“Coarsely designed and coarsely executed, yet very suggestive, very full of that story-teller’s power which was so much Hogarth’s and his own,” as Mr. Frederick Wedmore remarks, “Cruikshank’s ‘Bottle,’ and the ‘Drunkard’s Children,’ which immediately followed it, albeit executed when the finer qualities of his genius were suffering decay, must always be welcomed as admirable contributions to the _matériel_ of Temperance advocacy.” Cruikshank used to relate how, when his “Bottle” was finished, and he was anxious to secure for this first Temperance sermon the widest possible publicity, he carried the plates to Mr. William Cash, then chairman of the National Temperance Society, for his approval, and the support of his powerful Association. Mr. Cash, although a Quaker, was a gentleman with a very sharp, humorous manner. Having attentively examined the series, he turned upon the artist, and asked him how he himself could ever have anything to do with using “The Bottle,” which, by his own showing, was the means of such dreadful evil? Cruikshank, in his own forcible way, described how he was “completely staggered” by this point-blank question. He said, when he had left Mr. Cash, he could not rid himself of the impression that had been made upon him. After a struggle, he did not get rid of it, but acted upon it, by resolving to give his example as well as his art to the total abstainers. He was immediately rewarded by the extraordinary success which “The Bottle” achieved. It was sold by tens of thousands, and was the talk of the day. If it has not directly led to a tangible result, as Hogarth’s “Harlot’s Progress” is said to have led to the foundation of the Magdalen Hospital, it and the “Drunkard’s Children,” a poor sequel (but then sequels are always poor), have had the effect of powerful, popular, and permanent sermons against the monster evil of our time. Not the least of the artist’s rewards was the tribute to his genius it inspired in Mr. Matthew Arnold, who wrote:-- TO G. CRUIKSHANK, ON SEEING, IN THE COUNTRY, HIS PICTURE OF “THE BOTTLE.” “Artist, whose hand, with horror wing’d hath torn From the rank life of towns this leaf! and flung The prodigy of full-blown crime among Valleys and men to middle fortune born, Not innocent, indeed, yet not forlorn-- Say, what shall calm us when such guests intrude Like comets on the heavenly solitude? Shall breathless glades, cheer’d by shy Dian’s horn, Cold-bubbling springs, or caves?--Not so! The soul Breasts her own griefs, and, urged too fiercely, says-- ‘Why tremble? True, the nobleness of man May be effaced; man can control To pain, to death, the bent of his own days. Know thou the worst! So much, not more, he can. ’” [Illustration: 133] CHAPTER III. GEORGE CRUIKSHANK AS A TEETOTALER.