med), Gordon himself had been butchered
by the Mahdi's fanatics; and another whole week had to elapse before it
could be corrected by a cartoon of baffled Britannia, with the heading
'Too Late!' I well remember being inside a picture gallery in Bond
Street with the Editor, and hearing newsboys shouting without; the
Editor turned to me and smilingly said, 'All right for our cut. There!
they're shouting "The fall of Khartoum"!' When we got outside, our faces
fell on finding the boot was on the other leg with a vengeance."

A more recent example of the tricks played upon _Punch_ by Fate was on
August 11th, 1894 (p. 66, Vol. CVII.), when Sir William Harcourt was
represented as an artilleryman mowing down the host of amendments put
upon the paper against the Irish Evictions Bill with a Gatling gun
labelled "Closure." Closure had, indeed, been promised, and upon that
the cartoon was based; but the Tory tactics threw out all calculations,
for the party declined to move their amendments, and took no further
part in the proceedings, so that there was no question whatever of
closure. The Bill passed _en bloc_, and the Gatling remained silent.

Finally, there is that class of cartoon always graceful in intention,
and invariably received by the public with respect and approval--the
Obituary Cartoon. It was invented by _Punch_ when Wellington died. The
nation was overpowered with a sense of its loss, and _Punch_, with his
finger, as ever, on the public pulse, reflected the national emotion
with a deep and noble sincerity that was gratefully felt and recognised.
From that day onwards the great occasions of a people's loss--either of
our own mourning or of our sympathy with that of others--have been
touched with a dignity and grace in accord with their lofty and solemn
purpose, in drawings which have rarely failed to touch a responsive
chord in the people's heart, and which, judged as compositions, have
often marked the highest point to which Sir John Tenniel's art has
reached.

FOOTNOTES:

[16] Contributed one cartoon on July 12th, 1884, and another November
3rd, 1894, when the expected death of the Tsar Alexander III., on the
subject of which Sir John Tenniel's cartoon had been prepared, did not
occur. "Cartoon Junior" was then promoted to "Cartoon Senior."

CHAPTER VIII.

CARTOONS AND THEIR EFFECT.

Origin and Growth of the Cartoon--Origin of its Name--Its
Reflection of Popular Opinion--Source of _Punch's_ P