Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933

A runaway pig labeled “The Tariff Issue” drags Joseph Gurney Cannon behind it. They are being chased by John Dalzell, Nelson W. Aldrich, Sereno Elisha Payne, and J. S. Sherman. An overturned cart labeled “Steel Trust” has spilled its contents of steel railroad rails. Andrew Carnegie, wearing a kilt, stands next to the cart waving his hat and gesturing to the congressmen. In the background is a large crowd, some in pursuit, and the U.S. Capitol.

comments and context

Comments and Context

After the Republican party’s sweeping victory in the 1908 elections, the major goal of the party establishment, after the oath-taking of William H. Taft, seemed to be the passage of a tariff bill. It had been a decade since the last revision of import duties (the Dingley Act of 1897), and the tariff was a hot topic in the campaign.

A man is hit with a snowball on the back of his head, knocking off his hat and pince-nez. Caption: Concentration on this picture for five minutes will be found to equal two mint juleps and a cold shower-bath.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-08-11

Vignettes offer several possibilities for employment for William Jennings Bryan, of whom it is supposed he will retire from politics after losing yet another presidential election. The main possibility is that the Democratic donkey be donated to Central Park with Bryan as its keeper, offering donkey rides to children. Other options are acting as Bottom in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream; touring the arctic where he warms the region with the hot air of his oratory; becoming the museum curator of his own “Bryan Musee” dusting such objects as a “Gold Bug,” a “Crown of Thorns,” a “Cross of Gold,” an “Imperial Crown,” a “Filipino,” an “Octopus,” and a “16 to 1” medallion; or to go big-game hunting with Theodore Roosevelt where disputes are likely to arise over who actually bagged the game.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck‘s now-routine genre cartoon — double-page spreads on humorous themes or only mild political commentary, not advocacy — fairly jumped on the question of what William Jennings would do in retirement, after having lost the recent presidential context.

William II, Emperor of Germany, is caught by Germania with his fingers in a jar of jam labeled “Buttinkeit Jam” that he has taken from a cupboard where other preserves are kept. On the shelves are jars of “Imperial Assumption Jelly, Meinself Und Gott Preserve, Divine Right Jam, [and] Absolutism Jelly.” Caption: Wilhelm–Ach, Mutter, I promise dot I von’t do id again! / Germania–Vell, rememper!! If you do, den I gifs you a goodt someding vot you von’t forget!

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Comments and Context

The inspiration for L. M. Glackens’s cover cartoon in Puck was a crisis in the German Reichstag at the time.

This vignette cartoon depicts ways to protect President William H. Taft from the weather, the public, and from poisoning and other possible assassination methods. The “Reason,” the cartoon states, is Vice President J. S. Sherman. Caption: The only high protection that Puck stands for.

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Comments and Context

This theme-and-variations cartoon in Puck, at this time a rough monthly standard feature, appeared a month after the election of William H. Taft to the presidency and almost three months before his inauguration.

Citizens loudly celebrate the fourth of July with rifles and firecrackers. Standing at center is an elderly woman wearing a banner that states, “Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noises.”

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Comments and Context

Puck‘s busy and humorous Fourth of July cover — properly in red, white, and blue — was a Bruegel-like birds-eye view of a town square in 1776. Every area of the drawing tells it own story, and the humor is in the excellent cartoon of L. M. Glackens making occasional references to contemporary life in America — announcement of a baseball game; a Prohibition-style crank as a busybody; a newsboy hawking an “Extra” edition of the daily paper.

The Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant are depicted in a stable eating hay. They both turn to look at a small goat labeled “Consumers’ Party” that has just arrived to join them in the stable.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-07-28

Giulio Gatti-Casazza and Oscar Hammerstein throw puppets labeled “Tenor, Second Tenor, Contralto, Baritone, Basso, Mezzo Soprano, [and] High Soprano” at each other.

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Comments and Context

Operas in New York City once were popular attractions, with many productions in many theaters through the year. In opera season international stars would sing and prominent conductors lead orchestras. Similarly, talents from America and abroad launched careers on New York opera stages, especially after the advent of phonographs.

Two turkeys, one dressed as a Turk standing among smoking bombs and pumpkins, stand beneath clouds that rain axes, bombs, vegetables, pies, and rifles upon them.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In 1908, at Thanksgiving time, puns and affinities were hard for a cartoonist to avoid.

William H. Taft and William Jennings Bryan play on a seesaw. Bryan, on the upper half, holds papers labeled “Speech in reply to Taft,” and Taft, on the lower half, is writing “Memo for reply” on a pad of paper.

comments and context

Comments and Context

A month before the presidential election, and the nominally (or traditionally) Democratic magazine Puck continued to tweak the Republican William H. Taft and the Democrat William Jennings Bryan with equal middle-distance solicitude and, basically, gentleness. The journal never could accept Bryan’s radical policies nor his lack of political sophistication; and it had cordially endorsed many of President Theodore positions, which Taft implicitly pledged to continue if elected.

William Randolph Hearst, as Sir Hudibras, rides a mule labeled “Maud” being led by a man labeled “Gloomy Arthur” on a quixotic adventure. Papers protrude from Hearst’s pockets stating “The danger of Taft, The peril of Bryan, Philippics for the Peepul, Standard Oil letters, [and] Other letters.” Caption: “Accompanied by a clerk, one of the Independents, he ranges the country after the manner of Don Quixote, with zealous ignorance endeavoring to correct abuses and repress superstition.”–Century Dictionary.

comments and context

Comments and Context

There are subtexts and now-obscure references in this L. M. Glackens cover cartoon in Puck, but it is presumed that average readers of 1908 understood. Although the caption makes reference to Don Quixote by Cervantes, the drawing and its purport rely on Hudibras by Samuel Butler, an epic poem loosely based on Quixote.

A group of boxers stands behind a large boxer who is giving Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary a jeweled belt labeled “Championship.” Papers, probably from Peary’s lectures, extend from a pocket of his fur coat. They state “Cook’s a faker,” “I’ll show him up,” and “Bluff.” (Cartoon probably refers to boxers being known for their pre-fight taunting bluster.)

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-10-06

Theodore Roosevelt, as an Indian medicine man, beats a drum labeled “The New Nationalism” while standing in a cart with “Publisher Howland” and “Editor Abbott” who are selling bottles of “Outlook Tonic” hailed as “Nature’s Remedy for All Ailments.” On Roosevelt’s chest is the head of an elephant. Caption: The populace is privileged to step up and buy at any time.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-11-02

Vignettes show children leaving Sunday school on the left and walking to the movies on the right, with scenes depicting bad influences, such as “The Devil’s Recruiting Station” and the hazards of films that teach bad habits, such as “Where did you learn to crack a safe? At the Moving Picture Show.” Above the Sunday school is a bust of an angel; above the movie theater is a bust of the devil. Caption: From the Sunday-school to the moving-picture show is but a step.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-11-09

A mother sits on a porch with a searchlight trained on her daughter and her boyfriend as they fly overhead in an airplane. Caption: The Maid-in-the-Air (to her Steady) — I think it’s awfully mean of Mamma to keep that searchlight on us wherever we fly!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-11-16

Vignettes depict modes of transportation, from dug-out canoes to ice skates, sedan chairs to horseback, sailboats to steamships, bicycles to automobiles to railroad trains, hot air balloons to airplanes, even elevators. Caption: Not alone about airships has it been said that “if God wanted man to fly, he’d have given him wings.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-08-17

Five fishermen are in a small boat on a lake. Each has a fish on his line, but refuses to complete the catch by pulling the fish into the boat. Caption: The first man to land one has to treat the crowd.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-09-14

Arctic explorers Frederick A. Cook and Robert E. Peary face off on either side of a frozen figure labeled “The Pole” holding up Cook’s “Book Royalties” and Peary’s “Lecture Receipts.” Each claims to have seen “The Pole” first. Caption: With acknowledgements to the designer of the Hudson-Fulton poster.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-09-29

A “Medicinal Spring” with water labeled “A Clean-Cut Progressive Platform” flows from a stone figure shaped like Theodore Roosevelt. “Sherman, Woodruff, Wadsworth, [and] Barnes” are standing by the spring, holding glasses, with dubious looks on their faces. Caption: You can lead them to the waters, but can you make them drink?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-09-21

A Wright Brothers airplane has crashed into a tree with Sir Isaac Newton and another man in the wreckage on the ground. Caption: It was an airship, and not an apple as popularly supposed, that gave Sir Isaac Newton his clue.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-10-05