This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Art of the Poison Pens: A Century of American Political Cartoons Main Menu Welcome to the exhibit! A New Century The World at War An Age of Protest The Century's End A New Millennium Additional Resources Credits University of South Florida Tampa Library

John Barleycorn and Whisky

4840

This page is referenced by:

Jimmy Murphy (1891-1965)
In the English folk song "John Barleycorn," the character of John Barleycorn personifies the barley industry and the accompanying production of both cereal and alcohol.
By 1918, the year this cartoon was published in the New York Journal, the efforts of Wayne Wheeler and the Anti-saloon League were pressing for passage of the Volstead Act and the 18th Amendment of the Constitution that would institute Prohibition in the United States. That amendment was passed in October 1919 and instituted in 1920.
Murphy suggests that the “wets,” those who support the right of adults to drink, had been fighting a losing battle and that, by the time of this cartoon’s publication, they were exhausted and at the end of the trail.
Jimmy Murphy began freelancing editorial cartoons to Midwest newspapers around 1906. From 1910 to 1918 he drew for the Inland Herald of Spokane, Washington. In 1918, he worked for the Hearst papers at the New York Journal and the American. Beginning in 1919, he gained fame as the creator of a cartoon strip called “Toots and Casper.”