Peck's Sunshine: Being a Collection of Articles Written for Peck's Sun

In Short

This collection of humorous newspaper sketches captures the absurdities of daily life in late nineteenth-century America through the eyes of a Milwaukee journalist. Through exaggerated anecdotes, fictionalized domestic scenes, and satirical commentary on contemporary trends, the volume lampoons everything from local governance and religious hypocrisy to modern domestic inventions and social pretension. The book has endured because its underlying targets—human vanity, panic over new fashions, self-important authority, and the petty trials of home life—remain as instantly recognizable and funny today as when they first appeared in print.

The Story

The book opens with a tongue-in-cheek plea of "Not Guilty," in which the author humorously shifts the blame for publishing his sketches onto an overly persuasive Chicago publisher. He establishes a clear mandate: to offer pure good nature, lighthearted yarns, and therapeutic laughter to dispel the blues. From this lighthearted starting point, the text embarks on an expansive tour of Gilded Age social life and cultural anxiety.

Early entries target professional and institutional changes. The author protests the arrival of female physicians, mocking the gender norms of the era by claiming women would rather consult male doctors anyway. A group of clergymen meet to discuss the moral evils of tobacco while secretly indulging in pipes and cigars, fondly reminiscing about their youthful misdeeds—stealing watermelons, fighting farmers, and lying to university professors—before hypocritically resolving to preach temperance to their congregations.

Moving into civic and national affairs, the narrative skewers public figures and municipal absurdities. President Chester A. Arthur's plan to keep a White House cow prompts an elaborate breakdown of how a man's character reflects the temperament of the cow he milks. Former President Hayes is imagined being chased off the grass by a private soldier, forced to vault over a fence like a boy playing tag. Local regulations come under equal fire, particularly Milwaukee's harsh dog-muzzling laws, which force soft-hearted police officers to act as animal executioners and break the hearts of young boys attached to their pets.

Domestic life receives the same ironic treatment. A husband installs a new coal stove to replace his wood supply of pine fence rails; the apparatus instantly overheats the home, melting snow down the street and driving neighbors into summer clothes. A young man attempts to take two girls to a picnic, resulting in a chaotic buggy ride of competing interests. Readers witness the frantic panic of a young husband coping with his firstborn child, having married long before he had the financial security to buy furniture or baby linen. Elsewhere, a train trip turns absurd when a traveling pop-corn vendor is terrified by an escaped asylum patient holding a razor, and a theatre patron's bald head draws unexpected cheers from a rowdy audience. The arc concludes on a note of reconciliation, advocating for the gentle decoration of civil war graves to move past old hatreds and embrace genuine community goodwill.

How It Unfolds

The publisher's defense The author enters a formal plea of not guilty for releasing the volume, claiming an intrusive publisher forced him into it for money while promising that laughter acts as a genuine medical remedy.

The tobacco-hating clergy A group of ministers gather to condemn the use of tobacco while secretly enjoying pipes and recalling their delinquent youth stealing watermelons and fighting farmers.

The President's White House cow The administration's decision to keep a cow on the White House lawn leads to a satirical breakdown of how milking an ill-tempered animal ruins a politician's character.

The terrifying coal stove A homeowner attempts to operate a new coal furnace, creating an uncontrollable inferno that melts outdoor snow and forces the neighborhood into summer attire.

The picnic disaster A well-meaning young man agrees to escort an extra girl alongside his sweetheart in a single buggy, creating an awkward, unmanageable mess on the road.

The puppy and the law A small boy grieves the loss of his beloved spaniel after city authorities enforce dog-muzzling laws, highlighting the heartlessness of municipal statutes.

Hell under the pulpit A visiting minister delivers a fiery sermon on eternal damnation, only to be terrified when the church sexton pops up through a floor trapdoor covered in furnace soot.

The People

• The Narrator: A wry, self-deprecating Milwaukee journalist who observes his community's flaws with cheerful cynicism. He claims to have abandoned practical jokes after one broke his spirit, yet he continuously needles pompous authority figures, modern fads, and his own household failures.
• President Chester A. Arthur: The nation's chief executive, whose choice of livestock becomes a public trial; the narrator contends that taking care of a calm, cooperative cow will keep him from governing as a tyrant.
• The Unnamed Young Husband: An impulsive youth who marries before gaining basic financial security or life experience. Faced with a newborn baby, he panics amidst a lack of household supplies, realizing too late the weight of his adult responsibilities.
• The Group of Clergymen: A circle of outwardly pious ministers who gather under the pretense of fighting vice, only to trade stories of teenage theft, rowdy brawls, and deceiving their college professors.
• The Boston Lady: A cultured visitor who attempts to lecture Western women on proper aesthetics and Scandinavian literature, only to be completely overwhelmed by practical advice regarding fur maintenance and empty whiskey barrels.

In Its Own Voice

“Laughter is the best medicine known to the world for the cure of many diseases that mankind is subject to, and it has been prescribed with success by some of our best practitioners.”

“No man who habitually associates with a cow, and stirs up a bran mash, and watches her plow her nose down to the bottom in search of a potato paring, can be wholly bad.”

“He sits there in the house that morning, with his wedding coat rusty and shiny... and the nurse puts in his arm a little bundle of flannel with a baby hid in it, and he holds it as he would a banana.”

What It's Really About

Beneath its easy slapstick, the collection functions as a critique of Gilded Age posturing and social anxieties. It routinely exposes the gulf between public virtue and private behavior, showing clergymen enjoying forbidden vices and citizens evading city laws. The text takes a skeptical view of rapid modernization—whether in the form of temperance movements, home technology, or shifting gender norms—suggesting that human nature remains stubbornly chaotic regardless of cultural progress. Ultimately, the book argues for common sense, emotional honesty, and gentle humor over rigid doctrine, advocating that empathy and shared laughter are essential for surviving the absurdities of daily community life.

Why Read It Today

Modern readers will find this volume a surprisingly fresh piece of nineteenth-century Americana. Free from heavy academic jargon or tedious formal structure, the sketches read like an ancestor to modern observational comedy. Anyone interested in social history will enjoy its vivid glimpses into early Midwestern life, from train travel hazards to local political squabbles.

The reading experience is light and episodic, making it easy to digest in short sittings. However, prospective readers should be aware of its period limitations. The text reflects the social attitudes of 1882, including outdated commentary on women entering professional fields like medicine, standard nineteenth-century gender assumptions, and casual regional stereotypes. Some political references to forgotten figures of the era may require quick mental adjustments. Yet for those willing to accept it as a product of its time, the book offers genuine warmth, sharp verbal timing, and a comforting reminder that human silliness has changed very little over the past century.