The Wunderkammer of the Mild Colonial Boy, Esq., a Reactionary Tory Gentleman, who armed only with a Steampowered Babbage Engine and Pure Intentions, wanders the Time Streams and Aetheric Plane gathering an Eccentric Hodgepodge of Curiousities, Frivolities, Whimsicalities and Nonsense.
Q. Why is your Tumblelog called "My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck by Lightning"?
A. Because "My Grandmother's Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck by Lightning" wouldn't fit in the available space.
It’s quite a burn to Germany and Kaiser Wilhelm. I think it would have done better to use an image of Kaiser Franz Josef to be more figurative and literal, but Wilhelm/Germany was likely more recognisable as the enemy to British readers as well as their primary antagonist in the war.
(originally published in “Punch” magazine in 1915)
scanned photo from the website: http://www.pictorialgems.com/1915-Sick-Man-Of-Europe-Kaiser-Takes-Turkeys-Cot.39243
(via lord-kitschener)
Robert McCrum’s life of Wodehouse is full of good stuff, but I was particularly struck by this vignette of life in 1918:
The war in Europe was now over. The defeated Kaiser went into exile in Holland. There, it was said, he discovered the works of P. G. Wodehouse and would read them aloud to his mystified staff, chuckling over and rereading the best bits.
Wodehouse was a consolation in defeat, not only to the Kaiser, but also to his foe, the British Prime Minister who had declared war on him*. In 1927 Wodehouse dedicated the story collection Meet Mr Mulliner to the politician who:
had let it be known that he had consoled himself after his general election defeat of 1924 by reading Jill the Reckless.
*Asquith
havisham | lostsplendor | collective-history:
Kaiser Wilhelm II strikes a pose. (ca. 1914-1916)
Boy let’s make like pre-1871 German states and unify.
Okay I’ll stop.
DAMN UR SEXY KAISER
I’m too sexy for Berlin, too sexy for Berlin, Leipzig und Frankfurt.
I’m the Kaiser, you know what I mean
and I do my little turn on the battlefield
yeah on the battlefield, on the battlefield yeah
I do my little turn on the battlefield
FS says: Oh Wilhelm … good lord you are sassy here. I love this photo. I always thought Wilhelm was a rather sassy fellow given his penchant for writing ill advised telegrams and whatnot.
In fact, for those Sherlockian’s out there, Wilhelm appears in the canon. In the Adventure of the Second Stain, when an inappropriately worded letter from a foreign leader goes missing and its possible publication threatens the balance of power in Europe, it is Kaiser Wilhelm II who ACD was pointing to as the writer of that letter. He was known for slipping his advisors leashes and saying inappropriate things to the press, and in letters to foreign powers.
Basicly Wilhelm was an interesting figure in a time when the press was exploding in a very significant way. Suddenly you could say things that millions of people could read over breakfast, and suddenly what was in the press could can the course of history. He clearly needed a PR person.
Historian Jack is done now. I just have a lot of Wilhelm feelings apparently.
Kaiser Wilhelm II strikes a pose. (ca. 1914-1916)
Boy let’s make like pre-1871 German states and unify.
Okay I’ll stop.
