The troika

Here is the dashing troika tearing down the high road
Three old witches howling, barking, shaking their shaggy heads:
Plague, reaction, cholera, but it is hunger (malnutrition) that holds the reins…
“All measures have been taken,” however…
The people should not be agitated…
(Pulemet, St. Petersburg, 1906)

Landlords and tenants at odds

“Listen, overseer: since my son got his medical degree yesterday, let the tenants know that I am adding a dozen crowns to all their rents; because when cholera really breaks out, it’s a great advantage to have a doctor in the house.”
(Humoristické listy, Prague, 1892)

The caution of mother wisdom

“Good, Vasicka, good. And now point your finger at Pest.”
“Teacher, not that! I’m afraid that there it’s cholera.”
(Humoristické listy, Prague, 1886) (A nearly identical French cartoon.)

Cholera

The nut is coming!

“My lord, I am going on a trip to Europe, and I think it very fair that you should transport my luggage.”
“I shall take it with pleasure, but charge for the passage.”

“Have they called?”
(Surely it’s the fulminating cholera.)
“Come on, open up, Arturo.”
“No; ladies first.”

“I am terrible, I am cruel. Whoever catches a sip of me….. Cholera morbo is here for anyone who wants something from him!”

(Madrid Cómico, Madrid, 1883)

Interview with cholera

Gedeón: “And you are definitely not visiting Spain this year?”
Cholera: “There might be a little escapade… But anyway, I’ve already sent a couple of delegates: the bull and the car.”
(Gedeón, Madrid, 1911)

Notice of the day, of the week, of the month and probably of the year

Cholera (left); Morocco (middle); Bank Santander market info, bullfighter Vicente Pastor (right)
Note. No comment is made because it would be necessary to post the same as always, and we do not want to go to a place of pessimism.
(Gedeón, Madrid, 1911)

On summer (echoes of society)

Like every year around this time, the well-known and terrible guest Don Cholera Morbo Asiatico is sure to pass a season among us.
(Gedeón, Madrid, 1911)

Old friends

Civil War: “Hello, calamity! Where are you doing?”
Cholera: “To Spain.”
Civil War: “Well, you are wasting your time, because there they are warned, and neither you nor I can count on the honest masses.” (Given the poor legibility of the final phrase and my ignorance of the living Spanish language, this probably needs correction.)
(Gedeón, Madrid, 1910)

Starting to wrap up the feast

It seems to me that I have sharpened the tool quite unnecessarily. These people are already so used to everything that microbes go in one ear and come out the other.
(La Campana de Gracia, Barcelona, 1911)

Pick your poison

(Conservative politician Antonio Maura): “Hala, Spain, choose. Who do you love coming here more? Cholera or me?”
Spain: “Cholera.”
(La Campana de Gracia, Barcelona, 1911) (Note the visual pun on Cholera’s smock, the “comma bacillus.”)

Cholera and public opinion

“I think you’re very scared of me, in Spain…, right?”
“You see: if you knew how to make a good choice, we would still declare you national glory.”
(La Campana de Gracia, Barcelona, 1911)

The two calamities

The Pope to Cholera: “You go to Spain, and since they don’t want to listen to me, let’s see if they will pay more attention to you.”
(La Campana de Gracia, Barcelona, 1910)

The Pope on a Vatican spire is not so odd once you’ve seen this cartoon of the first radio transmitter installed in the Vatican. (L’Asino, Rome, 1908)

Cholera in Russia

“We could play a game, Nicolas. Between you and me, let’s see who will kill more people.”
(La Campana de Gracia, Barcelona, 1908)

The triumph of conservative cholera

And similarly here. (La Campana de Gracia, Barcelona, 1884) (This wants more political context than I am prepared to provide.)

Asiatic cholera and “our” cholera

Asiatic: He enters Alicante by paying 25 pesetas.
And Catalonia for free, in the pockets of two friars.
“Ours”: Enrollments. Purchase of espadrilles. Symptoms. Cases. Remedy.
(La Campana de Gracia, Barcelona, 1884)