Measures against the plague

It may not feature much in this pandemic-themed archive, but it is worth pausing to acknowledge the relentless anti-Semitism of the Viennese satirical journal Kikeriki. In 1897 there was news of an outbreak of plague in India, sparking fears that it would make an appearance in Europe. The tenth international sanitary conference was held in Venice that same year, devoted to discussion of bubonic plague.

Entitled “Measures against the plague,” the cartoon depicts a gate into Austria with a sign above it: “The way to the East.”
Kikeriki: “The best thing would be to lock the doors, but that won’t do, the traffic is too large.”
(Kikeriki, Vienna, 1897)

Another egregious example a decade later.

The scholar’s vacation

“And where will you spend your holidays, dear master?”
“I hesitate…: will I study the plague bacillus in Moukden, or cholera in Russia? If you feel like it… I’ll bring you along.”
(Le Rire, Paris, 1911)

Shall we summon War?

Cholera: “Extraordinary, this human breed! We work, and we can’t exterminate it!”
Plague: “Would it help us if we summoned War?”
(L’Assiette au beurre, Paris, 1908)

Popular championship

Referee: “So far the following fighters have signed up for the fight with the Russian human in today’s international championship: Plague—champion of India, Cholera—champion of Asia, Red Rooster [implying fires of rebellion]—champion of Russia, and Double Vinegar—champion of Petersburg!!!”
(Satirikon, St. Petersburg, 1910)

Summery

“Hey, everyman, turn around! It is I, the Caucasian plague, who is coming to you!!”
“And I, the Balkan, going to war again!”
“And I, the Chinese, approaching your border…”
Summer everyman: “Damn it, damn the newspaper … Ach, it’s so pale and plump!”
(Novyi Satirikon, St. Petersburg, 1914)

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)

Dr. Zebulon Tallérossy

During his microscopic studies Dr. Zebulon Tallérossy renders which princely encounters will become the… eastern plague? (A noble landowner, Tallérossy was the humorous literary invention of Mór Jókai. Clearly I will need to parse this image further…)
(Az Üstökös, Budapest, 1880) (Cf. this 1873 “letter” of Tallérossy.)

Good health!

(The Theresatown Ghetto. Toward the public health statistics of Fodor-style Arcadia.) “This is the Pest from which the plague (pestis) heads for Asia!”
(Bolond Istók, Budapest, 1882)

The new Titusz Dugovics

Caption: The one who is pulling the plague off the walls of Vienna on his own. (Following a visit by four staff members to India to study the plague, the Institute of Pathology in Vienna unwittingly developed a pneumonic strain leading to four fatalities, sparking fears of a renewed outbreak in Europe. The man depicted is Dr. Hermann Franz Müller, who treated the first fatality and then died three days later. Titusz Dugovics was a mythical Hungarian soldier who had helped fend off Ottoman invaders in the fifteenth century.)
(Kakas Martón, Budapest, 1898)

The bubonic plague at the frontier

Woman: “Could you bypass us?”
Plague (still carrying wares from India): “Yes, girl, yes; I have so many calamities at home that it will be a month before I come.”
(La Campana de Gracia, Barcelona, 1899)

Venice conferences

1) So that the plague of fools comes. [something to do with the need to negotiate with the Basque Provinces]
2) So that the bubonic plague does not come. [The tenth international sanitary conference was held in Venice this year, and devoted to discussion of bubonic plague.]
(Gedeón, Madrid, 1897)

At an American germ warfare facility

American bacteriologist (holding up flask of plague): “You know what, colleague, we are really striving to transform nature…”
(Ludas Matyi, Budapest, 1951)

The Bourbon Plague

“Look, Quim; those “hygiene” people were here, and they say that this might be a den of bubonic plague.”
“It would be better to take care to eradicate the Bourbon Plague.”
(La Esquella de la torratxa, Barcelona, 1931)

Beware of epidemics!

Contagion: “As Minister Plenipotentiary of the Emperor of Infection, I respectfully come forward to present my credentials with the hope that you will want to reestablish the old friendly relations, so unsuccessfully interrupted by the diplomacy of Hygiene. Lady Hygiene having died for lack of care, I do not doubt that our old friendship is now resumed.”

Rio’s poor: “Misericordia! The ambassadors of death are already at the door! [tuberculosis, mendicancy, plague, yellow fever, fake milk, cholera] What kind of diplomacy should I adopt now to drive out such a dangerous band? I will scream and complain at the top of my lungs before tuberculosis destroys us: To arms!”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1912)

The plague at our borders

Cholera, yellow fever, bubonic plague… Liberated!… What terrifying rumors!!! Let us now try D. (?) hygiene, to defend our borders and our skins, because if we do not do this, we guarantee that it will not be Italy that comes to do it.
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1911)