Asheville Archives: Billy Borne’s 1924 cartoons

STAY THE COURSE: A look back at 1924 Asheville through the illustrations of former Citizen Times cartoonist, Billy Borne.

Xpress’ annual tradition returns. As part of our Humor Issue, we are looking back exactly 100 years to see the local and national issues cartoonist Billy Borne parodied and satirized in The Asheville Citizen.

Topics featured in Borne’s 1924 collection include concerns about tourism, that year’s presidential campaign (which involved the emergence of Robert M. La Follette as a third-party candidate), lack of funding for local education and police, anxieties over real estate and the pressures on everyday citizens due to the high cost of living.

Dear reader, for those of you who have been following this feature closely each year, it might seem redundant to ask the question again; nevertheless, we raise the inquiry all the same: Are you not recognizing a certain pattern to this strange thing we call life?

 

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About Thomas Calder
Thomas Calder received his MFA in Fiction from the University of Houston's Creative Writing Program. His writing has appeared in Gulf Coast, the Miracle Monocle, Juked and elsewhere. His debut novel, The Wind Under the Door, is now available.

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