Page:The Newspaper and the Historian.djvu/462

 new symbolism had to be devised and this, almost of necessity , was changed from time to time during the war.67

The historian can but find in the cartoons and the caricatures of the war the flotsam and jetsam of shipwrecked nations, - a record for the most part, as regards cartoons, of forced gaiety and humor under the most appalling conditions. Transient as they are in themselves, they will remain a psychological record of the havoc wrought by war.

Considered collectively it must be obvious that the illustration has many limitations as historical material. This is not by any means due to downright errors found in it, — these are many, but like the innumerable minor errors found in the daily news they are easily detected, they seldom matter , and they are quickly forgotten.

A more important limitation is found in the language used. The early periodical illustrations in America, especially caricatures, show how imperfectly developed was the technical side of the art and how crude was the direct method of using it. Every character was labeled, and often represented as half animal, sentiments were enclosed in loops, and nothing was suggested or left to the imagination .68 In Europe a language of symbolism was quickly developed and this has become standardized while receiving constant additions as new conditions demand new symbols. Henderson has noted the extraordinary number of symbols, personifications, and emblems that were developed during the French Revolution.69 The recent war has given rise to a large addition of new symbols, each of the con tending parties having its own set of symbols. America has gradually developed a symbolic language, probably less complete than that used abroad.

Much of this symbolism has been both interesting and significant. America is represented by the double symbolism of an

67 A writer in the London Times, noting that the cartoon is made for the moment, adds, “One can tell from the cartoons exactly what was the official formula at the date when they were published .” — October 26, 1916.

68 American Caricatures Pertaining to the Civil War, 1856– 1872. The use of the loop enclosing the sentiment of the figure depicted was abandoned in Europe where artists drew pictures that told their own story. - J. B. Bishop, Presidential Nominations and Elections, p. 148.

69 E. F. Henderson, Symbol and Satire of the French Revolution, 1912.