Nast, Thomas.—America’s foremost political cartoonist, originator of the Elephant, the Donkey and the Tiger as symbols for the Republican, Democratic and Tammany organizations, whom Lincoln, Grant, Mark Twain delighted to honor as their guest, the critic whose broadsides shattered the careers of hosts of political crooks and swindlers, the patriot whose faithful service won support for the cause of the country. One of the greatest fighters for truth and decency known in American history. He it was who took up the cudgel single handed against the Tweed Ring, the gang that stole four hundred millions from the New York City treasury, who answered a banker’s offer of a half million bribe with the answer: “I made up my mind not long ago to put some of those fellows behind the bars, and I am going to do it.” He did it at the peril of his life. His cartoons roused the public conscience and prodded the police into action. Boss Tweed, the looter chief, called out in despair: “Let’s stop them damned pictures. I don’t care so much what the papers write about me—my constituents can’t read; but, damn it, they can see pictures!” The pitiless cartooning of Nast finally broke up the gang, with most of them ending in jail. During the Civil War his cartoons roused the nation as nothing else. When Grant was asked what man in civil life had done the best work for America, he answered: “Thomas Nast. He did as much as any man to save the Union and bring the war to an end.” This he did by his cartoons in “Harper’s” that carried messages of cheer and patriotism to the humblest cottages in the prairie. Thousands of recruits were won for the Northern cause by the simple patriotism of Nast’s cartoons. His work proved a treasure trove, during the present war, for pilfering cartoonists, who lifted copies bodily from the old volumes of “Harper’s.” Nast was born in1840 at Landau, Bavaria. His great work in the end was ill rewarded, for having been sent to fill the consulate in Ecuador, he lost his life through fever contracted in the service of his country.