| Description | Illustration which shows a scene in 'Sloblands Park', an place in which environmental damage is extensive: trees have been cut down, rubbish is 'shot', and typhoid is rampant. In the background there are gravestones bearing the names of 'Waterford', 'Belfast', 'The City of Limerick', 'Derry' and 'Cork'. A design for the cartoon titled 'A Municipal Tree-O' published in the December 1908 edition of The Lepracaun. The cartoon shows members of Dublin Corporation, including Sir Charles Cameron (Medical Superintendent Officer of Health) and the Lord Mayor, participating in a tree planting ceremony at the Fairview Sloblands on 31 October 1908 to celebrate Arbor Day. The trees were named for six Irish cities. In the autumn of 1908 a typhoid epidemic broke out in the suburb of Clontarf. There were almost 150 cases recorded between September and December. Charles Cameron identified that the affected households all obtained milk from the same local dairy, and concluded that one of its employees must have been a typhoid carrier. However, some residents and sections of the press (including The Lepracaun) linked the outbreak to the controversial municipal acquisition of mudflats at nearby Fairview a few years previously to create a public park - but which was also used by the Corporation a landfill site to dispose of the city's refuse. The enduring influence of the miasma theory of disease transmission was reflected in the argument that it was the Slobland 'emanations' (from the waste deposited there) that had caused the typhoid outbreak.
Three figures are depicted in the foreground. The figure on the left is Charles Cameron, who holds a placard stating 'Charley your (sic) my darling'. This corresponds closely to the name of a traditional Scottish song, 'Charlie is my darling'. This may have been a deliberate reference to the fact that Charles Cameron's father was Scottish.
The figure in the middle appears to be a Lord Mayor. He is holding a placard stating 'Sweet little buttercup'. This seems to reference the opera 'H.M.S. Pinafore' in which an unpleasant and quick-tempered character, Poll Pineapple, is given the ironic nickname 'Little Buttercup' by the rest of the ship's crew.
The figure on the right is a Comptroller of Rates, who holds a placard stating 'Oh woodman spare that tree'. This is a song by George Pope Morris in 1837 in which the lyrics protest against the destruction of the environment. |