Puck, 1879-09-03 · page 5 of 19
Puck — September 3, 1879 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical narrative poem illustrated with comic panels. The story follows a character named Troddledums who appears to be portrayed as simian (ape-like), emphasizing the Victorian-era racist caricature trope of comparing certain groups to animals. The narrative follows Troddledums through various misadventures—entering through a baker's window, encountering a trap, being caught by authorities, and ultimately ending up in what appears to be a private asylum or institution. The satire likely mocks social pretensions or a specific public figure of the era, using the "simian" trope common to Puck's sometimes crude satirical approach. Without additional context about which political or social figure "Troddledums" references, the specific target remains unclear, though the overall tone is one of ridicule and social commentary typical of 1880s-90s American satire magazines.
📄 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. nd now behold our airy hero hurfed Upon a cold, unsympathetic world. ‘ou see, our metre’s undergone a change. fe love through fields of to range. He wandered lonely, and he wandered far; *Neath burning suns or ‘neath the‘evening star. Last, in a country town, his weary feet Trotted along a small, secluded street, Wherein his stomach whispered him to stop At the well-filled window of a baker’s shop; Which window he did enter, and did raid, ‘The while the hapless baker stood dismayed. For what to do that baker did not know, His fairy fingers being clogged with dough: While Troddiedums four pretzels convolute ‘Stuck on his tail, and one bun on each foot; And skipped. The baker finds, as may be seed,* His dough can not be called a friend in knead. In this peculiarest of peculiar rigs Troddledums meets the elderly Miss Briggs. © We are not bragging much on this for grammar, but we will bet on it for a rhyme. PART Iv. This is the tumble that the maiden took. Our hero went off on his own sweet hook. But here’s the way that Justice, stern and blind, O'ertook the Simian scoundrel from behind. Meee Can He saved the pretzels; but the cobbler’s boy Munched on the ravished buns with avid joy. Then Troddledums met a tramp who relished much Pretzels, and reached out for them with his crutch. And three he got, rather for wear the worse; But lost one crutch and met with a reverse. Now Troddledums leaps a lofty fence of stone, To eat in solitude that pretzel lone. He does not eat it—but, oh, dire mishap! He sets his foot within a cruel trap. And loud he wails, and brings into that back- Yard the old man, who bears a mighty sack. Upon his face he wears a fiendish grin; He takes the sack and stows our hero in. And with the situation thus he grapples, Thinking ‘twas Troddledums who stole his apples. ‘Then to his private mansion taketh he ‘This victim of enforcéd hos-pi-tal-i-tee. [More hereafter. comicbooks.com