Part 1

FIFTY GREAT CARTOONS

BY FRANK BEARD

REPRODUCED BY A NEW PROCESS FROM THE ARTIST’S ORIGINAL DRAWINGS AND ENGRAVED BY THE SPECTROTYPE COMPANY, CHICAGO.

PUBLISHED BY THE RAM’S HORN PRESS 153 LaSALLE STREET . CHICAGO U. S. A.

Charles Wesley once said, “There is no reason why the devil should have all of the best tunes,” and it is equally hard to conceive why he should have all of the best pictures. There is probably no phase of art which Satan has tried harder to control than that of painting. He has sought to corrupt literature, music and oratory, but even if he meets defeat in each of these quarters, he will be fully resigned, if it remains in his power, to make the pictorial artist his ready slave; for well the arch spirit of evil knows that it is pictures that catch the eye, fasten the attention, quicken the imagination and enthrall the soul.

For years and years the pen of the caricaturist was in the exclusive service of the secular and humorous press. There it often did good work as the champion of social and political reform. Nast, Gillam and Beard, in their several fields of pictorial journalism, have laid the nation and the world under deeper obligations than it will soon be able to repay. One of that famous trio, however, not being content with his success in merely amusing men, or at best in directing their thoughts to the foibles of politics, and society, sought to enlarge his usefulness by consecrating his pen and his genius to the betterment of the religious conditions of the race and hoped thereby to bring men to a better understanding of themselves and their Maker.

It was Frank Beard, who, first among the great artists, used the pen of caricature as a champion of Christian living and Christian reform. He could have found no better opportunity to exercise his talent and distribute its effects broadcast than in the pages of The Ram’s Horn, that wonderful weekly paper which far and near is now known as “the miracle of modern journalism.” For nearly three years Mr. Beard has given The Ram’s Horn a full page cartoon each week and it is Fifty of the Best of these Pictures which now appear in the pages of this volume.

The highest hopes of Mr. Beard and of The Ram’s Horn will be accomplished if, by the publication of these pictures, stronger emphasis is laid upon the fact that Christ is the foundation of the church, and good citizenship is the foundation of the state, and that the only great foe to the former is Unbelief, and as for the latter no good citizenship is possible so long as it remains in an unholy league with the licensed saloon.

By Faith the walls of Jericho fell down flat. Hebrews xi:30.

At a long blast with the ram’s horn the walls of the city shall fall. Josh. vi:5.

Fifty loud blasts from The Ram’s Horn will be found in this book of Cartoons. At their reverberating peal may the walls of Mammon, Rum and Unbelief fall shattered in the dust.

THE RAM’S HORN, Chicago, U. S. A.

WANTED! A DAVID.

The church can scarcely be said to be somnolent. It is awake and active. But its activities are too frequently spent in affairs that do not relate to its mission which is to fight the hosts of sin in a wicked world. The giants of iniquity stalk forth boldly. They find the church not in battle but in the tents, feasting and drinking, planning for dime socials and not for war against sin. Oh that some modern David would soon step forth and teach us that it is not shields nor armor nor tall steeples nor worldly expedients that are to win the day. It is faith in God. That is what gave aim and speed to the stone that slew Goliath, and it is what will give efficacy now to work and prayer.

Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand. _Ephesians 6:11._

IMPREGNABLE!

It was fortunate that the Savior did not build his church upon a perishable foundation. When in answer to his inquiry Peter said, Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God, Jesus had a corner stone for an edifice whose summit would reach the stars and whose base would be as broad as creation. The church is founded upon a fact and that fact is the historic Christ. No lever of human assumption bolstered by conceit has ever moved that corner stone the breadth of a hair. The church of Jesus is founded upon the impeccable, the faithful, the everlasting Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Touch not the walls of Truth which surround Zion. They are impregnable.

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. _I Cor. 3:11._

BACK TO CHRIST.

Hard and exacting is the toil of the preacher. Especially so in these years when a cultured and enlightened pew demands the religious discourse presented in the best form and embellished with the adornments which modern art and literature supply. A preacher who yields to the extreme demands of modern thought, however, will soon find himself abandoning the true and best source of sermon material and will begin to forage in the desert fields of literature to find sustenance for an impoverished mind. Many such a preacher, tired and heartless, would find instant relief if he would but burn the human aids to the manufacture of artificial sermons and turn to the rich mines of truth which still lie unexplored in the sacred word. Back to Christ is the call of a starving world which is now shepherdless and unfed.

For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. _Acts 4:11._

AT THE CHURCH FAIR.

The preachers are not alone guilty of levying tribute from the world in carrying on the work of the gospel. There are church organizations which might be numbered by the thousands, the wealth of whose membership would in each congregation exceed a million dollars, but they seem unable to buy a church organ or a pulpit bible without getting up a bazaar or a Church Fair. The same Jesus who drove the money changers from the house of prayer, sits in sad judgment upon the church which turns its sacred chamber into a market place or into a scene of rank levity and low grade amusement.

Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee. _Ezekiel 5:11._

A GIFT FOR THE ALTAR.

There were but few gifts recorded in the bible which were large enough to attract the attention of Christ. They were not large but they all implied sacrifice, they represented the utmost that the giver could bestow. When the widow bashfully pushed her little mite into the collection box she little dreamed that her offering weighed more than all the gold and precious treasure that lay stacked in the safety deposit vaults of Jerusalem. If God has a cordial contempt for anybody in the world, we suspect it is for the man who, having made a fortune, gives ostentatiously a part which is insignificant in proportion to the amount which he retains to minister to his own comfort and ease.

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. _Malachi 3:8._

“WHAT LACK I YET?”

One cannot square accounts with God on any other basis than complete surrender, whether of the will or of wealth. “What lack I yet?” asked the rich young man who prided himself extravagantly on his moral life. Go, said Jesus, sell your estate and give the proceeds to the needy. We have no evidence that this young Jew got his money in any but an honest method, and if his way to salvation lay along the path of complete surrender what shall those do who derive their riches by corrupting law makers and by defeating justice, and by cornering products and raising the price of food?

I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hands. _Mal. 1:10._

THOU ART THE MAN!

Law and justice hold an accessory to a crime liable to punishment as strictly as they hold the principal. Indeed oftentimes it is the wily accessory who is the more guilty, because from his cowardly place of retreat he directs the plot which may result in physical peril to the one who carries it through. Is not likewise the man who rents his property to evil uses equally if not more guilty than the one who boldly assumes the responsibility of carrying on an indecent traffic therein. There would be a thinning of the ranks of respectability if public sentiment should face every Dives who is a silent partner in the tenements of sin and say, Thou art the man whom we hold guilty and responsible for this murder and this poverty and this vice.

When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partakers with adulterers. _Psalm 50:18._

A VAIN TASK.

Scarcely a schoolboy has reached fifteen and has not heard of that ancient victim of Fate who toiled daily year in and year out in the effort to get a huge stone above the top of a mountain. Each morning he found it again at the foot, and so his task continued monotonous, endless, futile, vain. Just so with the modern Champions of Unbelief. They toil and sweat and push at Infidelity’s inert boulder, they fancy they make progress, and sometimes they do, but in their pathway there stands the granite block of Truth bearing aloft in defiant beauty the cross of sacrifice. Against this, Egotism and Unbelief can make no headway. It is a Vain Task.

These also resist the truth: Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further; for their folly shall be manifest unto all men. _II Tim. 3:9–10._

ADRIFT.

Genuine life loves motion, energy, enterprise, destination. It cannot stand still nor lie dormant; it cannot go in a circle even, it must have a goal and a destiny. For this reason Agnosticism can never be the philosophy for this human race, because it is a ship without steam or sail and it will use neither oars nor rudder. It is content to lie upon the spacious ocean of Eternity, tossed by doubt, fascinated by Fate pursuing, indifferent as regards companionship or success. A cheerless, lonely drifting vessel on a sea that has no shores and no haven.

And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness. _Isaiah 8:22._

IS THIS “WOMAN’S SPHERE?”

The home is the holy of holies where angels love to dwell. Its sacred precincts are more inviolate than the inner sanctuary of Israel’s temple. God has made it the ark of his covenant between himself and his children from generation to generation. It is the oracle and fount for instruction in religion and morals and patriotism. It is the altar where holy fires of ambition and inspiration and enthusiasm are kindled. And yet there are those, and sometimes there are women, who see no opportunity for deep pleasure or high duty at the home fireside, but must find it in outside engagements, in pursuit of baubles of worldly place or social distinction. This is not woman’s sphere. Her hand belongs not on the throttle of this world’s busy life, but on the cradle, where character begins to take form. There she belongs and there she may sit to mold the future of two worlds. Only of such will it be said:

Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, he praiseth her. _Proverbs 31:28._

THE POOREST MAN IN THE WORLD.

Robinson Crusoe, shipwrecked on a lonely island, furnishes a picture of woe and desolation which it would be difficult to exaggerate, and yet, through his invention and enterprise, frugality and foresight, he transformed inhospitable shores into a garden of plenty. He conquered nature, by reason of his kindly acts even the wild animals learned to love him and the ferocious savages gave him their trust. In strong contrast to him is the man who heaps opulence upon greed and by his selfishness separates himself from the companionship of men. Faith, Hope and Love, once his attendants, he has allowed to perish. Eternity surrounds him. Opportunity is wrecked, and no ship will ever again come near his lonely island. The poorest man in the world is the man who has the means to purchase everything but has lost his capacity for enjoying anything.

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. _Rev. 3:17._

THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD.

It takes more than money to make a man wealthy. Godliness with contentment is great gain, says the bible, and therein is the secret of a rich and happy life. Contentment is a prerequisite of happiness and no man can come into contentment until every aspiration of his nature is satisfied. The deepest aspiration that lodges in the human soul is the longing for that contentment and rest which salvation bestows. No one is really rich, therefore, until salvation is found, and if it be discovered, after heroic sacrifice and struggle, after plunging through temptation and peril, the joy of triumph will be that much the greater and when temptation has been conquered by faith and works, then Salvation makes one truly the Richest Man in the World.

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. _Proverbs 13:7._

EVICTED!

There are two tenants who seek to occupy every human heart and make it their place of residence. One of them is the Spirit of Good, the other is the Spirit of Evil. Jesus Christ is the personification of one; Satan is the personification of the other. It is within the power of every one to say whether his spiritual castle shall be the abode of righteousness and truth or whether it shall be the foul dwelling of sin and falsehood. If, perchance, the latter, by accident or unwatchfulness or even by our deliberate choice, has obtained control of our affections we may through the help of God cast out the unworthy tenant together with all his chattels of pride, envy, intemperance and their kindred brood, and turn over the House of Man-Soul to that other spirit whose mark thenceforth will adorn the door plate as a pledge that the dwelling will be forever impregnable against the assaults of sin.

And Jesus said unto him, this day is salvation come to this house. _Luke 16:6._

THE ENEMIES OF THE REPUBLIC.

Columbia has need of ships of war but she has need also of watchfulness within, lest, in looking for enemy abroad, she forget that in her very borders there are dark-browed assassins lying in ambush ready to slay her and take Justice and Liberty captive. No evils threaten greater menace to the nation than those which are embodied in the rum traffic and in corporate bribery. The serpent trail of each is seen in council chambers and senate halls. They work in the dark and they work stealthily. They are traitors and public foes. They should be destroyed.

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their path. _Isaiah 8:22._

THE IMMIGRANT.

During four hundred and more years this continent has been the melting pot for the population of the Eastern hemisphere. For three-fourths of that time the yearly infusions of raw metal was so slight that it was not hard to compound them with the native stock and preserve the high character of American citizenship. But when alien immigration pours its stream of half a million yearly, as has frequently been done during the last decade, and when that stream is polluted with the moral sewage of the old world, including its poverty, drunkenness, infidelity and disease, it is well to put up the bars and save America, at least until she can purify the atmosphere of contagion which foreign invasion has already brought.

Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. _Jer. 7:2–3_.

BY AUTHORITY OF THE PEOPLE.

When that famous submarine reef known as Hell Gate was blown out of the waters of Long Island Sound, the world echoed with rejoicing to learn that what had been a menace and a barrier to vessels and to commerce was blasted into fragments never to return. There is a greater Hell Gate which with its infinite submarine and subterranean tunnels honeycombs our social structure. The saloon is the dreadful barrier to commerce and prosperity, as well as a menace to health and peace. In spite of the fact that its awful traffic bears the approving stamp of our government, the time will come when this great thing, whose foundations are laid in hell, will be blown skyward by the power of public sentiment mightily aroused and intellectually directed.

Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that putteth thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also. _Hab. 2:4._

PROTECT THAT BOY.

The controllers of the liquor traffic understand their business. They know that they are sending an army of drunkards each year to an untimely grave and to take the place of these fallen victims, they must gain recruits from the hosts of youth. But the Rum haunts are too hideous to beguile one of tender years. There must be less offensive sins offered to bridge that long leap from innocence to iniquity, from the home hearth to the dram shop. Therefore, the rum-seller goes in league with the vendor of cigarettes, and base literature, and evil pictures, and questionable games and entertainments. At last the youthful victims of these plotters find themselves on the threshold of ruin. Every avenue through crime and vice leads at last to the open saloon.

The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame. _Psalms 89:45._

DON’T SHOOT.

It would be easy to destroy the liquor traffic were it not for its power in politics. This is so apparent to the men who manage it that they make it their first business to engage in politics and lay candidates for office under obligations by making generous contributions to the campaigns of each party. Therefore, whenever a cry of robbery or murder goes up from the licensed saloon and the government grabs bayonet and ballot and runs to the rescue, the political managers immediately step forth and intervene. Don’t Shoot, they both cry; Let him rob and ruin. He is a friend of mine and he has a license.

And he said unto them; Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way. _Gen. 24:56._

THE PARTY COLLAR.

The influence of the saloon in politics is not entirely due to the political boss who makes the gin-mill his headquarters. He would be powerless for harm were it not for the infinite multitude of so-called respectable voters who degrade their intelligence and dignity by working and voting shoulder to shoulder with social outlaws. Under a false notion of fealty these men subject their neck to the party collar and go to the polls yoked with ignorance and crime, and at the heels of some low-browed political dictator they sacrifice their country’s weal on the altar of partisan allegiance.

For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. _Isaiah 9:16._

A NIGHT’S WORK.

More than one man has been hanged for doing what he did not mean to do. When anyone under the influence of liquor commits a crime it is no longer an extenuation or defense to say that he was not responsible. This is so because it is a matter of human experience that if one sets a match to gunpowder it will explode and if one pours liquor down his throat he is filling his brain with the seeds of malice, hate and murder. Many a man has scoffed at such a statement at twelve o’clock at night, but has seen awful proof of its truth, when, awakening at nine in the morning he recovers from a fatal debauch and sees the work of his own drunken and murderous hand.

At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. _Prov. 23:32._

UNDER THE CLOAK OF THE LAW.

Concerning the work of the saloon there is but one verdict which can be rendered by intelligence and patriotism. Ten thousand times ten thousand times it has been brought before the bar of Justice and there charged and proved with being responsible for the vast majority of poverty, crime and disease which infest the race. Nevertheless, so deeply is this blighting curse intrenched in our laws and government that our courts are compelled, even if unwilling, to protect a traffic which by common agreement is a universal bane. Knowing this, the saloonist seeks refuge under the cloak of the law, and there insolently defies us to assail him.

He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. _Prov. 17:14._

SPIKE THAT GUN!