The University Life of Abner Yokum

Having lived (gasp!) in the vicinity (shudder!) of Harvard for the past eight years, cartoonist Al Capp feels that there is such a thing as a single "Harvard type." When one says "Harvard man" in a comic strip, according to Capp, a particular image immediately occurs to the reader. The public has fixed ideas, and "just as the Bowery stands for a bum or Wall Street stands for high finance, the name of Harvard stands for something--a sort of confused superiority."

Only a few images, Capp says, can be used in this way. The figure of the Radcliffe girl, for example, will not have any significance to Capp's 60 million readers; therefore he does not use it. Whenever he uses the Harvard name in Li'l Abner--and he has done so fairly often it is always in a disrespestful way, but "the more disrespestful treatment," Capp says, the more delighted the reaction at Harvard."

Just one of Capp's Harvard characters is based on a specific individual. A "smart Indian lawyer" called Harvard G. Polecat (the "G" is for "graduate") has, according to Capp," all the facial and physical characteristics of Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr." This fact has not disturbed Capp's friendship with his Cambridge neighbor.

Capp's most recent use of Harvard in his strip pertained to the hallowed Dogpatch tradition of Sadie Hawkins Day. It seems that thirteen new bachelors were needed to participate in the annual race, and that someone in Dogpatch who could read saw in a newspaper that Harvard was awarding 2000 bachelors' degrees. Moonbeam McSwine, one of the more picturesque local characters, was dispatched to Cambridge to recruit the necessary bachelors. She met with surprisingly little resistance.

About twelve years ago, Capp introduced in Lil Abner a young Harvard student, the son of the late George Capley." This gentleman had somehow become engaged to Daisy Mae, the Dogpatch heroine. Daisy, however, did not meet the staid Mrs. Capley's standards for a daughter-in-law: her feet "weren't big enough," she had a figure. After her hair had been properly disheveled and she had been provided with clothes that didn't quite fit, Daisy was pronounced ready for Boston society. She looked, Capp says, "like a bag of turnips."

Another use that Capp has made of Harvard in Li'l Abner resulted in Yale's being destroyed by the sweep of a lizard's tail. Hairless Joe and Lonesome Polecat--two of Dogpatch's more colorful denizens--got hold of a tiny lizard that matured into a giant pre-historic monster. While this process of growth was going on, Joe and Polecat were awarded veterans' scholarships--Polecast fought against the U.S. Army and Joe fought against Polecat in the Indian wars--and went to Harvard. On the way north, they stopped at New Haven, and shouting "Us Harvards hates Yo'-Yales," let their monster loose; the lizard completely demolished the entire Yale campus.

Deep Respect

Capp claims to have a deep respect for Harvard--tempered, however, by amusement. Born in New Haven as the son of a Yalie, he first came to Cambridge in 1936 as a student in a summer course in composition and short story writing. After about three weeks, he dropped out, "in order to help the instructor, who seemed in most desperate need of help." At this time, Capp moved from his home on Brattle Street and took up residence in New Hampshire. He returned to Cambridge eight years ago.

Since then, he has had some association with Harvard nearly every week; he is frequently called to speak and to moderate discussions at the Law School Forum and similar events. There is a special art, Capp says, in handling a Harvard audience. It must be treated with "affectionate contempt." A Harvard audience has to be abused, in order to quiet it down," he adds.

'Horrified'

Capp cites an occasion when he and fellow cartoonist Walt Kelly were invited to speak to the Harvard New Delhi Society." They were "horrified"