Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

Barred out from the promised land

A group of Tammany “Ward” workers and men identified as “J. R. McLean, Grady, H. O. Thompson, Spinola, [Alexander V.] Davidson, H. McLaughlin, [and a] Chicago Boss,” along with Charles A. Dana and John Kelly stand on a mountain overlooking the United States Capitol. All are wearing top hats that emit rays of light (Kelly is stomping on his hat with his left foot) as if all are Moses. They are disappointed office seekers who feel they should have been rewarded by the Cleveland administration. A large broken tablet on the ground is labeled “Old Commandments – Thou shalt divide up the spoils.” Banners atop the Capitol, “Interior Depart[ment], Treasury U.S., [and the] White House,” state “A Government for the People not for Politicians, Reform Administration, Civil Service Reform, No Removals except for Cause.” This last banner is probably in reference to the recent removal of Capt. George B. Bacon in favor of George H. Sterling for government weigher at the New York Custom House, an action that was reversed pending investigation. Caption: Disappointed Democratic Moses – “Was it worth going through so much to get so little?”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-04-01

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

A surprise to themselves

At center, a Mahdi soldier and a Chinese soldier gloat over recent victories. On the left, the British army is routed by Mahdi forces in the Sudan, and on the right, the French army is routed by Chinese forces in “Tonquin” (i.e., Tonkin or North Vietnam). Caption: El Mahdi and John Chinaman – “Great Scott! What terrible fellows we are!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-04-08

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

The rehabilitation of the Democratic party

Inside “Cleveland’s Clothing Establishment,” President Cleveland and Thomas F. Bayard are fitting a man labeled “Reform Democracy” with the “Thos. Jefferson Pattern,” while cabinet members Lucius Q. C. Lamar, William C. Whitney, Daniel Manning, [and] Augustus H. Garland measure, cut, and sew fabric labeled “Justice, Anti-Silver Swindle, New Navy, [and] Honest Administration, Interior Department” on the left side of the shop. A sign on the wall states “No Over-Charging nor Double-Dealing” and a poster shows the “Spring 1885 Styles.” Just outside the door is an old man reaching in to grab discarded rags labeled “Spoils System, Old Record, Fraud” and a shillelagh labeled “Rowdy Influence” to place in his cart labeled “G. O. Rep. Party. Highest Price Paid for Castoff Clo’s.” Caption: The new suit (on the Jeffersonian Pattern) doesn’t quite fit yet; but we hope he will grow up to it.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-04-15

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

Tough on Turkey

The British lion and the Russian bear threaten a turkey dressed as a Turk. Caption: England and Russia, together – “Be my ally, or I’ll give you the worst thrashing you ever had in your life!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-04-22

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

Richelieu’s defiance

President Cleveland, as Cardinal Richelieu, embraces a young woman labeled “Civil Service” as he is confronted by a group of courtiers labeled “Manning, Barnum, C. S. Blackburn, [and] Hendricks”, also John Kelly and a man identified as “Party Boss.” Manning holds a paper that states “Bad Appointments – Higgins, Pillsbury, Troup, [and] Chase.” Includes text by “Manning-Baradas” and “Cleveland-Richelieu.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-05-06

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

The same old train-wrecker

A man labeled “Hayseed Legislator” waits next to obstacles labeled “Corruption, Spite against N. Y. City, Backwoods Bullheadedness, [and] Petty Jealousy” that he has placed on railroad tracks ahead of an oncoming train labeled “N. Y. City Reforms.” He is hoping to cause the train to derail.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-05-13

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

Peace, but not business

A perplexed Uncle Sam stands in front of a store labeled “Notice – No Reciprocity in Trade Here” that is well-stocked with items available for international trade. A man labeled “Trade” is asleep at the counter. Across the narrow street of the marketplace sits Otto von Bismarck selling maps, and in the background are Nicholas II, holding a piece of paper that states, “Let us have Truce,” and John Bull shaking hands in front of their trade houses. A sign on the English shop states “Reciprocity in Trade.” A small dog, wearing a fez, stands in the middle of the street. Caption: Uncle Sam – “Darned if I ain’t left again! I’m overstocked, I’ve got all the blessings of a high tariff, and here these fellows won’t fight and give me a chance to sell my goods.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-05-20

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

Out of the frying-pan into the fire

James G. Blaine tries to climb over a wall labeled “National Garden Post No Bills” and “No Admittance to Lobbyists, Jobbers & Other Objectionable Characters.” He is carrying a bag over his shoulder containing fruit labeled “Jobs, Little Rock, [and] N. Pacific Bonds,” some of which are falling out labeled “Tribune Sponge” and “Mulligan Letters.” A guard dog on a leash labeled “Cleveland Machine” has chased Blaine to the wall and is standing on Blaine’s plumed hat labeled “Brag” and “Bluster.” Outside the wall is Puck’s figure for the “Independent” voter. Annotation: “After a well-known picture.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-07-23

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

“Stop thief!”

Illustration, reminiscent of Thomas Nast’s cartoon of the same title published in Harper’s Weekly, October 7, 1871, hence “That trick is very stale”, shows a group of monopolists and Blaine supporters scattering on the street in response to the cry “Stop thief!” Joseph Keifer carries a sign that states “Beware of Cleveland the Monopolist” and Cyrus Field waves a sheet that states “Down with Cleveland the Monopolist.” Among the pursuers and those being pursued are William W. Phelps, Benjamin F. Butler carrying a bag of “Monopolist Fees”, Robert Ingersoll, Keifer, George M. Robeson, Whitelaw Reid throwing “Dust” in the eyes of workingmen, Alonzo Cornell, Field, James G. Blaine carrying a bag of “$ from Monopolists” and “R.R. Stocks,” Russell Sage, John Roach, and Jay Gould, as well as a dog with the face of John Kelly(?), and with a teapot labeled “Alliance with Monopolists” tied to its tail; all are determined to look like pursuers, instead of the object of the pursuit. Carl Schurz, dressed as a policeman, is standing on the sidewalk at far right. Two laborers are standing on the left, next to a sign that announces “Friend of the Workingman Meeting at Monopoly Hall To Night – J. Gould, C. Field, R. Sage, Robeson.” Caption: Level-Headed Workingman – “Too thin! That trick is very stale. I guess we know a monopolist when we see him!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-08-06

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

American millions and foreign nobility – the market where our girls buy – and get sold

In the “European Matrimonial Market,” wealthy American women preview European men of nobility who have fallen on hard financial times.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-02-27

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

Building the ark

Republican revelers in the foreground make music as they pass a reform ark being constructed in the background. Depicted are John Sherman playing pipes labeled “Southern Outrages,” John Logan playing cymbals labeled “Pensions,” Whitelaw Reid playing pan pipes labeled “Monopoly,” James Blaine playing a lyre, George Robeson riding on a donkey labeled “Surplus,” with George Hoar, John Roach, Joseph Keifer, and Roscoe Conkling among them. Among the crowd that follows are Ulysses S. Grant, Jay Gould, and possibly Rutherford B. Hayes, also a man playing a tambourine labeled “Bossism” and another carrying a standard labeled “Spoils,” and one with a sign labeled “River & Harbor Frauds.” In the background, John Carlisle stands at the head of those building the ark. Also shown are Henry Watterson with hammer and chisel, William Morrison holding up “Morrison’s Tariff Reform Plan,” and Abram Hewitt holding “Hewitt’s Free Trade Plank.” The ribs of the ship are labeled “Tariff Reform, Raw Materials Free, Lower Iron Tax, Lower Tax on Woolens, [and] Works of Art Free.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-03-05

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

A sop to Cerberus

Print shows Chester Alan Arthur offering a “Bill Excluding Chinese for 10 Years,” in the shape of a Chinese man’s face, to a three-headed Cerberus labeled “Western Vote” with the heads labeled “Demagogue, Hoodlum, [and] Irish.” At Arthur’s feet is a basket labeled “Sops for Everybody,” and he holds a rope behind his back labeled “2nd Term Aspirations.” The Cerberus is guarding the narrow path through the forest to the White House labeled “1884,” which shines in the distance.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-05-17

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

The national dime-museum – will be run during the presidential campaign

A gallery of presidential candidates includes, clockwise, from bottom left: John Kelly as a card-playing pig, Chester A. Arthur as “The Snake Charmer” charming a snake labeled “Stalwart Vote” with a horn labeled “Patronage,” Benjamin F. Butler as “What is it?,” “Siamese Twins Keifer [and] Robeson,” John A. Logan as the “Wild Zulu on the Warpath,” “Carlisle, Morrison, [and] Hewitt” as a “Wax Group of Three Heroes Who Perished in an Attempt to Reach the Pole of Tariff Reform,” “‘Richelieu’ Robinson” as a “Fire Eater,” Charles A. “Dana” as a “Screech Parrot,” a cage containing an “Un-Happy Family – N.Y. Board of Aldermen,” an “Ancient Mummy Exhumed Lately” labeled “1876 Fraud Issue – S. J. T.,” John “Sherman” as “The Man in the Bloody Shirt,” Henry Watterson as a buffalo, Whitelaw Reid as a giraffe, and Samuel J. Randall(?) as “The Democratic White Elephant,” William “Evarts” as the thin man, Roscoe Conkling as the bearded lady, David “Davis” as the Fat Lady, Robert Todd “Lincoln” and George F. “Edmunds” as “The Two Giants,” James G. Blaine as the tattooed man, T. C. “Platt” and William “Mahone” as Tom Thumb and his bride, and Samuel S. “Cox” as a dancing poodle. In the center is a stuffed tiger labeled “Tammany” on a pedestal labeled “Killed by Roosevelt.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-04-16

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

The Presidential recruiting-office

In the interior of a recruiting office for the presidency, Uncle Sam and Puck examine potential recruits against a height chart labeled, from low to high, “Notoriety, Popularity, Capability, Honesty, [and at the top] Statesmanship.” A number of men, in various states of undress, have been rejected for a variety of reasons: “Evarts Too Long-Winded, [U.S. Grant] Retired, [Conkling] Too Pigeon-Breasted, [Thomas Collier Platt] Me Too Little, Mahone Must be Readjusted, J. B. Rejected Too Crooked, Dana Rejected – Too Shortsighted, [Logan] Grammar Feeble, [Arthur] Rejected No Backbone, [Davis] Short Winded, Sherman Bloody Shirt Mania, [Kelly] Pig-Headed, Payne Oil on the Brain, Randall Protection Madness, Bayard Unstable, [Tilden] Rejected Cipher Catarrh, [and] B[utler] Can’t See Straight.” Five tall men, “Admitted to the Competition,” stand on the right: “Hewitt, Carlisle, Morrison, Lincoln [and] Edmunds O. K.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-04-30

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

Justice’s “jimmy”

Print shows New York State Supreme Court justice Theodoric R. Westbrook wearing the white robe of Justice and his head mostly bound with cloth. The balance scale of justice sits at his feet, and he hands a crowbar, or “jimmy,” labeled “By Order of the Court,” to a masked man. Another man, in the background, is using a similar bar to pry open doors labeled “Broken, Assets, Stockholders Money, [and] Policy Holders Money.” Next to Westbrook is a container labeled “Court Orders” filled with crowbars. His left hand rests on a piece of paper that states “Supreme Court – Decisions by Everybody’s Friend – Westbrook.” Caption: How the receivers get at the assets of “busted” insurance companies.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-05-24

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

“Change about” – the monkey the master

A monkey turns the crank on an organ labeled “Home Sweet Home Rule” with one foot. It is wearing a hat with a feather labeled “Parnell,” and holding a shillelagh labeled “80 members” in one hand and in the other a chain attached to the belt of a British man labeled “J. Bull,” who is dancing. The British “Parliament” building is in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-12-23

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

Our robber barons

Several rogues, including Jay Gould labeled “R. Road Monopolist,” William H. Vanderbilt labeled “Corporations,” Cyrus W. Field labeled “Telegraph Monopoly,” Russell Sage(?) labeled “Stock Jobbing,” and George M. Robeson labeled “Congress,” rob a “Tax Payer” of his “Income” (Robeson/Congress strangling him with “Unjust Tax”). In the right foreground the tools and “Cloth” the “Tax Payer” needs are “Taxed” as others help themselves to his “Products of Honest Labor.” Vanderbilt directs some carrying bags labeled “Plunder” and “Gains” up steps labeled “Tax Steals, Land Grants, Friendly Judges, Lobbyism, [and] Public Apathy” that lead to a large building labeled “Castle Monopoly” atop a mountain. In the background, on the right, are buildings labeled “Manufactory Closed [and] Foundry Closed” and other industrial buildings “Closed.” A chain labeled “Protection” blocks the harbor, preventing ships with products for export from departing.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-06-14

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

Will he cast his sword into the balance?

Print shows John Inscho Mitchell labeled “Independent Reps.” standing on one side of a balance scale labeled “Republican Scales” and “Penn.” He outweighs J. D. Cameron who sits on the other side of the scale in a dish labeled “Bossism” with the additional weight of “Threats, Tricks, [and] Bluster” added beneath him. Chester Alan Arthur is seated behind them, holding a large sword labeled “Patronage.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-06-28

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

Delilah Randall betrays the democratic Samson

Samuel J. “Delilah” Randall sits in a chair labeled “Protection,” holding scissors labeled “41 Democrats” in one hand and hair labeled “Tariff Reform Bill” in the other, his feet resting on a tiger skin. “Samson,” labeled “Democracy,” is standing at center. A club on the floor at his feet is labeled “The Peoples’ Confidence.” Roman soldiers, under the standard labeled “Republicans,” approach an entrance on the right. At the front are Chester Alan Arthur, James Gillespie Blaine, and Roscoe Conkling.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-05-14

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

The great congressional tramp bullying the old women of the national household

George M. Robeson, shabbily dressed as a tramp, stands in a doorway. Joseph Warren Keifer, as a small dog with a cap labeled “Speaker” tied to its tail, stands behind Robeson, and on the floor at his feet is a broken plate labeled, “Appropriations $182,496,018 Administration 1868-76.” He carries a club labeled “Repn. Leadership” and branded on the palm of his left hand is the word “More.” His appearance in the doorway frightens the “Old Women” of Congress who were gathered around a table, drinking tea. Depicted wearing women’s dress are William Windom standing behind the door labeled “Congress,” John P. Jones spilling a pot of tea, John Sherman fainting, John Alexander Logan labeled “306” and supporting Sherman, J. D. Cameron also labeled “306,” Frank Hiscock, George F. Edmunds, David Davis eating an “Independent Plum,” B. W. Harris and Abram S. Hewitt locking the “Appropriations Pantry,” and William P. Frye hiding behind a chair. Uncle Sam and Puck appear at far left, running toward the building.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-07-12

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896