the kitten in the boot

Jack Campin - bogus address

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Jul 24, 2007, 8:05:38 PM7/24/07

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[warning: crossposted]

I haven't read Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford" yet, but came across an
illustrated edition of it last week that had a frontispiece of a cat
being put into a boot. On looking up an e-text of it, I find that the
incident is really in there (chapter 8) though the reason for putting
the cat in the boot isn't one you'd guess at (verging on alt.tasteless
territory).

Is this the origin of the kitten-in-the-boot image in postcards?

Any sightings of the idea in print before 1853?

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

Michael Zeleny

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Jul 25, 2007, 9:17:06 PM7/25/07

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Jack Campin wrote:

> I haven't read Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford" yet, but came across an
> illustrated edition of it last week that had a frontispiece of a cat
> being put into a boot. On looking up an e-text of it, I find that the
> incident is really in there (chapter 8) though the reason for putting
> the cat in the boot isn't one you'd guess at (verging on alt.tasteless
> territory).
>
> Is this the origin of the kitten-in-the-boot image in postcards?
>
> Any sightings of the idea in print before 1853?

Not a chance, Jack.

Snatching lace from booted pussy's vomit takes some kind of Victorian
chutzpah.

--
--
Michael Zel...@post.harvard.edu
http://larvatus.livejournal.com/

Francis A. Miniter

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Jul 25, 2007, 11:29:25 PM7/25/07

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Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

> [warning: crossposted]
>
> I haven't read Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford" yet, but came across an
> illustrated edition of it last week that had a frontispiece of a cat
> being put into a boot. On looking up an e-text of it, I find that the
> incident is really in there (chapter 8) though the reason for putting
> the cat in the boot isn't one you'd guess at (verging on alt.tasteless
> territory).
>
> Is this the origin of the kitten-in-the-boot image in postcards?
>
> Any sightings of the idea in print before 1853?

Postcards? The postcard was patented in 1861 by John P. Charlton of
Philadelphia. European postcards followed about 9 years later. I think the
first picture postcard in the USA was about 1893 showing the World Colombian
Exposition in Chicago. Picture postcards came to the UK in 1894.

Francis A. Miniter

tbs48

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Jul 26, 2007, 6:18:54 AM7/26/07

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On Jul 24, 8:05 pm, Jack Campin - bogus address

<bo...@purr.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> [warning: crossposted]
>
> I haven't read Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford" yet, but came across an
> illustrated edition of it last week that had a frontispiece of a cat
> being put into a boot. On looking up an e-text of it, I find that the
> incident is really in there (chapter 8) though the reason for putting
> the cat in the boot isn't one you'd guess at (verging on alt.tasteless
> territory).
>
> Is this the origin of the kitten-in-the-boot image in postcards?
>
> Any sightings of the idea in print before 1853?

What's really bad is a ferret in a boot. The horror, the horror..

T.

Stratum

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Aug 14, 2007, 10:09:38 AM8/14/07

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I stayed at a dingy motel in Phoenix once where a sign in
the room advised shaking scorpions out of one's shoes
before putting them on.

Now turn out the lights and crawl into bed.

tbs48

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Aug 14, 2007, 10:16:47 AM8/14/07

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> Now turn out the lights and crawl into bed.-

A braided horse-hair lariat around your bedroll is supposed to keep
away rattlesnakes and maybe other vermin.

At least that's what some of the western nobbels would lead one to
believe.

Is this a part of the Western Canon?

T.

ObBook: HEARTS OF THE WEST by O. Henry