Opper, Frederick Burr, 1857-1937

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901

Creator(s)

Opper, Frederick Burr, 1857-1937

Language

English

In the first vignette, a man takes notes on animals, which all appreciate his observations and that he isn’t shooting at them. Caption: 1 — After you had studied wild animals for years — In the second vignette, a man takes pictures of animals, which are all willing to look good for the pictures. Caption: 2 — And photographed them — . In the third vignette, the man writes on a paper entitled, “Wild Animals By One Who Has Studied Them,” with two books — How to Observe Wild Creatures Without Killing Them and Nature Study vs. Animal Slaughter — on the ground. Caption: 3 — And written books about them — . In the fourth vignette, President Roosevelt with a “big stick” throws the man into a room with several others and says, “You’re a nature faker” amidst “the Persona Non-Grata Coterie.” Caption: 4 — If you suddenly found yourself disposed of as above? Wouldn’t it jounce you?

comments and context

Comments and Context

This strip, a reticulated political cartoon with an anti-Roosevelt message, appeared in the newspapers of William Randolph Hearst across the country. It was commentary of the moment — as the “Nature Faker” controversy of 1903 reasserted itself. It been brewing in articles and public debates between a group of authors and the naturalist John Burroughs.

In the top half of the cartoon, President Roosevelt grabs a man holding a rake by the neck. Caption: 1. After you had made a thrilling attack on the Man of the Muck Rake, and you had swatted and lambasted him in the most merciless manner— In the second half of the cartoon, “the common people” point Roosevelt to the “national muck heap” and ask, “Why don’t you get busy about that?” A number of individuals are in the pile: “R.R. rebater,” “official bribe taker,” “official grafter,” “U.S. senator owned by railroads,” “trust-owned U.S. senator,” New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt, Chauncy M. Depew, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou, and Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich. Caption: 2. If you suddenly learned that you ought to have attacked the Muck Heap instead of the Muck Rake. Wouldn’t it DEE-PRESS you?

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04

Senator Hanna is shown derailed by the powerful locomotive President Roosevelt is driving behind him. Caption: It will go hard with the handcar when the Strenuosity Limited comes along.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902

A number of trusts are on a large “grab” ship with J. Pierpont Morgan at the front. Morgan looks through binoculars and says, “Saved,” when he sees Attorney General Philander C. Knox in a small vessel filled with cotton. Knox tips his hat to the ship. Meanwhile, a man labeled “the common people” peers out of the lower deck and says, “Help.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12

President Roosevelt points to two pictures on the wall—one of which is the pirate Blackbeard, and the other depicting highwayman Dick Turpin—as Uncle Sam looks in a mirror, having exchanged his top hat for a pirate’s hat and bandana, brandishing a pistol and cutlass, and wearing a scroll reading “recognition of the insurgent government of the new ‘Republic of Panama'” tucked in his sash. Caption: Uncle Sam, costume maker, to the customer Roosevelt: Sir, do you want this pirate costume?

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11-14

President Roosevelt sits on a horse holding a “presidential boom” paper as he looks at the Great Sphinx which features the winking head of Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna. The sphinx also holds a large paper that reads, “presidential boom.” Caption: The sphinx—also Napoleon. —F. Opper in New York American, with apologies to J. L. Gerome. (Copyright by W. R. Hearst).

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11-29

In the top left hand corner, “Ananias” and “Munchausen” speak. Ananias says, “Our Congressmen and Senators are poor but honest. To my personal knowledge they would scorn to hire out to trusts and monopolies.” Munchhausen says, “The delicate and retiring modesty of the president would make it impossible for him to assume any authority not given him by the Constitution.” Caption: A–Prominent liars who have inside information regarding fight between President and Congress. In the top right hand corner, two letters are visible. One reads: “My dear Senator, Our Trust is overjoyed at your good work for us in Congress. I enclose check as per your request. Archbold.” The other reads: “My dear Harriman, You and I are practical men. Come and see me after dark and bring some campaign funds. Knock once and whistle three times. T. R.” Caption: B–Important documents which have mysteriously disappeared. In the middle on the left side, “Congress” and President Roosevelt step on “the common people,” who says, “Lemme up. Caption: C–Innocent bystander who is endangered by fight. In the middle on the right side, “Crooked Trusts and Corporations” laughs with arrows pointing to his face. Caption: D–Interested party greatly worried over outcome of fight. (Arrows show expression of anxiety). At the bottom, Roosevelt talks to the “Secret Service Dep’t.” He says, “Meet me in the ruined mill at midnight with evidence against the Senators and Congressmen. Remem-bar-r!” The “Secret Service Dep’t” replies, “I will be ther-r-re!” Caption: F–Scene from forthcoming melodrama entitled “Why Senator Scrubbs Left Home, or No Mother to Guide Him.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The brilliant Frederick Burr Opper, often called “The Mark Twain of Cartooning,” was on one of the most influential political cartoonists of his generation; his career spanned the 1870s to the 1930s. Prominent outlets he appeared in were Puck magazine until 1899, and the newspapers of William Randolph Hearst until 1932.

In the first vignette, President Roosevelt holds his rifle as a lion runs away. An African man says, “Golly, dat was a bad shot, boss!” Roosevelt replies, “Liar!” In the second, two African men say, “Let us into your tent, boss, we’se most froze out here!” Roosevelt replies, “Milksops and mollycoddles!” In the third vignette, an African man says, “Dat’s a fine ump you shot, boss!” Roosevelt replies, “Nature fakir! It’s a ring tailed owk!” In the fourth vignette, an African king says, “Oogle ig uppy woof,” and an African man translates, “His majesty says he’ll have to charge you two bushels of beans to hunt in his country.” Roosevelt replies, “Tell him he is a sinister offender and a man with hard face and a soft body.” In the fifth, an African man says, “Say, boss, between ourselves, did you really write that letter to Harriman?” Roosevelt replies, “Muckraker! Shut up or I’ll beat you to a frazzle!” In the sixth, an African man says, “Boss I’se got to have more wages!” Roosevelt replies, “You’re an undesirable citizen and you’re fired!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Even with more than two months before he would retire from the presidency, many people — not least the corps of cartoonists — speculated on Theodore Roosevelt’s upcoming safari to Africa. It was not merely another aspect of the omnivore Roosevelt, nor the prospect of a very public man choosing to disappear from headlines for a year. The concept of almost any American save a few iconic explorers, plunging into what was then known (or unknown, literally) as the “Dark Continent” was something that attracted the attention, and inspired the imaginations, of an entire population.

A number of trusts—”coal trust,” “railroad trust,” “National Bank trust,” “oil trust,” “ice trust,” “steel trust,” and “rubber trust”—all dance around President Roosevelt, who waves his hat at them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-09

Newspaper editor Joseph Pulitzer, as Atlas, supports a globe labeled “American Affairs, English Affairs, African Affairs, Cuban Affairs, [and] South American Affairs” on his back. He is sitting at a desk, drafting “Instructions to Congress,” and handing a “Telegram to Prince of Wales” to a messenger boy. On the floor around him are other communications labeled “Program for the Senate, Advice to the Cabinet, Commands to Sec. Carlisle – Issue a Pulitzer Loan At Once!, How the Country Must Be Run, [and] Orders to Foreign Powers.” A notice hanging on the wall states “Our Motto – Sensation! Sensation! Sensation!!” Pulitzer is perspiring from the burden of his labors.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-01-29

Former president Benjamin Harrison holds a bouquet of flowers and has a floral garland around his neck that Cupid has used to lasso him. In a poem, Cupid says, “I’ll help the boom of the happy groom, as his party’s Valentine.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-02-12

Otto von Bismarck and William E. Gladstone stand on a “Political Stage.” Bismarck is wearing a suit of armor and Gladstone has an axe hanging from a rope around his neck. There are bouquets of flowers for each on the stage from their respective German and English “admirers.” Caption: It seems that those popular stars, the “Iron Chancellor” and the “Grand Old Man,” will have to respond to another encore.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-02-20

A young woman wearing bloomers says good night to a young man at the front door. The young man’s mother, also wearing bloomers and holding a newspaper or magazine called “The Advanced Woman,” has come down the stairs to ask when the young woman will be leaving. Caption: Stern Parent–Willy, isn’t that Miss Bloomers going soon? – it’s nearly eleven o’clock! / Son–Yes, Mama; she’s just saying good night!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-12-25

Uncle Sam dances through a minefield of political issues, such as “Catholic Demands for part of School Funds,” “Single Tax Fad,” “Populism,” “Prohibition Foolishness,” “Women’s Rights Nonsense,” and the “Free Silver Mania,” which all have strings attached leading back to a bishop, a woman, a temperance man, and a “Silverite.” Caption: Uncle Sam–Let ’em amuse themselves; – but they can’t take me in!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-04-03

Mayor William L. Strong is depicted as St. Patrick standing outside “N.Y. City Hall,” holding a long crosier labeled “Power to Remove,” driving away snakes and frogs labeled “Tammany Office-Holder, Tammany Heeler, Office-Holder with a ‘Pull,’ Tammany-ite, [and] Heeler.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-03-20

Uncle Sam and John Bull are about to come to blows, possibly over the Venezuela boundary dispute, but are tied together in ribbons that are labeled “Financial Ties, Mutual Needs, Property Interests, International Marriages, Trade Interests, Mutual Commercial Benefits, Ties of Kinship, [and] Social Ties.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-01-15

A shabbily dressed woman addresses a man who is wearing an apron, holding an infant, and standing at the front door of his home. In the background, a dog with its tail between its legs enters a doghouse to hide. Caption: Dusty Maude–Is dere any lady-folks about de house? Timid Househusband–No-o – no, ma’am; they have all gone to a primary meeting. Dusty Maude–Den set out de best dere is in de pantry, an’ don’t do any screamin’, or I’ll clip yer whiskers!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-03-06

David B. Hill labeled “Hill-ism,” Richard Croker as the Tammany Tiger labeled “Croker-ism,” and Roswell P. Flower, wearing a tall stove-pipe hat, labeled “Flower-ism,” stand on “Condemned Row” in the “Prison of Public Condemnation.” They are watching a group of men, on the left, construct a guillotine labeled “Reform Movement.” Puck is standing on the left with “Parkhurst, Grace, Lexow, Godkin, Ottendorfer, [and] Goff,” who is posting a notice on the wall of the prison that states, “Notice! On Election Day, Nov. 6th 1894. Execution of Hill-ism, Croker-ism, and Flower-ism. By Order of the People.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-06-13

A doubtful Uncle Sam watches as two horses pass on a racetrack headed for the start of the race. On the first horse labeled “Wilson Bill” is jockey William L. Wilson wearing a ribbon labeled “Tariff Reform.” Several bandages encircle the horse’s legs, tail, and neck labeled “Senate Amendments, Concessions to Collar and Cuff Trust, Concessions to Sugar Trust, Concessions to Coal Trust, Favors to Lead Trust, [and] Favors to Iron Trust.” On the second horse labeled “McKinley Bill” is jockey William McKinley wearing a ribbon labeled “Protection.” Caption: Uncle Sam–Neither one of these animals is good for anything; – they say there’s a new horse being trained, called “Free Trade,” that will beat ’em both!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-06-20