SOCIAL PICTORIAL SATIRE.

By George du Maurier,

Author of “Trilby” “The Martian” &c.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

MDCCCXCVIII

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Mr. and Mrs. Caudle

John Leech

"In the Bay of Biscay O"

A Specimen of Pluck

One of Mr. Briggs’s Adventures in the Highlands

Thank Goodness!  Fly-fishing has begun!

"The jolly little Street Arabs"

Doing a little Business

A Tolerably Broad Hint

Charles Keene

The Snowstorm, Jan. 2, 1867

Waiting for the Landlord!

A Stroke of Business

"None o’ your Larks"

An Affront to the Service

"Not up to his Business"

George du Maurier

Feline Amenities

The New Society Craze

A Pictorial Puzzle

Refinements of Modern Speech

"Reading without Tears"

The Height of Impropriety

Things one would wish to have expressed differently

SOCIAL PICTORIAL SATIRE

It is my purpose to speak of the craft to which I have devoted the best years of my life, the craft of portraying, by means of little pen-and-ink strokes, lines, and scratches, a small portion of the world in which we live; such social and domestic incidents as lend themselves to humorous or satirical treatment; the illustrated criticism of life, of the life of our time and country, in its lighter aspects.

The fact that I have spent so many years in the practice of this craft does not of itself, I am well aware, entitle me to lay down the law about it; the mere exercise of an art so patent to all, so easily understanded of the people, does not give one any special insight into its simple mysteries, beyond a certain perception and appreciation of the technical means by which it is produced—­unless one is gifted with the critical faculty, a gift apart, to the possession of which I make no claim.

There are two kinds of critics of such work as ours.  First there is the wide public for whom we work and by whom we are paid; “who lives to please must please to live”; and who lives by drawing for a comic periodical must manage to please the greater number.  The judgment of this critic, though often sound, is not infallible; but his verdict for the time being is final, and by it we, who live by our wits and from hand to mouth, must either stand or fall.