From the October 18th, 1882 issue of the (New York) Daily Graphic, artist Charles Jay Taylor takes a second poke at William Vanderbilt, for his “The public be damned” comment. (To see the first poke, click here.) Taylor shows Vanderbilt standing atop a pyramid of human beings, whose efforts support him. His trains are approaching from all directions, entering the tunnels at the base of his pyramid. As with Taylor’s previous cartoon, he (or the Daily Graphic’s editor) substituted dashes for the word “Damned”, in deference to nineteenth century sensibilities.

As usual when you see a “.5″ episode, it’s because this one isn’t a comic strip, but, being a cartoon by Taylor about Vanderbilt, and published during the timeframe of Taylor’s actual sequential Vanderbilt strips, I didn’t want to skip over it.   

Click on the below picture to make it larger.

Tomorrow, Puck magazine’s response to “The Public Be Damned”.

Click on C.J. Taylor’s 1881-82 William H. Vanderbilt Comic Strips, to find the previously posted episodes.

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYDailyGraphic

The past two weekends, we saw comics about The Disaster in the Fourth Avenue Tunnel, wherein William Vanderbilt is confronted with the collision of two passenger trains on his railroad lines, with resultant death and injuries. His reluctance to spend money on safety measures — as doing so would cut into profits — were blamed as the cause (an eternal theme for corporations, as most recently demonstrated by the current Oil Crisis in the Gulf).  

Three days after Kemble’s strip was published, on October 8, 1882, Vanderbilt spoke the words for which he will always be remembered — “The Public be Damned!” This utterance had nothing to do with the train disaster (read this American Heritage article by John Steele Gordon, for competing origins reported for the phrase). But the timing of it, so soon after the train collision, couldn’t have been worse — a fact overlooked in the historical articles I’ve found so far concerning the incident, but, definitely not overlooked by cartoonists of the day, who inter-weaved train accident scenes, with a relaxed William H. Vanderbilt, uttering, “The Public Be Damned!”

A good example of this, is today’s Episode Ten of artist Charles Jay Taylor’s series of strips featuring Vanderbilt. Titled simply “The Public Be –!”(in accordance to the 19th century sensibilty to blank out, rather than outright print, words such as “damned”), Taylor’s cartoon appeared on the front page of the October 12, 1882 issue of the (New York) Daily Graphic. 

Click on either picture below, to enlarge it.

As the art in this particular issue was wider on the page than usual (and, too wide for even my over-sized scanner, which cut off the text on both sides of the page), I rescanned the top portion alone, so SuperI.T.C.H visitors may read the cartoon in its entirety. The Vanderbilt quotations which appear in each panel, come from freelance reporter’s Clarence Dresser’s printed version of Vanderbilt’s words surrounding his “Public Be Damned” comment. (Again, see the American Heritage article for that version, plus alternate possibilities.)  

Click on C.J. Taylor’s 1881-82 William H. Vanderbilt Comic Strips, to find the previously posted episodes. Next week, more “The Public Be Damned” William Vanderbilt cartoons. 

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYDailyGraphic TrainHorror

To recap what this series is, for those who may just be finding this website… In the years 1881 and 1882, artist Charles Jay Taylor created a series of approximately one dozen sequential comic strips featuring as the main character, railroad monopolist and stock market manipulator, William H. Vanderbilt. These appeared on the front page of the (New York) Daily Graphic, usually with a gap of months between each stand-alone episode. So far as I am aware, nothing has previously been written concerning the existence of these strips, prior to their re-presentation here on SuperITCH. Click here to find the prior episodes.

In today’s episode — A Sporting Connoisseur — published on the front page of the September 22, 1882 issue of New York’s Daily Graphic newspaper, cartoonist C.J. Taylor depicts the events of a carriage team horse race between William Vanderbilt and one of his rivals, Frank Work. In this particular instance, I’d strongly suggest first clicking on the September 21, 1882 New York Times’ account of the event, to gain a better understanding of Taylor’s comic depiction of it below. The Times article, titled Mr. Vanderbilt and Mr. Work. Their Estimates of One Another — Early Rose and Aldine Speeded, mentions several of the same principals and points, found in Taylor’s cartoon for the Graphic.

Click on the picture to open a version large enough to read.

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYDailyGraphic

The variety of methods for keeping cool before the age of air-conditioning, could be an endless source of inspiration for early cartoonists (who, due to the nature of deadlines, may have been producing these in the winter!) 

Below, from 1883, a series of trade cards by one of our eternal favorites, Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, who is forever immortalized as the creator of the great American painting, Dogs Playing Poker. 

Another favorite here, is cartoonist Livingston Hopkins, known best as the creator of the 1870s to 1880s comic strip character, Professor Tigwissel. Below, on the front page of the July 17, 1874 issue of the (New York) Daily Graphic, Hopkins shows the Daily Graphic’s staff attempting to cope with the Terrible Effects of the Hot Weather at the Graphic Office.  

Click on below picture, to open a version large enough to read.

The above includes in its depiction (which I’ve extracted below to hilight it) a gathering of the Daily Graphic’s contributing cartoonists, inundating the Graphic’s editor with their versions of Hot Summer Weather cartoons (prompting him to bring out a rifle and a club). The central tall figure weariung a stove pipe hat, is Frank Bellew, Sr., identifiable not only via the large triangle on the side of the portfolio he is carrying (Bellew’s signature often was just a triangle), but by the fact that Hopkins previously depicted Bellew in the now extremely rare New York comic weekly, Wild Oats. According to comics historian William Murrell, in Volume 2 of his A History of American Graphic Humor(MacMillan Company, 1938, page 26), Hopkins created a series of caricatures of his fellow Wild Oats cartoonists, each accompanied by parody biographies. Murrell reproduces two of these caricatures, one being a cartoon of Frank Bellew which somewhat mirrors Hopkins’ drawing of Bellew shown here, down to the portfolio with a triangle on it.

Murrell also reproduces Hopkins’ Wild Oats depiction of walrus-mustached cartoonist Edward Jump, shown in our Daily Graphic cartoon as the shortest person of those immediately behind Bellew. Jump’s face here so closely matches that of Hopkins’ drawing of him in Wild Oats, that it could have been traced. In Wild Oats, however, Jump is shown wearing winter hat, jacket and boots, to play upon his walrus-like mustache. Here, his clothes have of course changed for the hot summer weather theme. The entire problem here though, is, Jump never worked for the Daily Graphic. Which raises the question of just which of the artists here depicted, actually were Daily Graphic cartoonists, versus how many simply involve Hopkins making use of his prior Wild Oats caricatures. As I’ve been unable to identify any of the other cartoonists shown (anyone out there know recognize some of them?), it’s an open question.

Prior postings of Victorian Age Summer Cartoons can be found by clicking on the hyperlink. Starting in two weeks, we’ll begin serialization of the 1847 graphic novel of a family’s Summer Vacation, London Out of Town.

Doug Wheeler

NYDailyGraphic BellewSr SummerVacation

Today’s episode — A Disinterested Friend of the Public, from the front page of the May 2nd, 1882 issue of the (New York) Daily Graphic — I’ve labeled Episode 8.5 (rather than “9″) of Charles Jay Taylor’s series of sequential comic strips starring William H. Vanderbilt, because it’s a single panel cartoon. But being produced by Taylor within the same period as his Vanderbilt strips, I don’t think we should skip over it.

William Vanderbilt is shown leading a group of investors/suckers from the Wall Street Stock Exchange, to an entrance/trap labeled “Lake Shore” (one of Vanderbilt’s railroads). Inside the doorway, is a “Bunko Thermometer”, with “Harlem” (another Vanderbilt-owned railroad), “24 cents” (perhaps a stock price???), and “Lake Shore”, all near the top (Bunko) range. Also in the doorway, is a sign reading:

“GAMES: — ALL GENTLEMANLY. The interview dodge. Taking care of the widows and orphans.”

Looking out upon the scene from a background window, is stock market manipulator Russell Sage. A sign outside his window reads “R. Sage. Puts. Calls. Spreads. Straddles.” (all Stock Market terms). Sage is shown in prayer, thanking God for the abundant crops (i.e., the sucker investors he is watching) and so few reapers (i.e., so few who will get out of the trap with a profit). This continues the targeting of Sage for public piousness and philanthropy, while his business actions seemed anything but moral.

Click on the below picture, to open a version large enough to read.

Click here to view previous episodes in C.J. Taylor’s 1881-82 William Vanderbilt Comic Strips. Episode 9, plus Vanderbilt cartoons by Frost and Kemble, will appear this coming week.

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYDailyGraphic

In Bon Voyage — Episode 8 of artist Charles Jay Taylor’s 1881-82 series of sequential comic strips starring railroad baron and stock market manipulator, William H. Vanderbilt, appearing on the front page of the April 22, 1882 issue of the (New York) Daily Graphic – Vanderbilt is shown heading off for a trip to Europe, to supposedly recover his health. He is seen in the dominant panel (bottom left), using two canes to stand as he looks upon a painting of his healthier self, stating:

“Good-bye, old feller. You always looked good in that act of supporting the market. Now I’m sick, and the market has got to support me.”

In that painting, dated as having been painted a month earlier, Vanderbilt is shown lifting weights with the names of some of his railroads on them (“Lake Shore”, “N.Y. Central”, “Harlem”). A plaque on the painting reads, “W.H. Vanderbilt in his heroic act of supporting the market”. Lying on the floor beneath the painting, representing Vanderbilt’s collecting of art in the aesthetic movement, is pictured a sunflower. Vanderbilt had been showing instead wearing the sunflower, in recent strips. Taylor is obviously playing on the irony of Vanderbilt supporting, as opposed to controlling, the market. 

In the bottom right panel, we see Vanderbilt still devoted to painting, but, his subjects are commodities whose prices he has been interfering with (the latest being wheat). Crop price manipulating is referred to in the first two panels as well, where he is seen with Russell Sage. Sage (a fellow stock market schemer) is poked fun at for what was regarded then as his insincere philanthropy and church attendance (given the ruin he caused others in the market).

In yet another panel, cartoonist Taylor implies yet again, that Vanderbilt has left an illegitimate baby under the care of Rufus Hatch (while this pops up in a number of Taylor’s strips, I’ve found no references to such a child elsewhere).  

Click on picture, to open a version large enough to read.

Next week, during the San Diego Comic Con, we’ll have not only another sequential episode by C.J. Taylor, but also Vanderbilt pages by Kemble and Frost. To find the previous 1881-82 William Vanderbilt comic strip episodes, click here.

And, click here to find prior Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons entries, and related I.T.C.H. posts. This series will continue, so long as the debate on Wall Street/financial reforms continues in Congress (except Mondays and holidays, during which I already had other material planned).

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYDailyGraphic

In artist Charles Jay Taylor’s seventh sequential comic strip starring monopolist & railroad baron William H. Vanderbilt, Taylor once again used an actual newspaper interview with Vanderbilt (in this case, with the New York Tribune) as his means of taking shots at Vanderbilt. In Mr. Vanderbilt’s Views, appearing on the front page of the March 25, 1882 (New York) Daily Graphic, Taylor focused on one line from the Tribune interview,  ”He (Vanderbilt) was glancing over the letters received by the afternoon mails when the reporter was admitted to his library,” as the means for his satire, following each type-faced quote with an imagined hand-written line from the aforementioned letters.

For the most part, this approach doesn’t work. (Not only because Taylor doesn’t let the readers in on what he’s doing until near the end; but mainly because the retorts aren’t funny.) Slightly amusing though, are some of the hand-written letters shown at Vanderbilt’s feet and on his table, in the large, bottom-left panel. These include a letter from fellow stock-market manipulator, Russell Sage:

I have been working off some more philanthropy.

plus, a note referring to Vanderbilt’s alleged illegitimate child:

Can’t forget that baby. Rufus

Click on picture, to open a large enough version to read.

Episode Eight will appear next week. Click here to find the previous 1881-82 William Vanderbilt comic strip episodes.

And, click here to find prior Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons entries, and related I.T.C.H. posts. This series will continue, so long as the debate on Wall Street/financial reforms continues in Congress (except Mondays and holidays, during which I already had other material planned).

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYDailyGraphic

The March 17, 1882 front page of New York City’s Daily Graphic newspaper, featured artist Charles Jay Taylor’s sixth sequential comic strip with railroad baron and stock market manipulator William H. Vanderbilt. In this outing, Vanderbilt, shown wearing a sunflower and gone Aesthetic (per the Aesthetic Art Movement of the day) is holding a reception in his home, to show off his art collection to his Wall Street monopolist friends. Recurring participants appearing in Aestheticism on Fifth Avenue, are Rufus Hatch, Russell Sage, and the Rockefeller brothers.

Paintings seen include “My Obelisk” (per Episode Zero), Study in Harness (Vanderbilt’s race horse, Maud S.), and “Squall on the Lake Shore” (Lake Shore was a railroad stock Vanderbilt inflated, took out his money, crashing it on the other investors). Panel three involves the Rockefeller brothers and Russell Sage commenting on Vanderbilt’s oil paintings:

Russell Sage: You don’t mean it’s real ile (oil)? J.D. Rockefeller: Yes, sir; I’m a connoozer in ile, and I say its Standard. William Rockefeller: And hung on the pipe line.

The Rockefeller brothers and William Vanderbilt were owners of the Standard Oil Company. Click here to see an 1879 cartoon involving a Standard Oil Company environmental disaster, with the Rockefellers and Vanderbilt. 

Click on picture, to open a large enough version to read.

Next week, Episode Seven! Click here to find the previous 1881-82 William Vanderbilt comic strip episodes.

And, click here to find prior Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons entries, and related I.T.C.H. posts. This series will continue, so long as the debate on financial reforms continues in Congress (except Mondays and holidays, during which I’d already had other material planned).

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYDailyGraphic

In 1860 Britain, artist Thomas Onwhyn published in small fold-out albums, comic postcards of a family’s summer trip to the beach. Beach vacations were still a relatively new concept at this time. Many people eased their way out into the strange, exotic waves, with the aid of wagons, and workers, who helped people down into the frightening open ocean water, and watched over them so they were safe. In one of the below pictures, we see that “Mama is so venturesome!”, for having gone just slightly further out from shore.   

Onwhyn’s The Queen’s Album of Sea Side and The Prince’s Album of Seaside, had no actual association with the Royal Family. Both contained the exact same set of images. Those pictures below which have a red border, were scanned from the Queen’s Album; those with the brown borders were scanned from the Prince’s Album. Enjoy!

Click on any picture, to see an enlarged version.

Doug Wheeler

SummerVacation

In the years 1881 and 1882, artist Charles Jay Taylor created a series of approximately one dozen sequential comic strips featuring monopolist and stock market manipulator, William H. Vanderbilt. These appeared on the front page of the New York City’s Daily Graphic newspaper, usually with a gap of months between each stand-alone episode. To find the prior episodes, click here.

In Episode 5, Taylor gives us The House that Vander-built, becoming one of numerous artists, before and after him, to utilize the nursery rhyme This is the House that Jack Built, in a pointed satire on a political or public figure, or situation.  

In the second panel, note the sign hanging near the well, reading “Stock Watered Here”. “Watering stock” is Wall Street parlance for artificially/falsely swelling the value of a stock, to sell it off to suckers, then sell your own stock, rake in the money, and let everyone else’s investment crash. The water metaphor continues forward into several of the other panels. Note that in the left-center panel, the bulls (i.e., bull market — buyers) are looking at the water, and getting dry. In the panel beneath, a bruin (bear market — sell out) shows up, scaring the bulls, who run away. The three bottom-right corner panels, meanwhile, involve the crashing market/cutting of stock values, while simultaneously referring to railroad baron Vanderbilt’s controlling of prices of goods/supplies, via his control of the railroad. In the center panel, we see Vanderbilt standing in front of a billboard reading “Buy the New Watered Stocks”. Atop it, is his Egyptian obelisk, from Episode Zero, and a sign reading “Art Gallery Spaces to Let”, referring to his accumulation of art (which we’ll see in several future episodes).     

The House that Vander-Built appeared on September 12, 1881. 

Click on picture, to open a large enough version to read.

Click here to find prior Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons entries, and related I.T.C.H. posts. This series will continue, so long as the debate on financial reforms continues in Congress (except Mondays and holidays, during which I’d already had other material planned).

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYDailyGraphic