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Father Knickerbocker, symbolic figure of New York City, uses a hose attached to a fire hydrant to wash the city streets clean of mud labeled “Mr. Mud, Mrs. Mud, Gaynor Mud, Hearst Mud, Ivins Mud, Tammany Mud, Fusion Mud, [and] Just Mud.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-11-03
A large, rotund male figure, as a pendulum labeled “Vox Populi,” swings between San Francisco on the left, labeled “Down with Reform” and “Good Government Defeat,” and New York City on the right, labeled “Down with Tammany” and “Good Government Victory.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-11-24
A rotund man labeled “Trust Official” inoculates himself into “Personal Immunity” with “Fine Vaccine” which is “Specially Prepared by Senate & House, Washington D.C.” Above his head is a dark cloud of prison-suited bacteria” labeled “Personal Responsibility,” some with manacle-like features. Caption: “None of those microbes will get me while I can buy this vaccine!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-12-08
President Taft struggles to conduct an orchestra composed of two groups of musicians. On the left, playing the “Eastern Conservatism” on stringed instruments, are “Root, Crane, Smoot, Depew, Aldrich, [and] Gallinger.” On the right, playing the “Western Conservatism” on horns and percussion instruments, are “Knute Nelson, Dolliver, Cummins, Clapp, Bristow, [and] La Follette.” Caption: Pity the poor leader of the Washington Symphony Orchestra.
William Jennings Bryan shows a model sailboat labeled “Personal Popularity” to Uncle Sam. Hanging on the wall in the background is a keel labeled “Principle” and identified as the “Taft Model.” Caption: Uncle Sam — Your sail’s all right, son; but where’s your keel?
“The Same Old Model” might have been the most pro-Bryan cartoon Puck Magazine ran. Cartoonist L. M. Glackens actually conceded that William Jennings Bryan, the presidential candidate in 1908 (after two failed Democratic campaigns for the office) had personal popularity.
German soldiers and officers invade England by means of hot-air balloons and other types of airships. In other scenes, German Emperor William II dictates “Fall of Albion / An epic poem by the Kaiser” to his secretary, and war correspondent Richard Harding Davis writes “How to Conduct a Campaign.” Caption: From the secret archives of the German War Office.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-08-18
A human figure with a large globe for a head looks at a campaign poster labeled “Vote For William Jenkins the People’s Choice,” showing a bust portrait of Jenkins that has been pasted on a wooden fence. Below the poster is a diminutive William Jenkins, scowling, holding a newspaper with the headline “Election Extra – Jenkins Loses,” as he walks away to the right.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-11-05
A large turkey, a jug of alcohol, and a pie have their feet locked in stocks, while a long line of pilgrims dances around them.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-11-19
Uncle Sam in the background hands out pardons to criminals labeled “Gyp the Blood” (Harry Horowitz), “Dago Frank” (Francesco Carofisi), “Lefty Louis” (Louis Rosenberg), and “Whit e Lewis” (Jacob “Whitey Lewis” Seidenschner), who head toward “The Mexican Line” bearing handguns and knives. In the foreground, about to step across the line, is Charles Becker, holding a pistol in one hand and a “Pardon on condition that you ‘croak’ the Mexican Muss.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-08-20
An intoxicated man, fully dressed, sits in a bathtub with the shower raining water down upon him. In his drunken state he has mistaken the bathtub for a motorboat. A seltzer bottle and an overturned bottle of liquor are on the floor at the end of the bathtub. Visible through an open door is a beach with dock and a sailboat offshore. Caption: “Thasser way with these darn motor-boats! Go back on yer just the worsh time! Like as not, be stuck in the rain here all day!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-09-03
At the front doorstep of a house, a young man is headed for college. He is wearing a sweater with a large “Y” on it and is carrying a suitcase labeled “Harold Halfback Yale” and a football. His sobbing mother hands him a football helmet and shoulder-pads, and a little girl hands him a “First Aid Kit” and shin-guards. A dog standing with the mother and sister is also crying. In the background, a man sitting in a small horse-drawn carriage waits for the young man to finish his goodbyes. Caption: The Spartan Mother — Go, my boy!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-09-24
William Jennings Bryan, as a puppet, uses a large stick to beat another puppet labeled “Public Duties” in a marquee labeled “Chautauqua Circuit.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-08-06
President Wilson is a chef roasting hot dogs labeled “Congress” on a grill labeled “Washington in Summer” at a beach, with bathing house and lighthouse in the background.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-07-16
Former president William H. Taft hands President Wilson an infant wrapped in clothing labeled “Mexican Situation,” holding a knife in one hand and shooting off a handgun with the other.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-03-05
A chicken wearing a beret and a large bow stands on a nest with four brightly colored angular (cubist) eggs. Other chickens, a duck, a dog, and a cow observe with quizzical looks on their faces. Caption: The Cubist influence reaches the barnyard.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-03-19
A young boy sits in the rain with an umbrella and a little dog, outside the locked and boarded-up entrance to the “25 cent seats” labeled “Opening Day April 10th Pink Socks vs Green Socks.” The boy has a “Base Ball Guide” in his coat pocket and there is a small basket of food on the ground, at his feet. Caption: “Cheer up, Towse! Only got about a week more to wait!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-04-02
Five women suffragettes, wearing Napoleonic hats and great coats, stand on a tiny island. Caption: Send your militant suffragettes to Saint Helena.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-04-09
Three baseball players are entwined by snakes formed of baseballs labeled “Base Ball Trust.” Each carries a “Contract,” one for $8000, one for $10000, and one for $12000 and also stuffed in his belt papers labeled “Bonds, Stocks, [and] Deed Oran[ge] Farm.” Caption: No class of labor feels the grip of grinding monopoly more than our underpaid, overworked ball-players.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-05-14
William Randolph Hearst holds a harpoon labeled “Independence League” in a small boat labeled “The Comic Supplement” with two cartoon characters in pursuit of two whales that have the faces of William Jennings Bryan and William H. Taft.
After the virtual takeover of the Democratic Party in 1896 by the restive Populist Party and its hybrid politician William Jennings Bryan, there were few candidates as radical as Bryan, beyond former Populists like Thomas E. Watson of Georgia, or Socialists like Eugene V. Debs. One figure who could be more radical on some issues, and was variously a boon and a nettle to Bryan and radical Democrats was New York newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.
An employer and a group of laborers stand outside the entrance to a factory. The employer is directing the laborers’ attention toward a notice posted on the wall that states “Notice to Workers. If the Tariff Bill is Passed, Your Wages will be Cut.” Behind them, coming down the sidewalk, is a large, angry green “goblin” labeled “Redfield” carrying a paper that states “Notice to Employers. Department of Commerce will Investigate all Wage Reductions said to be Necessitated by the New Tariff.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-06-04