A Blog of Bosh

Peter Newell, “Pussy and the Fool’s-Cap,” Harper’s Round Table, vol. XVI, no. 807, 16 April 1895, 416.

Peter Newell from Harper’s Round Table, vol. XVI, no. 820, 16 July 1895, 736.

A HONEY-LOVING grizzly-bear,
In a great bee-tree made his lair;
“There is a law,” he told the bees,
“That honey sha’n’t be kept in trees.
“I’ll take it out for you,” said he.
“Nay, nay, sir,” cries the old queen bee,
“Take yourself off!” and then and there
The stinging bees fell on the bear.
Peter Newell from Harper’s Round Table, vol XVI, [...]

There were three little owl that had slept all day
In their downy nest in a dead tree’s hollow;
Said the first: “It’s time to go out and play,
I hear the good-night of the chimney-swallow!”
“Oh no,” said the second; “the sun is high,
Who wants to be blind as a bat? — not I!”
But the third said: “Rats! [...]

A HOPPERGRASS, one sunny day,
Turning hand-springs amid the hay,
O’erleaped himself, and fell into
A piggin of good apple brew.
“Shame on you, thirsty little one,”
Cried the haymakers in the sun;
The hopper took one draught, and then,
Ere he flew off, addressed the men:
“Good sirs,” quoth he, “although one swallow
Does not make summer, it would follow
That several swallows were [...]

In a previous post I noted a rare instance of contemporary reference in Gustave Verbeek’s Terrors of the Tiny Tads. Here is another from the strip for 19 May 1907, a few weeks after the appearance of the “Cowboisterous Kangaroosevelt Bear:”
Here comes the Rockefellerphant, so wealthy and so bold,
His stomach like a money bag, all [...]

“Wicked Willie’s Dream” by Walter M. Dunk appeared in Harper’s Round Table, vol. XVI, no. 821, 23 July 1895, 760 (click for full story):

It clearly anticipates Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland, in particular for Willie’s position after his fall, but the idea of explaining an uncanny series of events as a dream at the [...]

The blog has been quiet for a long time, as I have been very busy and had to keep up with the daily publication of Edward Lear’s diaries. However, I have at last found time to add an article on Peter Newell to the nonsenselit.org bookshelf:

Hearn, Michael Patrick. “Peter Newell, American Comic Illustrator.” American Book [...]