Maurier's picture of Society was largely falsified ,” it was due to his " inability to appreciate variety in feminine genius," 92 but his insight did not otherwise fail him . The illustrations of the recent war have been invaluable for the historian , less on account of their representations of what
men and women have been doing, as for their interpretation of what they have been thinking and feeling. It is difficult to find illustrations in the past that give the depth of understanding of fundamental contemporaneous thought as many of those of the
present time have given.
It is in the pages of the Kladderadatsch that the steps are seen by which Bismarck in the public eye changed from a Prussian into a German.93 It is in the pages of the Fliegende Blätter that the slow acceptance of this change in Southern Germany may be noted . It is M . Grand -Carteret who has shown the far reaching influence of Bismarck for good and for evil as shown in the caricatures of all nationalities.94 Nowhere else as in cartoon
and caricature can it be so clearly understood that the opposition to Napoleon was to an individual; 95 that Bismarck was carica
tured as a public man while he was respected as a private citizen ; that the Kaiser was regarded as a typical German and that the
attitude of the English people towards him was at first one of good -humored curiosity to see what he would do next, but ultimately one of aversion and horror.96 Considered from every point of view , the illustration thus
becomes in itself a record of the increasing public demand for 92 T . M . Wood, George Du Maurier, p . 18 . 93 The establishment of Kladderadatsch was almost coincident with the appearance of Bismarck in public life . The Bismarck-Album des Kladdera datsch gives the representations of Bismarck contained in it from his first appearance as a Prussian deputy in the Frankfort parliament in 1847 to
his dismissal in 1890 .
94 J . Grand-Carteret, Bismarck en Caricature, 1890; Crispi, Bismarck et la Triple -Alliance en Caricatures, 1891. 95 A . M . Broadley, Napoleon in Caricature, 2 vols .
96 It is an interesting study to note the attitude of both Punch and Life towards the Kaiser before, during, and since the war. “ Dropping the Pilot"
expressed surprise at his policy, while “ Wilful Wilhelm " well shows the feeling of the Kaiser towards Punch as indicated in the cartoon “ Take the Nasty Punch Away .”
The German censor cut out both cartoons before
Punch was allowed to circulate in Germany. The Kaiser later becomes
Mephistopheles in Punch , while in Life, during the war, he became a dachs
