Title from item.
Caption continues: Indian executioner, headsman, common hangman: -"We've come about this Mesopotamia job; & we've brought our tools." Elder Brother. "Ah, dear friends, we no longer use these barbarous methods--We choke them with butter."
Original drawing by E.J. Sullivan for political cartoon for publication in the London weekly, The National news, 1917.
Cartoon commenting on the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I.
Signed and dated at upper left, "Edmund J. Sullivan 1917"; on verso in ink, "That blessed word - Mesopotamia. Indian executioner, headsman, common hangman: -"We've come about this Mesopotamia job; & we've brought our tools." Elder Brother. "Ah, dear friends, we no longer use these barbarous methods--We choke them with butter." By Edmund Sullivan A.R.W.S."
Drawing shows an old man dressed in black and wearing an apron, with straw sticking out of his hat, and a tub of butter at his feet, labeled "Best Dorset," addressing three figures who stand before him: a fantastically clad executioner, with sword and shield; a headsman, with ax and block; and a hangman toting a gibbet and rope.