One of the most striking and amusing of all the cartoons evoked by the results of the Spanish-American War appeared in Punch at a time when our departure from our traditional policy began to cause comment in Europe. There are two figures, that of Dame Europa and that of Uncle Sam. Dame Europa is a lady of frigid aspect, with arms folded, and who has drawn herself up to full height as she gazes scornfully at the complacent and unruffled Uncle Sam. "To whom do I owe the honor of this intrusion?" she asks icily. "Marm, my name is Uncle Sam." "Any relation of the late Colonel Monroe?" is the scathing retort.
No less interesting than the American cartoons of the Spanish War are those contributed by Spain herself, although in the light of subsequent events they are chiefly amusing for their overweening confidence and braggadocio insolence. Among the more extravagant flights of Spanish imagination, which later news turned into absurdities, may be cited "Dewey's Situation," in which the victor of Manila is represented as a disconsolate rat, caught in the Philippine mouse-trap; "Cervera bottles up Schley," a situation which the sober facts of history afterwards reversed; and "McKinley's Condition," in which the President is represented as swathed in bandages, and suffering severely from apocryphal injuries received at Porto Rico and Cienfuegos. All of these cartoons appeared at different times in the Madrid Don Quijote, which did not always keep on this level of empty boasting, but occasionally produced some really clever caricature. A regular feature of the Spanish War cartoons was the American Hog as a symbol of the United States, and some of the applications of this idea in the Don Quijote were distinctly amusing. For instance, in reference to Spain's accusation that an American ship flew the Spanish flag at Guantanamo in order to approach near enough to cut the cable, America is shown as a fat hog, triumphantly strutting along on its hind legs and ostentatiously waving the Spanish colors. Again, the Sampson-Schley controversy is hit off in a picture showing Sampson surrounded by a number of naval "hogs," each armed with gigantic shears and bent upon obtaining the Admiral's scalp. Still another cartoon seeks to explain the "real purpose" in getting Cuba away from Spain. A drove of pigs have clustered around a huge barrel of Cuban molasses and are eagerly sucking the contents through tubes. Of a more dignified type are the caricatures representing Spain as a beautiful and haughty Señorita, boldly showing how she keeps beneath her garter "a knife for the American pigs"; or pointing to her shoe on which Cuba serves as a buckle, and arrogantly challenging a diminutive McKinley, "you can't unbuckle that shoe!"
Spanish Cartoons of the Spanish-American War.
From the "Don Quijote" (Madrid).
CHAPTER XXXII
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 entitled "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.
The Rhodes Colossus.