Puck, 1877-05 · page 10 of 16
Puck — May 1877 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the economic hardships of the period through six vignettes showing people struggling to adapt to financial crisis: 1. **Spriggins** (an ex-bookkeeper) must become a porter, showing white-collar workers forced into manual labor. 2. **Bilkins** and Mrs. B. attempt to economize by sharing a coat, mocking desperate penny-pinching. 3. **Herr Schwartzenschwaffelbach**, a former Fat Men's Association president, joins the telegram messengers—suggesting even established figures lost status. 4. **Adolphus Lavender** attempts to profit from his children via the railroad business. 5. **Riley**, a policeman, struggles with the timing of his night shift and grocer's business hours. 6. An ex-bank director enters a new line of work. The cartoon depicts widespread unemployment and class displacement during economic hardship, likely referencing a Gilded Age financial panic.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HARD 1. Spriggins, the ex-bookkeeper, who has been balancing books all his life, takes a situation as porter, and finds that balancing goods re- quires a different sort of talent. 2. Bilkins undertakes, with the assistance of Mrs. B., to put, in his own half-ton of coal, and save money, if not appearances. 3- Herr Schwartzenschwaffelbach, late President of the Pumper- nickel Branch of the Fat Men's Association, joins the ranks of the District Telegraph Messengers. 10. PUCK. TIMES. 4. Adolphus Lavender, once a Fifth Avenue exquisite, goes into the railroad business, and tries to make his old kids available in his new situation. 5. Riley, who is no longer supported by his mother, gets a position on the police force as night-man. But somehow he can’t get the hang of waking up in the morning before the grocer opens his coal-box. 6. Even the ex-bank director has to strike out in a new line. comicbooks.com