Mr Punch in London Town V
Time for some  more funnies from the early 20th Century, cartoons published in Mr Punch in London Town from the New Punch Library.
I was in the Red Lion in Crown Passage, St James’s on Saturday evening and noticed they had framed cartoons on the wall. Closer inspection showed that they were not originals but cut from books, I believe the same set from which these come, that is to say The New Punch Library. I always wince when I see that books have been butchered in this way. You see this in many pubs and countless thousands mounted on board in dealers and on street traders’ stalls up and down the land. Old prints can mean tidy business. The NPL seems to be common enough if you look on eBay, ABE Books and so on, so in this case, no real harm done, I suppose. And one can argue that the overwhelming majority of old book illustrations will never be seen by anybody, ever. So why not chop them out and display them? Mmm… still doesn’t seem right, somehow. What do you think?
Anyway, back to the cartoons. The first one was originally published in Punch on 24 June, 1908 and involves something known as a “Flip-Flap”. It’s some sort of cage, in this case occupied by well-to-do folk who are being goaded by some characters further down the social scale. But what is a Flip-Flap? At first I thought it might be some kind of lift apparatus on the Underground, at the time going through rapid expansion. But no. A few minutes’ Goolging reveals that the Flip-Flap was a sort of funfair ride at the Anglo-French Exhibition of 1908 held at White City. The Flip-Flap obviously became a widely-publicised highlight. There is a good illustration of it here (scroll down a bit).
More working-class wit here:
Put-upon cabbies and waitering staff were a common source for amusement.
Bloody good
Cutting up books? As a book lover and a one-time library worker, I of course deplore the idea. The modern concept of giving schoolkids “projects” to do has wreaked havoc with library books because of the temptation to cut out pictures, maps and diagrams to illustrate them. Too often, teachers ignore this act which combines damage and theft.
I think a print that was designed for a book is always better in the book than out of it but discretion is allowed: if the book is falling apart and cannot be saved it is better to rescue the prints. Destroying a book just to sell the prints is an act of vandalism but who is to blame, the print seller or the customer who turns a blind eye to the source of the print?
Cabbies are still obsessed with tips. Receiving the stated fare without addition is called “being legalled out” (i.e. receiving only the legal fare).
I too used to work in a library – in my case at a University. The problem was not people cutting up their own books (which they do, after all, own) but cutting plates out of some quite rare books on the back shelves and selling them. One young man allegedly funded his degree this way although it was never proved.