Broadside entitled 'Letter from Jimmy-the-Gum to his Big Brother Barney-the-Smasher'

Commentary

This broadside begins: 'ROYAL HOUSE DISTILLERY, Eliventeenth of Cawnpore, Dear Barney, - I am writing these few lines on the top of an old Indian drum, with neather top, bottom, nor sides to it. We landed here when we got on shore. Our first battle was at Never-sa-dhi. There was many thousands killed but I am happy to state there were no lives lost.' The broadside was published by the Poet's Box in Dundee. It does not carry a date of publication.

A parody of a letter home from a soldier fighting in India, this broadside is an interesting early example of the British absurdist humour that is more commonly associated with the second half of the twentieth century and comedy acts like the Goons and Monty Python's Flying Circus. It is not possible to date the broadside accurately. The British Army's most notorious involvement in India was during the 'Indian Mutiny' of 1857, but there remained a British military presence in the sub-continent for decades after that. It is likely that this broadside dates from a less sensitive period, some years after 1857.
The Dundee Poets? Box was in operation from about 1880 to 1945, though it is possible that some material was printed as early as the 1850s. Most of the time it had premises at various addresses in Overgate. In 1885 the proprietor J.G. Scott (at 182 Overgate) had published a catalogue of 2,000 titles consisting of included humorous recitations, dialogues, temperance songs, medleys, parodies, love songs, Jacobite songs. Another proprietor in the 1880s was William Shepherd, but little is known about him. Poets? Box was particularly busy on market days and feeing days when country folk were in town in large numbers. Macartney specialised in local songs and bothy ballads. Many Irish songs were published by the Poets? Box ? many Irishmen worked seasonally harvesting potatoes and also in the jute mills. In 1906 John Lowden Macartney took over as proprietor of the Poet?s Box, initially working from 181 Overgate and later from no.203 and 207.

It is not clear what the connection between the different Poet?s Boxes were. They almost certainly sold each other?s sheets. It is known that John Sanderson in Edinburgh often wrote to the Leitches in Glasgow for songs and that later his brother Charles obtained copies of songs from the Dundee Poet?s Box. There was also a Poet?s Box in Belfast from 1846 to 1856 at the address of the printer James Moore, and one at Paisley in the early 1850s, owned by William Anderson.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

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