Men--Social life and customs

A young couple and their driver stand in the snow outside the door to a building where a “stag” party is in progress. They are being invited in by two men at the door.

comments and context

Comments and Context

By 1905 Puck magazine had evolved from an exclusively politics-and-humor journal to a humor magazine with doses of politics. Its politics were evolving from Democratic and Reform-minded to Radical and Democratic. Such is the profile of its priorities. Additionally, before it ended publication in the ‘teens it fashioned itself after many European journals — witty, edgy, “smart” social commentary, with painted artwork as well as cartoons.

Two Mormon elders discuss another Mormon who has been found guilty of bigamy. Caption: Elder Heaperholmes–He has been tried by the church and found guilty of bigamy. / Elder Holikuss–Guilty of bigamy? / Elder Heaperholmes–That’s the judgment. He’s been married only twice.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the time of this cartoon, bigamy was more common than it is today. Mormons were heavily criticized outside of Utah and other areas where the sect dominated, and there were many laws proposed to restrict polygamy. Ehrhart’s cartoon — with the Temple and a horde of children surrounding one father in the background — jokingly suggested that Mormons disfavored those with merely two spouses.

At center, a young woman asks Cupid about his flower garden where all the blossoms have male and female faces. Six vignettes show scenes from country and country club life that generally relate to relations between the sexes. A poem called “Cupidculture” is included.

comments and context

Comments and Context

A double-page spread by Puck‘s counterpart of Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the Gibson Girl stylish cartoons in Life Magazine) at the time. These are seasonal gags in an issue dated in the middle of April. The poem in the central cartoon was written by Arthur H. Folwell, the editor of the magazine for more than a dozen years, later on the staff of the New York Tribune and writer for The New Yorker, and script writer for the Mr. and Mrs. comic strip.

Two Irishmen talk in the street of a rural community. The son of one is taking music lessons, to the annoyance of the other, as well as the neighbors. Caption: Hogan — I suppose ye’ve heard me lad, Terry? He do be takin’ lissons on th’ clary-o-nit. / Ryan — He might betther be takin’ lissons on the sthame-dhrill. It’ud be more useful t’ him an’ a dom sight more soothin’ t’ the neighbors.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Walter Gallaway was one of Puck‘s cartoonists who virtually never drew a political cartoon or a caricature of a person in the news; he devoted himself to humor cartoons, mostly single-panel, and many with ethnic figures. He also moonlighted during the first years of the century, drawing cartoons and strips (one-shots, not recurring characters) for the Sunday color comic supplement of the New York Herald.

Two Irish men play poker at a social club or union hall. Caption: Mike (teaching Pat poker) — Well, what hov yez got? / Pat — Four trowels and a black shamrock!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1902-10-08

Two men talk in the yard of a rural home. Chickens in the yard scratch the soil and pull up the plants. Caption: Citimann — I see you raise your own vegetables. / Suburbanite — No! I simply plant a small garden so as to keep the chickens at home.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1902-08-06

A shabbily dressed woman addresses a man who is wearing an apron, holding an infant, and standing at the front door of his home. In the background, a dog with its tail between its legs enters a doghouse to hide. Caption: Dusty Maude–Is dere any lady-folks about de house? Timid Househusband–No-o – no, ma’am; they have all gone to a primary meeting. Dusty Maude–Den set out de best dere is in de pantry, an’ don’t do any screamin’, or I’ll clip yer whiskers!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-03-06

A female figure with wings rises from the flames of summer romances that are burning out as the season comes to an end. She leaves behind many broken-hearted men on the beach at a summer resort. Caption: She rises gayly from the ashes of her season’s conquests, to continue her deadly work as the “Winter Girl” of the near future.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-09-18

This vignette cartoon shows men and women in various social situations where politeness overrides one’s actual emotional response, maintaining decorum and preventing a social disaster.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-01-26

A well-dressed man is sitting in a chair, overwhelmed by opportunities to attend a “Last Bachelor ‘Blow Out’,” to go “See the Bogus Ballet” with its dancing girls, to go “to the Club and Join in a Quiet Game,” to “Spend a Night in Bohemia!”, to see an “Intellectual Vaudeville Show,” to go to “The Bal-Masque,” or to go “to the Hoo-Doo Athletic Club” for a boxing match.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-10

Puck, at top center, manipulates an electric bow-shooting device, which sends arrows toward couples in the surrounding vignettes, where they are sitting beneath trees on the shores of a lake, riding bicycles, canoeing, swimming, boating, playing tennis and golf, and riding in a carriage. Caption: An electric arrow-shooting battery would beat the old-time bow, and […] the hearts of forty times as many victims, with neatness and despatch.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-08-19

An attractive woman plays billiards surrounded by four dashing men offering her advice on how to approach a bridge shot. Caption: Expert advice on how to handle it.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-04-06

A well dressed man with a crown on his head sits on the edge of a fishbowl, dangling a crown from a fishing pole among three beautiful young woman as goldfish.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-07-11

Young couples embrace or dance, and walk among a grove of trees at night.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-09-05

People dine at sidewalk cafes and dance at a hotel rooftop cabaret, while lovers stroll in the moonlight at Riverside Park. Raymond Crawford Ewer sketches from life New York 1914. Caption: Hotel-top and other views to show that the stay-at-home New Yorker is not to be pitied.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-08-22

An elderly businessman with his eyes closed dreams or reminisces of past affairs with young women who are clustered around and on his head, speaking in his right ear and caressing his cheeks.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-08-15

A fashionably dressed young woman talks on a telephone with multiple lines that are connected to twelve men.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-08-08

A formally dressed diminutive man stands on a dining table set for a banquet with dishes of fish, lobster, turkey, oysters, other foods, and bottles of alcohol blocking his path. Three attractive women in a large goblet extend glasses of wine, beckoning him to come to them. He has taken a step forward and wavers from fear or trepidation.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-07-25

A tall beautiful woman with red hair, wearing a long green dress and a headband with a feather, holds up her hands where perched on her fingers are several diminutive male figures who are courting her with bouquets of flowers, bags of money, by serenading her, appealing to her, and even by threatening suicide.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-07-25

Two elegantly dressed women sit in a stylized environment, waiting for two men who are walking up a path toward them.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-04-04