who came to this country from Vienna and who for some years
supported himself chiefly as an actor in Western theatrical
companies. He had studied drawing in Vienna and had contributed
cartoons to periodicals in that city. After some unsuccessful
ventures in illustrated journalism, he started a pictorial weekly
in New York in 1875. It was originally printed in German, but in
less than a year it was issued also in English. It was not until
1879 that it sprang into general notice through Keppler's success
in reproducing lithographed designs in color. Meanwhile, the
artist was feeling his way from the old style caricature, crowded
with figures with overhead loops of explanatory text, to designs
possessing an artistic unity expressive of an idea plain enough
to tell its own story. He had matured both his mechanical
resources and his artistic method by the time the campaign of
1884 came on, and he had founded a school which could apply the
style to American politics with aptness superior to his own. It
was Bernhard Gillam, who, working in the new Keppler style,
produced a series of cartoons whose tremendous impressiveness was
universally recognized. Blaine was depicted as the tattooed man
and was exhibited in that character in all sorts of telling
situations. While on the stump during the campaign, Blaine had
sometimes literally to wade through campaign documents assailing
his personal integrity, and phrases culled from them were chanted
in public processions. One of the features of a great parade of
business men of New York was a periodical chorus of "Burn this
letter," suiting the action to the word and thus making a
striking pyrotechnic display.* But the cartoons reached people
who would never have been touched by campaign documents or by
campaign processions.