The Phony General
General Harrison Gray Otis, who served in the Phillippines, is wearing his dazzling uniform with a paper labeled War Record stuffed into his belt.
“No real bullets allowed in this show,” he warns Frank Finlayson, on the rampart opposite. “All right,” Finlayson answers.
That object sticking out from behind Otis is not a devil’s tail, but part of his sword scabbard (or is it?) |
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Phony Ad Revenues
Last Act: As a querulous full moon looks on, General Otis creeps along a sidewalk beside a signpost marked To the Herald carrying a money bag labeled Play Receipts. He mutters: ”Yes! I know this road!” |
The Phony ‘War’
In 1904 Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Times, secretly purchased the Herald and continued to maintain it, in a weakened condition, as a way to combat the inroads of Willliam Randolph Hearst’s pro-union Examiner (in which this cartoon appeared).
Otis’ man at the Herald was Frank G. Finlayson, an attorney who lived at 1981 Bonsall Avenue.
The pawn-like figures at the bottom of Finlayson’s rickety fort appear to be Negro soldiers. The Herald at least made a pretense of being interested in covering the activities of L.A.’s African-Americans. |
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A Phony ‘Rubicon’
The Rubico was a small stream that flowed into the Adriatic and in Roman times marked the boundary between Gaul and Italy. Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon to march against Pompey. He thus committed himself to conquer or to perish, and “to cross the Rubicon” now means to take an irrevocable step.
This Los Angeles ‘Rubicon’ is nothing more than a stream from a water tank. |
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Phony Business,or Who Is Lying on the Steps?
It’s a disconsolate soldier complaining, “He lost my fight.” On the tower is a crooked sign reading, “I Stand Pat.” This is reminiscent of Lincoln Steffens’ quoting a Philadelphia merchant about municipal politicians (in The Shame of the City):
”The party leaders may be getting more than they should out of the city, but that doesn't hurt me. It may raise taxes a little, but I can stand that. The party keeps up the protective tariff. If that were cut down, my business would be ruined. So long as the party stands pat on that, I stand pat on the party."
A Republican elephant wears a sign: G.O.P. Times. |
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Gramo-Phoniness
As a promotion stunt, the Times was offering a free phonograph with each new subscription.
The captions below the supposed stage footlights are:
Read the Times. Tells All About Me.
A Record of One of My Speeches With Each Gramaphone.
Properties Used in this Drama Owned by Otis.
Grama Given Away to Every New Subscriber. |