Tag Archives: Fool Killer lore

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 79 – As always, it’s fascinating to read the over 100-year-old opinions of James Larkin Pearson (and by extension his Fool Killer), including the opinions that one doesn’t agree with. Here are some of the Fool Killer’s targets in November 1915.

*** Christians who called for America to enter the World War on the side of the Allied Powers, depicting them as pious hypocrites who wanted to go to war for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful.

*** President Woodrow Wilson, depicting him as neglecting all national problems while paying far more attention to his romance with Edith Bolling Galt, like himself widowed. The two would marry in December 1915.

*** Tycoon – or plutocrat as Pearson and his Fool Killer called the wealthy – John D. Rockefeller II, who assumed the reins of his father’s corporate empire. “Johndee the 2nd” was depicted using phony charm in contrast to the open contempt that his father had shown to the working class. They especially targeted John II’s P.R. stunt of visiting miners for some photo opportunities.

*** Imperial Japan for intimidating and browbeating China.

*** People who opposed voting rights for women.

*** The Anglo-French Committee, who came to America wanting a Half-Billion-Dollar loan to keep fighting the war. Continue reading →

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 77 – As always, it’s fascinating to read the over 100-year-old opinions of James Larkin Pearson (and by extension his Fool Killer), including the opinions that one doesn’t agree with. Here are the Fool Killer’s targets in September 1915. There was no August issue that year.

*** Former President Theodore Roosevelt for his repeated calls to current President Woodrow Wilson that America should enter the ongoing World War.

*** Uber-wealthy J.P. Morgan for pompously proclaiming that the war would be over within a year. (As we all know, it actually lasted until November 11th, 1918.)

*** The Chicago Evening Post for supporting U.S. entry to the war.

*** Thomas Edison, but only with a good-natured joke about his recent remark “I owe everything to my wife.” He said she should take Thomas for everything he was worth. Continue reading →

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 76 – As always, it’s fascinating to read the over 100-year-old opinions of James Larkin Pearson (and by extension his Fool Killer), including the opinions that one doesn’t agree with. Here are the Fool Killer’s targets in July, 1915:

*** Frank Holt – real name Erich Muenter – an Imperial German spy who was active in the U.S. despite America not having entered the World War yet. (We would not enter the war until April 1917.) In addition to teaching anti-American sentiments at Ivy League universities Harvard and Cornell, he set off a bomb in the U.S. Capitol building, sabotaged U.S. war aid being sent to the Allied Powers against the Central Powers in Europe and elsewhere and tried assassinating J.P. Morgan’s son Jack in his own home.   

           “Holt” also murdered his own pregnant wife with arsenic before taking his own life on July 6th, 1915.

*** An unidentified ripoff artist in Iowa who was selling a device which he claimed cured blindness. 

*** Cigarette smokers. For newbies to Pearson’s Fool Killer, he was a very early critic of the health dangers of smoking.

*** The rotating series of “official” Mexican governments, which made it hard for other countries to know which one to recognize. Continue reading →

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 75 – Regular readers may notice that picking up in June of 1915 is quite a jump from last week’s Fool Killer installment, which left off in Fall 1914. That’s because I can honestly say that James Pearson’s version of The Fool-Killer hit a decided creative dry patch for several months.

I am genuinely surprised because Pearson’s Fool Killer had been so interesting. I’ve covered several 1920s installments and then slipped back to begin with his 1910 beginnings of this publication and nearly every installment kept me fascinated with every page. Not so with autumn of 1914 through May 1915.

Pearson seemed at odds with how to react to a world at war and was feeling his way toward how best to approach a satirical take. For months his output was so repetitious, unfocused and lacking in bite that I had to force myself to keep reading. I’m reviewing the June 1915 edition because it features his reaction to American deaths in the sinking of the Lusitania by a German submarine, a major development which nearly resulted in the United States entering the World War right then and there. Continue reading →