Puck, 1879-08-20 · page 5 of 16
Puck — August 20, 1879 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous narrative poem illustrated with comic drawings, not a political cartoon. It tells the absurdist story of Troddledums, a Simian (ape-like creature) who encounters a sailor on a beach in Africa. The plot involves Troddledums discovering oversized boots and attempting to wear them, creating physical comedy. The sailor eventually takes Troddledums aboard ship, leading to further misadventures at sea. The satire appears to target Victorian attitudes toward colonialism and racial hierarchies—depicting an African scenario with comedic "civilization" of a primitive creature. The exaggerated illustrations emphasize the absurdity. This reflects typical 19th-century Puck content mixing light humor with problematic racial and imperial themes now recognized as offensive.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PUCK. TRODDLEDUMS, THE SIMIAN. Liarity, which unto you ‘Tis my duty to make clear, Or you'll think his actions queer. Whatever he saw others do Struck him as a good thing, too. Thus through practical evidence Did he gain experience. As you know, the Latin phrase Experientia docet says: And experientia Does it, too, in Africa, For experience, as you'll see, Did it for our hero, T. Pura had one pecu- "Twas upon a sunny noon In the Central African June— Which, if you will please remember Your Geography, is December— That the Troddledums was seated On a palm tree, near the strand, There these words he soft repeated, With a smile serene and bland: “Ga ga goo goo go go ghee, Wally wally wi do wu wu wee!" "Twas his nation's chant de guerre Set unto a native air. But he broke off in the strain, As he looked upon the main, And he had a fit of coughing As he saw a ship in the offing; Swallowed a staccato note Catching sight of one small boat, By a jovial tar propelled— And his breath the Simian held. For he noticed in the rear Of the boat, and thought it queer, ‘There reposed two pairs of boots— ‘Two big bouncers; two small toots. Ah! if Troddledums had but known About those boots, he'd have let em alone, ‘The sailor walked with two pedals bare, And his feet just fitted the bigger pair— Number nineteens—the others, which Didn't fit him, were filled with pitch. PART II. And as he walked up the sandy beach That sailor uttered a horrid screech, And expressed such excessive and poig- nant grief You'd haye pawned your hat to give him . relief, But when he sat beneath the palm, And put on a boot, a holy balm Seemed to come o’er his troubled soul, And a smirkulent smile that sailor smole. And when he put on number two, He cheered till you thought he'd never get through, And he rose, and slipped off sly, With a wink within his eye— Slipped off, happiest of galoots— But forgot the little boots. Then Troddledums came down, out of the tree, And went for those boots, with a smile of glee. And drew them on his feet, “For,” thought he, “Tt must be nice, though it’s clearly naughty!” But as he sought to walk, in vain, Back came the toiler of the main, And, grasping him, with animation, By the caudal termination, Pulled him from the palm-tree’s bough— Don’t ask me to tell you how— ‘Though it seems quite clear enough ‘That the tail was very tough. ‘Thus he led him to the strand, Shipped him for a foreign land; And but small account made he Of the monkey’s dignitee. And here you see them dashing away: On the monkey’s visage is writ dismay, But the sailor grins with a fiendish grin, For the sailor he is a man of sin. And now for Troddledums commences A new set of experiences: Which shall, very presentlye Quite immediately, bye and bye, Be unfolded, all, to lie Open to the reader's eye. [More hereafter] -comicbooks.com