File:The American Adventures of Marmaduke Squeezledene, Baronet (number 3).jpg

From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Original file ‎(1,420 × 3,712 pixels, file size: 2.31 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Captions

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Summary

[edit]
Description
English: in 1904, newspaper cartoonist Claude Shafer illustrated (and maybe wrote?) a series of humorous vignettes about the fictitious "Marmaduke Squeezledene", a baronet visiting America from the United Kingdom. There were 10 entries in the series, of which this is the third.
  • Text: Today I find myself in a large city inland. I forget the name of it. Perhaps it is Idaho or Kankakee. It is so tiresome to ask. I am stopping at the Grand Accidental. It is a rather pretentious place of six or seven floors, with fire escapes all over the front. The worst seems always anticipated in this blooming country, but I find there are some things even worse than fire.
I was dumped, so to speak, into the front door of the hotel by the station bus, and was precipitated into a large hall or lobby full of baggage and unmovable chairs and settees, upon which were seated a large number of men talking about "Grover Cleveland," "Steel common," "Bryan," "Jeffries," "dollar wheat," "the Japs," "Roosevelt," "bowling," "Rockefeller," "the fourth race at New Orleans," "cotton," "the price of coal," "the condition of trade in the gas belt" and the weather.
At one end, behind a gaudy-looking counter, was a distinguished-looking person, elaborately groomed and scintilating with jewelry. Every once in a while he would pound a bell, and numbers of flunkeys would cakewalk forward from the side of the great hall, like a ballet in a Christmas pantomime. As I approached his desk he executed this performance, apparently for my benefit, and the menials in force seized my luggage and bore it away.
"Glad to see you back," he said effusively, as he extended a bejeweled hand of welcome to me and with the other jerked a rusty pen out of a raw potato.
Only fawney! He evidently took me for an old acquaintance.
"Ah, a Bart, I see," he said, reading my signature on his book upside down. "How is Kind Ed and the rest of the royal deck?"
I shall write a letter to the Times about this.
He told me that as there was an Elk convention in town and a dog and poultry show, to say nothing of a sheep-breeders' association and a Woman's Federation holding sessions at the hotel, so that he had just barely room for me on the parlor floor.
Of course I was forced to protest against this, but he explained that he meant a room floor on which the parlor is, not literally on the floor.
"Front!" he yelled. "Go up to 79 and ask that couple if they're going out on No. 3 or the G., G. & G. H."
The youth returned and reported that the baggage of the couple was already coming down on the lift; so he assigned me to what he described to the flunky as 79 and to me as the "Bridal Chamber." I protested in vain that I was single, but he told me he wanted to give me the best in the house, and that a hand-painted chamber set and lace curtains on the windows would be sure to make me feel like I was stopping at Windsor Palace.
I shall write to the Times about this.
This hotel has a brass band on one floor, a piano recital on another, a ratification meeting in the lobby and a coroner's inquest in room 13.
I shall write to the Times about this.
I found my room much as described by the clerk, but it was not at all spacious. There was a chest of drawers in the room. All the drawers were empty. In a burst of curiosity I looked through them, and found nothing but a pair of discarded hose, dirty celluloid collar, a time table, an empty beer bottle and two old newspapers. I inferred that guests had left them there, and marveled greatly why so much furniture for which there was no use was put in the room.
I sat down and wrote in my diary on the top of a little marble-topped center table that rocked with every stroke of my pen.
Being blooming tired, I went to sleep after I took the liberty of reading a list of barbarous rules posted up behind the door.
MARMADUKE SQUEEZLEDEAN, Bart.
I pushed an innocent-looking button on the wall just now, and a flunky has brought me an American cocktail, an extra towel and two pitchers of ice water. I will drink the cocktail.
Date
Source http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085187/1904-05-24/ed-1/seq-4/ (The Tacoma Times)
Author
Claude Shafer  (1878–1962)  wikidata:Q35860798
 
Claude Shafer
Alternative names
Claude Schafer / Shaf
Description American cartoonist
Date of birth/death 7 January 1878 Edit this at Wikidata 24 May 1962 Edit this at Wikidata
Location of birth Marietta
Work period 1901 Edit this at Wikidata–1956 Edit this at Wikidata
Authority file
creator QS:P170,Q35860798

Licensing

[edit]
Public domain
Public domain
This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1929, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation.
United States
United States
This image might not be in the public domain outside of the United States; this especially applies in the countries and areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada, Mainland China (not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland. The creator and year of publication are essential information and must be provided. See Wikipedia:Public domain and Wikipedia:Copyrights for more details.

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current15:09, 21 July 2016Thumbnail for version as of 15:09, 21 July 20161,420 × 3,712 (2.31 MB)DragonflySixtyseven (talk | contribs)User created page with UploadWizard

You cannot overwrite this file.

There are no pages that use this file.

Retrieved from "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:The_American_Adventures_of_Marmaduke_Squeezledene,_Baronet_(number_3).jpg&oldid=514898442"