---
title: '"The Yellow Peril" (Puck, 1904)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/puck-yellow-peril-russia-1904/
description: 'Centerfold that turns the phrase "yellow peril" on Russia: a bearded Russian with a whip labelled "Russia" (lashes "Absolutism, Persecution, Tyranny")…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Bodies of pogrom victims labelled 'Kishineff' beneath a figure with a whip (1904 cartoon). This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!["The Yellow Peril" (Puck, 1904)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/puck-yellow-peril-russia-1904.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/puck-yellow-peril-russia-1904.jpg)

# "The Yellow Peril" (Puck, 1904)

Centerfold that turns the phrase "yellow peril" on Russia: a bearded Russian with a whip labelled "Russia" (lashes "Absolutism, Persecution, Tyranny") stands over bodies marked "Kishineff" and shields his eyes from a radiant woman labelled "Modern Japan", ringed by the words Justice, Progressiveness, Humaneness, Enlightenment, Tolerance and Religious Liberty. Virtue words are attached to one belligerent and abuse words to the other.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
PUCK.

[cloud, upper left] FINLAND · POLAND
[ground beside the bodies] KISHINEFF
[sash on the Russian figure] RUSSIA
[ribbons on the whip lashes] ABSOLUTISM · PERSECUTION · TYRANNY
[sash on the radiant woman] MODERN JAPAN
[words in the light, left to right and around her] JUSTICE · PROGRESSIVENESS · HUMANENESS · ENLIGHTENMENT · TOLERANCE · RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
[star-shaped badge on the crushed figure, lower right] MEDIAEVALISM
[signature, lower right] KEPPLER
"THE YELLOW PERIL."

[lower left imprint, lithographer, too small to read] [illegible]
```

Read from a 1280 px downscale of the Library of Congress master scan, with enlarged crops of the lower corners. The "Kishineff" lettering is partly hidden by the figures' bodies; the lithographer's imprint at lower left is too small to read.

[← 'United We Stand: Divided We Fall!' (Cartoons from the Hindi Punch, Bombay, January 1904)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hindi-punch-united-we-stand-1904/) ["Il congresso socialista di Bologna" (L'Asino cover, 1904) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lasino-congresso-socialista-bologna-1904/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)