262 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



and tall hat, is running away with his pet fastened 

 to a chain, pelted by the Boers, while the other 

 nations rejoice, and a boy in uniform is seen running 

 across the veldt with a packet labelled "telegram." 

 The whole composition is most comic, except the 

 central figure of John Bull as the hamster. The 

 reason is that the hamster, though his greediness, 

 his sulkiness, and general character as miser and 

 misanthrope make him a fitting object for the 

 caricaturist's art, is not one of the obviously comic 

 creatures, being nothing more than a fat, rat-like 

 animal, with a short tail and a blunt nose. 



The list of comic animals is not very long, and the 

 comic elements in each are by no means the same in 

 kind or evenly distributed. Those animals which 

 have some particular feature greatly exaggerated do 

 not necessarily raise a smile, any more than a vulgar 

 caricature which depends for its comic element on the 

 enlargement of a nose or a stomach is necessarily amus- 

 ing. There are several creatures which seem to have 

 been made for this " low-comedy line," but they are 

 far less funny than others that, like the prairie-dogs, 

 are quite pretty so far as form and features go. The 

 obviously comic creatures, with no reserve of intention 

 to back up first impressions, are the "long-nosed 

 monkey" and those other quadrumana whose legs, 

 tails, beards, or mouths are exaggerated caricatures 

 of human members ; yet the monkeys are not by any 

 means the most humorous of animals to look upon. 

 In a list of the animals which are always mirth- 

 provoking the sources of the amusement caused are 



