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Saturday, August 13, 2011

Saturday Night Special: The Naps of Polly Sleepyhead

Take a trip with Joey 'n Maggie where one pill makes you longer and one pill makes you short, it's The Naps of Polly Sleepyhead, as the comic strip appeared in the September 2, 1906 edition of the Chicago Tribune.  The serial strip was written and drawn by American artist and author Peter Newell, who created bizarre children's books at the turn of the last century. 

The Naps of Polly Sleepyhead

No. 1 - Polly was perched on the brink of the spring down below the orchard.  She was thirsty and minded to stoop down and drink, but felt too indolent to make the effort.


















No. 2 - And then she was startled by the sudden appearance of a Dachshund by her side, held in leash, as she soon discovered, by her friend the Joker.  He said:
"Come, let us go to Shadow Land - we'll take an untried route -
And, if you please, from Shadow Trees we'll gather luscious fruit."














No. 3 - Polly rose to her feet, and the pair started down a steep incline, with Stretch (that was the Dachshund's name) tugging at his leash.  The Joker laughingly remarked -
"You see my dog is leading me instead of being led;
He mostly runs to body, but he tries to be a-head!"















No. 4 - They soon came to a stream of water too wide to be jumped.  "How will we get over?" inquired Polly.  Some game wardens who had assembled at this point exclaimed in chorus:  "Yes, how will you get over?"  The Joker thought a moment and then said:
"Why, that is not so difficult; you see, we'll bridge the tide
And make a run upon the bank that's on the other side."












No. 5 - The joker then commanded Stretch to place his fore feet on the opposite bank, which he did, thus bridging the stream.  Polly and the game wardens thought this quite a clever idea and heartily applauded both the Joker and his dog.
















No. 6 - The Joker directed Polly to cross over, and she carefully stepped on to the living bridge.  But she was no more than halfway over when a rabbit, deeply interested in the performance, indiscreetly showed himself where he was seen by all, including Stretch.















No. 7 - This was too much for a rabbit dog to endure, and in spite of his master's commands away he went, helter skelter, after the rabbit, leaving Polly without any support.


















No. 8 - Then she woke up with a gasp.  "Help!" shouted she.  And then she realized she was in no danger.  "What a goose I am," said she, "to go to sleep and roll off into the spring!"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great find! liz

Jayne D. and AnnieBelle said...

Delightful!! Have never seen anything that old with a Dachshund in the story! Truly vintage. One of my nicknames for Annie is "Stretch"! Truly yours, Jayne and Annie

Anonymous said...

Yup! That certainly looks like Ike (out "hurricane").

Siol

P.S. You M & J MUST come by to see the O and L !

Anonymous said...

Yup ! That certainly looks like our Ike (the hurricane!)

You, M and J MUST come by to see O & L!

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