches on the field of action in Cuba appeared in the New York World, drawing wide attention.

Reese claimed to have been the first artist to have a picture reproduced as a double-truck, or two-page, illustration in a newspaper.

Born in Pittsburgh, Reese lived in the East until he came here six years ago. He was prominent in the Elks and was past exalted ruler of lodges at Hackensack, N.J., and Staten Island, N.Y.


10/21/35
Creator of 'Gumps' Is Killed in Crash
Sidney Smith Had Been on Outing Celebrating New Contract
Chicago, Ill., Oct. 20 - Sidney Smith, 58, creator of "The Gumps," one of the most popular of all newspaper cartoons, was killed at 3:45 a.m. today in an automobile collision near Harvard, Ill., a few miles from the Wisconsin boundary.

Smith, at the time of the accident, was alone. The previous afternoon he had been on a gay outing at Lake Geneva, Wisc., in celebration of a three-year extension of his $150,000-a-year newspaper syndicate contract.

He had gone from his home in Chicago to the Wisconsin resort to meet with syndicate officials and sign the contract extension. He then invited the syndicate men to spend Sunday at his nearby 2,200 acre Shirland farm.

When they preferred to return to Chicago Smith drove them to the city, then started back toward the farm. It was late at night. To break the long, solitary drive, the cartoonist stopped at the Bubbling-Over Tavern, 6 miles south of the point where he met his death.

At the roadhouse Smith entertained the patrons by drawing pictures of the cartoon characters he made famous throughout the world. About 3:30 a.m. he started on the last lap of his journey.

He was driving a small sedan. Another sedan, headed south and driven by Wendell Martin, of Waukesha, Ill., collided with Smith's car. Although there were no witnesses it is believed the two machines met almost on the center line of the highway. Smith's car was whirled around, thrown off the road and against a telephone pole. The top of the cartoonist's head was crushed in. Marlin suffered a broken hip, fractured jaw, and other injuries.

Smith's body was brought to a Chicago undertaking parlor and from there will be taken to his Chicago residence, 1500 Lake Shore Drive. Funeral services will be held at his home Wednesday. Internment will be in Rose Hill Cemetary here.

Survivors are his wife, a son, Robert Sidney Smith, 25, of Phoenix, Ariz., and a daughter, Mrs. Gladys Lucknow, of Lauderdale, Wis.

Smith's first wife, Gentraude Craddock, of Pittsburgh, died in 1924. His second marriage took place in 1926.

Preferred To Draw
Sidney Smith was born in Bloomington, Ill., on February 13, 1877, the son of Dr. T.H. and Mrs. Francis A. Shafer Smith. His father was a dentist and wanted the son to follow him in his profession. But Sidney, from boyhood, showed an inclination to spend most of his time bending over a drawing board. When he was 18 he was drawing for the Bloomington Sunday Eye.

From Bloomington he went to Indianapolis, where he joined the staff, first of the News, then of the Press. Later he went to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post, the Pittsburgh Press, the Indianapolis Sentinel and the Toledo News Bee. But his drawings for all these papers were centered around a human goat called "Old Doc Yak."

Not until 1917, when he was on the art staff of the Chicago Tribune, did Smith conceive the now-famous Gump family. Between the birth of Andy and the burial of Old Doc Yak, several other series, including "The Bunk of a Busy Brain," "Self-Made Heroes" and "Light Occupations" wandered across the cartoonist's drawing board.

Won World Recognition
But it was with the Gumps -- Andy, Min, Chester, Uncle Bim -- that Sidney Smith won world recognition. The strip has been published throughout the United States, in Canada, Europe, Hawaii and Australia.

In keeping up the daily and Sunday production the cartoonist was forced to build up a staff of artists and idea men.

It was on March 15, 1922, that Smith signed the first $1,000,000 contract ever given a comic strip artist. The agreement was to cover a 10-year period and as a bonus, the creator of the Gump strip was given a Rolls Royce.

At the time of the artist's death the comic was drawn three months in advance. His staff hopes to continue the adventures of the Gump household.

7/19/35
Mother of McManus, Noted Cartoonist, Dies

Hollywood, July 18 - Mrs. George McManus, 82, mother of George McManus, cartoonist, died here today.

Born in Limerick, Ireland, she came to the United States when she was a small girl. Her first home was in St. Louis, but she went to New York after her marriage to George McManus, Sr., stage actor. She came here a year and a half ago. She is survived by one other son, Charles McManus, of New York. George lives here.

Labels: News of Yore

This neat ad shows vignettes of various ad strips created by comic strip cartoonists. I can identify all but the one with the elephants. Is it Lyman Young's Tim Tyler? I'm not sure.

Labels: News of Yore

The Motion Picture World 
December 1, 1917

Labels: News of Yore

 
[Cartoons Magazine, debuting in 1912, was a monthly magazine devoted primarily to reprinting editorial cartoons from U.S. and foreign newspapers. Articles about cartooning and cartoonists often supplemented the discussion of current events.

In November 1913 the magazine began to offer a monthly round-up of news about cartoonists and cartooning, eventually titled "What The Cartoonist Are Doing." There are lots of interesting historical nuggets in these sections, and this Stripper's Guide feature will  reprint one issue's worth each week.]

THE POWER OF NEWSPAPER CARTOONS
We wonder that no sustained outside effort has been made to hold in check the tremendous power of newspaper cartoonists, whose pictures were characterized a few days ago by Frank I. Cobb of the New York World as “pictorial editorials.” This is not saying that cartoonists are not answerable to managing editors, or that they are given unlimited license. Rather, we mean that they are permitted to say in pictures what managing editors would not permit in words.

There is a general impression that the cartoonists of certain opposition newspapers so stirred enmity against President McKinley that morally they could be charged with complicity in his assassination. For two decades cartoonists have been potent instruments in arraying class against class. Newspapers that have made the greatest use of cartoons have very generally made their appeal directly to persons who do not think closely, and whose minds can be inflamed more easily by vision than by reason.

The European war has inspired many cartoons of doubtful propriety, some of positive viciousness. Newspapers of the East are not as careful to maintain neutrality as those of Minnesota. Some of them are almost violently partisan and they admit editorial expression not calculated to help the President in keeping free from foreign entanglements. These cartoons serve as a somber background for what their editors say.

Cartoonists generally are genial men, and many are men of liberal education and broad reading. Perhaps most of them are artists first, and as artists they are trained to distort faces and to accentuate defects in order to give their cartoons the desired “punch.” In their pictures they permit themselves far more extravagance of expression than any editorial writer or special correspondent would dare. They do not stop short of sacrilege in their efforts to make their ideas telling.

Frankly we do not believe in allowing such fateful power in the hands of men whose training has not tended to bring out the qualities of judicial interpretation. The keen instruments of a surgeon belong in the hands of men qualified to use them; firearms, in the hands of those who can use them with discretion or under competent direction. Cartoons are “loaded” else they have little value; the man who aims them should have the coolest head.—Minneapolis Journal.



THE BIGGEST CARTOON
The “Wonders of Science,” reproduced on another page of this issue, was drawn by Will Dyson, of the London Daily Herald, and is said to be the largest cartoon ever published in an English newspaper. It was printed in the London Daily Mail, and has since been put on exhibition among a number of Mr. Dyson's other war cartoons at the Leicester Galleries, London.

Mr. Dyson came into the limelight several years ago when his cartoons in the Sydney Bulletin attracted widespread comment. Later he went to London, but failed to gain recognition until his labor cartoons began to appear daily in the London Herald. Mr. Dyson gained the name of “the cartoonist of revolt,” because of his opposition to all existing conditions. Since the outbreak of the war, he has turned his satirical talents against Germany. H. G. Wells, the famous novelist, has this to say of the Australian artist:

“Mr. Dyson perceives in militaristic monarchy and national pride a threat to the world, to civilization, and all that he holds dear; and straightway he sets about to slay it with his pencil, as I, if I could, would kill it with my pen. He turns his passionate gift against Berlin.”

A NEW “INDOOR SPORT"
T. A. Dorgan, “Tad” the cartoonist, was dining alone in a restaurant in Fulton Street the other night. A stranger dropped into the seat opposite and fell to discussing cartoons.

“Now take my old friend Tad,” said the stranger. “I like him personally. In fact we are the best of friends, but as an artist he is punk.”

“You know Tad then?” Tad asked.

“Know him ! I should say I do.”

“I’ll bet you $5 you don’t know him,” said Tad, reaching for his wallet. The $10 was deposited on the table.

“Now,” said the cartoonist, “how are you going to prove that you would know Tad if you saw him?” “That's a cinch,” chuckled the stranger, as he gathered in the money. “You are Tad.”—St. Joseph Gazette.

FRANCE HONORS “HANSI”
The Alsatian caricaturist, M. Waltz, who is known as “Hansi,” has been decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honor, says a recent dispatch to the Associated Press from Paris. Some time before the war broke out, Hansi was sentenced to one year's imprisonment at Leipzig for cartoons he drew ridiculing everything German in Alsace-Lorraine. He escaped, however, and volunteered as an interpreter in the French army. He has been mentioned in dispatches for his courage and as being a splendid example for his comrades.

WEBSTER DONS SPIKETAILS
Mr. H. T. Webster was roped and then branded with a full evening dress suit the other night and carted away to a swell musical event in Carnegie Hall, says the Passaic (N. J.) News.

When he was awakened after the first intermission by his companion he was told that the next number on the bill was the great Efram Zimbalist, the violinist.

“Do you mean to say there is such a person as Efram Zimbalist?” inquired the cartoonist. “I always thought he was a typographical error.”

TEACH CARTOONING IN PUBLIC SCHOOL
Ambitious young men will find an excellent opportunity to pursue work in cartooning at the South Brooklyn Evening High School, according to the Brooklyn Eagle. Anyone with any talent in drawing is admitted to the class, and expert instruction is being given. The attractive features of the instruction are free tuition and free materials with which to work. The class is expected to be one of the largest in the evening high school.

“The advantages of this work,” says the instructor, “lie in the fact that there is no time wasted. A student is advanced according to his ability. The instruction is absolutely individual, and there is no fake encouragement given. If a pupil does good work, he will be told so, and if he does poor work and shows no improvement, we will not encourage him to continue the work.”

“THE EARTHQUAKE ANSWERS"
These verses by Mary Moncure Parker were suggested by Mr. Bradley's cartoon, reproduced elsewhere in this issue.

What ho! Grim War! I, I am here. I, Earthquake, the Mighty One!
Beneath your chariot's lumbering wheels, these mankind things you've crushed,
Drunk with this warm, young human blood, along the highway rushed,
Calling above the cannon's roar, “War, War, the Mighty One.”

In egoistic orgie wild, a challenge you have hurled
To forces of the Universe, the tidal wave, the lurid fire
Unglutted, you have laughed to scorn. On and on, in mad desire
For blood of men, for power supreme, you’ve plunged o'er half the world.

Your bloody gauntlet I have seized. What, ho! The fight's begun!
With my great hands I cleave the earth. Behold the trenches wide and deep!
Into the yawning, ghastly gap whole busy, pulsing towns I sweep.
What ho! Grim War! I, I am here. I, Earthquake, Mighty One!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A West St. Paul paper speaks of the noted cartoonist of another generation as “Petroleum V. Nast.” Both Nast and Nasby will shudder at this mix-up and its source.—St. Paul Pioneer Press.

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Clare Briggs, of the New York Tribune, has profusely illustrated a new book by Mrs. Charlotte Hay Meredith, of Peoria, which has just been published.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mrs. John F. John has been secured as a special cartoonist by the New York World. Mrs. John’s home is in Bloomfield, N. J.

RAILROADMAN CARTOONIST
Sam M. Copp, an employee of the Illinois Central Railroad at Fort Dodge, Iowa, has broken into the limelight as a cartoonist, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Mr. Copp proves his good nature by directing his satirical drawings at his own line of railroad work—that of a claim agent.

“The railroadman-artist pictures the ‘downs' of a claim agent,” says The Picayune, “as he declares that there are no 'ups.' Among the ‘downs' portrayed in a recent issue of the Illinois Central Magazine, is a picture of the claim agent sleeping, or attempting to sleep, in a village tavern; flirting with acute indigestion at the railroad lunch counters; trying to convince irate farmers that their hogs would have died anyhow if the train had not hit them, and in various other positions that go with his job.”

BRITISH ADMIRE CANADIAN CARTOONS
A display of war cartoons from the pen of A. G. Racey, of the Montreal Star, has been attracting a good deal of attention in London, according to the London Times. Mr. Racey has drawn some striking cartoons on the war and his work is said to be on a par with the best that has been produced in England since the start of the world conflict.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Chicago Daily News has issued, in book form, a collection of war cartoons by L. D. Bradley. The cartoons date from the beginning of the war, and form a pictorial history of the first five months of the conflict. The cartoonist has taken a neutral stand in his drawings, although much of his work indicates that he is a bitter foe of militarism.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryan Walker, socialist cartoonist, recently purchased a neat little bungalow at Great Notch, N.J., and does most of his work far from the “busy marts of trade.”

ROYALTY'S CHECK ON CARTOONS
Apprehensive lest royalty fall into disrepute, and socialism assert itself too strongly, if the license of the cartoonists goes unchecked, King George and Queen Mary of England, according to a dispatch to the New York World, are using their influence to suppress some of the grosser caricatures of the kaiser which have appeared in certain London newspapers. The “Kaiser's Kalendar,” published by the London Daily Express, and reproduced elsewhere in this issue, and the “Adventures of the Two Willies,” in the London Mirror, on which were modeled the amusing “cartoon dolls” shown also in this issue, and some of Jack Walker's drawings in the Daily Graphic, will probably be found among the offenders. The censor has been given instructions to prohibit further publication of one series, and to keep his eye on others. The war office already has made a ruling that the cartoons cannot be sent to soldiers in the field, and publishers have been obliged to make statements to that effect.

Emperor William, the dispatch states, has been repeatedly represented as a butcher and as a man whose character is so detestable that the slum boys and girls ought to be applauded for throwing mud at him. The crown prince has been almost universally referred to as “the Clown Prince” and drawn by the cartoonists for the newspapers and magazines as a half-witted fellow with no claim whatsoever to the consideration and esteem of anyone.

The Iron Cross, with which the emperor decorates his soldiers for bravery on the battlefield, has had its mock representation offered for sale in the London streets, a death's head and the emperor's name upon it. Hucksters dressed in fantastic German garb made sales with “Old iron, who will buy?”

Never since the French Revolution was precipitated by the slanderous and satirical lampoons of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette has there been such a campaign of offensive abuse as the London press has indulged in against the German royal family; and as King George and Queen Mary are both members of the same family, with hardly a drop of blood in their veins which is anything but German, the wave of scorn and hatred of German royalty whipped into fury by the newspaper writers and artists of the English capital is bound to surge up to the very steps of the British throne unless drastic action is taken by the British authorities themselves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

R. M. Brinkerhoff, magazine illustrator, and former cartoonist of the Cincinnati Post, has embarked in the confectionery business in New York.

DOCTOR'S CARTOON CAUSES ROW
Dr. Ernest Amory Codman, a prominent surgeon of Boston, angered the surgical section of the Suffolk District Medical Society, of which he was chairman, by displaying a cartoon he had drawn, satirizing the “Harvard Medical Ring,” as he labeled it. The cartoon so offended the members of the society that Doctor Codman was forced to resign as chairman of the body.

In the offending cartoon, an ostrich, representing the Back Bay population, was shown feeding on a “Hill of Humbug” and laying “Golden Eggs” for the “Medical Ring,” represented by figures labeled with names prominent in the “ring.” President Lowell of Harvard University, the Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital were thus singled out.
In explanation Doctor Codman accused the medical ring of operating at fancy prices for appendicitis, on the slightest excuse. He announced that it was easier to remove the appendix than to determine before the operation if there was really anything the matter with the organ.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clare A. Briggs, of the New York Tribune, has yielded to the blandishments of musical comedy, and his famous “Skinnay” is to be dressed up, as to book, by Ring W. Lardner, and set to music by Aubrey Stauffer. The production will open soon in Chicago.

CALL FOR DOCTOR YAK!
A newly employed bell boy at the Hotel LaSalle, Chicago, recently created a laugh in the lobby of the hostelry by paging “Doctor Yak,” Sidney Smith's comic-section character. The “green” bell hop evidently had not seen a comic section of the Chicago Tribune, as he took his order to page the doctor seriously, and kept up his call for nearly fifteen minutes. Finally he reported back to the desk clerk.

“Doctor Yak isn't here.”

“Why, Doc Yak is a goat,” said the clerk. “He appears in the funny papers.”

The new bell hop got red about the ears and remarked that he guessed he was the “goat” instead of Old Doc Yak.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A cartoon by Mr. Blackman, of the Birmingham Age-Herald, was used recently by the Rev. Willis G. Clark of that city, to illustrate a sermon on Christianity.

“FAMOUS CARTOONIST DEAD”
Under this caption the London News and Leader, in a recent issue, announces to its readers the startling fact that “Mr. Eugene Zimmerman, the famous American caricaturist, is dead.” The News and Leader continues:

“The deceased, who was 52 years of age, started life as a boy on a farm doing odd jobs, and was successively assistant fish peddler, baker, and sign painter. He was connected with “Puck,” and afterwards as cartoonist for ‘Judge.” Mr. Zimmerman is perhaps better known to the public as ‘Zim.’”
Which reveals the remarkable fact that the News and Leader does not know its own aristocracy. Mr. Eugene Zimmerman, the Cincinnati railroad magnate, was the man who died. He was the father-in-law of the Duke of Manchester. “Zim,” who also enjoys the name of Eugene Zimmerman, refused to take the announcement of his death seriously and drew the accompanying cartoon of himself attending his own funeral.

Labels: What The Cartoonists Are Doing