Nast Cartoons Still Draw a Laugh

--He gave Uncle Sam a goatee and dressed him up in a patriotic stars-and-stripes suit. He depicted Santa Claus as today’s recognizable jolly, rotund figure. And he was the originator of the symbolic elephant and donkey for the Republican and Democratic parties. He is long gone, but the achievements of Thomas Nast, the nation’s first major editorial cartoonist, whose estimated 4,000 works appeared in scores of newspapers and magazines, will not be soon forgotten. In Morristown, N.J., where he lived, the newly organized Thomas Nast Society will seek to preserve the memory of Nast, whose pen wielded unusual clout during the second half of the 19th Century. The cartoons of Nast, who died at age 62 in 1902, particularly those depicting New York City political boss William Marcy Tweed, helped send the corrupt Tammany Hall rascals to jail. “There are very few cartoonists who can say they can sway an election the way Nast did, or throw a whole group of politicians out who had their hands in the public’s pocket,” said Alice Caulkins, president of the society. Draper Hill, editorial cartoonist for the Detroit News, said: “If there had been a Johnny Carson (show) then, one would have assumed that Thomas Nast would have been asked (to appear) every other month.”

--Mayor John K. Snyder of Alexandria, La., leaves office today but the colorful public servant will be leaving the folks some unforgettable memories. Snyder, 63, who cited health problems in not seeking reelection to a second term, is a believer in shaking up the electorate. “Unless you can do some emotional things to stir (the voters) up, they’re just going to sit home and say, ‘What the heck. We can’t make any difference,’ ” he said. But it was those emotional things that got him committed for 11 days to the mental ward of the Veterans Administration Hospital. Snyder, who was voted out of office by the City Council during his commitment but was later reinstated, once called a black councilman a chimpanzee and called for a debate when he was asked to apologize. However, he told the councilman to bring his own bananas to the debate.

--Wheelchair-bound Justin Gennaro may have been one of the last contestants (No. 19,222) to finish the New York City Marathon last month, but he is savoring the taste of defeat. Gennaro, 30, crashed his wheelchair during the race, but a group of Brooklyn firefighters helped fix a damaged wheel, allowing him to roll on to the finish line. Later, Gennaro returned to thank his benefactors and gave the men the medal he won for finishing. For an encore, the firefighters honored the New York University student with a plaque and a dinner.