supplying Germany with household words. The drawings that accompany
the text are amazing for the skill and directness with which he hits
the vital mark. A flourish or two and a few touches are enough to set
before us figures of intensely comical aspect. This distinguishes
Busch from Adolf Oberlander (1845), who became the chief draughtsman
on _Fliegende Blatter_. Busch's drawings would have no meaning apart
from the humorous words. Oberlander works with the pencil only. Men,
animals, trees, objects, are endowed by him with a mysterious life of
their own. Without the help of any verbal joke, he achieves the
funniest results simply by seeing and accentuating the comical side of
everything. His drawings are caricature in the strict sense of the
word, its principle being the exaggeration of some natural
characteristic. The new generation of contributors to _Fliegende
Blatter_ do not work on these lines. Busch and Oberlander were both
offshoots of the romantic school; they made fun of modern novelties.
Hermann Schlittgen, Meggendorfer, H. Vogel-Plauen, Rene Reinicke,
Adolf Hengeler and Fritz Wahle are the sons of a self-satisfied time,
triumphing in its own _chic_, elegance and grace; hence they do not
parody what they see, but simply depict it. The wit lies exclusively
in the text; the illustrations aim merely at a direct representation
of street or drawing-room scenes. It is this which gives to _Fliegende
Blatter_ its value as a pictorial record of the history of German
manners. Its pages are a permanent authority on the subject for those
who desire to see the social aspects of Germany during the last
quarter of the 19th century onwards. At the same time a falling-off in
the brilliancy of this periodical was perceptible. Its fun became
domestic and homely; it has faithfully adhered to the old technique of
wood-engraving, and made no effort to keep pace with the modern
methods of reproduction. German caricature, to live and flourish, was
not keeping pace with the development of the art; it had to take into
its service the gay effects of colour, and derive fresh inspiration
from the sweeping lines of the ornamental draughtsman. This led to the
appearance of three new weekly papers: _Jugend, Das Narrenschiff_ and
_Simplicissimus_. _Jugend_, started in 1896 by Georg Hirth in Munich,
collected from the first a group of gifted young artists, more
especially Thon