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A tableau painting, with Whitelaw Reid subduing the Tammany Tiger with a broken knife labeled “Straight Rep. Ticket,” is being displayed on a stage. Thomas Collier Platt, standing on the left, is admiring the painting. Caption: Platt’s “living picture” – an awful fake.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-06-27
Uncle Sam, with a feather in his hat labeled “Victory,” holds America’s Cup labeled “Yachting Champion,” a cricket bat labeled “Cricket Champion,” and a medal labeled “Athletic Champion.” Other awards labeled “Chess Champion, Bicycle Champion, [and] Boxing Champion” are pinned to his coat, and a paper extends from his pocket labeled “Fastest R.R. Time.” He is standing on a beach next to a dejected John Bull who is holding a doll labeled “Dunraven,” a reference to the 4th Earl of Dunraven, Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, a co-owner of the Valkyrie II and Valkyrie III yachts that competed for the America’s Cup. Caption: Uncle Sam–Say, John, is there any game you can beat me at? – If there is, trot it out!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1895-10-09
William E. Chandler appears as a store clerk at the “Republican Misfit Clothing Company” helping David B. Hill purchase some new clothes. Hill is trying on a new coat that has a large golden medal labeled “McKinleyism” hanging from the lapel. The coat is too big for him, though Chandler tells him it fits perfectly. Hill’s old coat, with a ribbon that states “D.B.H. I am a Democrat,” is lying on a chair between them. Caption: Mister Chandler–Mein cracious, Meester Hill; it fits you like de paper on de vall!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-05-16
This vignette cartoon depicts how economies of scale determine public opinion. For instance, “no. 9” shows a handful of criminals robbing a citizen on the street. The criminals are considered “desperate and dangerous highwaymen.” In “no. 10,” however, three men labeled “Trust” have Uncle Sam at gunpoint and are “robbing the whole country by the tariff,” yet they “are ‘great industrial and financial magnates.'”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-08-25
Richard Croker as the Tammany Tiger holds a measuring tape up to Charles A. Dana, Oswald Ottendorfer, and A. Oakey Hall. Caption: Tammany ought to seek among its oldest and staunchest supporters for a mayoralty candidate who will come up to Seth Low’s measurements.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-09-29
President McKinley stands at center holding an “Inexhaustible Prosperity Hat” and surrounded by vignettes showing his accomplishments since taking office. Caption: A few of the wonders performed by magician McKinley, since his inauguration.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-10-06
The Tammany Tiger, wearing tattered clothing and a patch over the left eye, sits on the steps outside the entry to “Tammany Hall.” A sign on his lap states, “Please Help a Poor Tiger Until This Reform Wave Subsides,” and he holds a string attached to a small dog with the face of Charles A. Dana who has a small cup attached to his collar. A notice on the side of the building states, “Notice. Tammany Treasury Empty!!! Funds Badly Needed!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1895-09-11
Members of the upper class are making efforts to cut back during the business panic of 1893. Vignettes show a clothing auction of dresses worn by socialites, former streetcar-horses finding a second life as polo ponies, club men drinking from the “growler,” and theatergoers abandoning the orchestra pit for upper-level boxes. Others depict the upper class opening up their yachts for “sailing parties of the plain people” and hopping freight cars in the absence of “local express trains.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1893-08-30
Puck hands out placards with the saying, “Do unto others whatsoever thou wilt that others shall do unto thee,” which he claims as the “best religion in existence,” to many members of the clergy as they arrive at the entrance to the “Great World’s Fair Parliament of Religions.” Caption: Puck – Here’s the best religion in existence, gentlemen, – don’t waste time in useless discussions, but – call your meeting to order, endorse it, and adjourn. You’ll have more time to see the Fair!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1893-09-13
The American upper class on the left and the European nobility on the right stand beneath their family trees, with such ancestors as, on the left, “Skin Trader, Money Lender, Slave Trader, Squatter, [and] Tavern Keeper,” and on the right, “Marauding Knight, Robber Baron, King’s Favorite, Plundering Viking, [and] Rapacious Seigneur.” Caption: Puck–What fools these mortals be!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1893-10-04
At center is a place for Republicans to go to commiserate while awaiting the next election. Such stalwart Republicans as George F. Edmunds, John Sherman, William M. Evarts, George F. Hoar, and Thomas B. Reed wait there. Surrounding vignettes show a prominent citizen being escorted by two “Bureau of Public Comfort” guards who keep the press at bay, a sewing station for women’s clothing after a round of bargain shopping, a room where anarchists can blow off some steam “without disturbing anybody,” an educational facility to help orient newcomers to the ways of the city, and a hypnotist who attempts to convince servants to work in the country. Caption: Some of the useful purposes it might serve.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1893-10-25
Roswell P. Flower kneels over the drowned body of a young girl labeled “Presidential Hopes.” In the background, a figure labeled “Maynard” appears to be half-buried and stuck in the mud in the aftermath of a flood. Caption: Gov. Flower–Me che-ild! Me che-ild!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1893-11-22
Thomas B. Reed, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley are playing poker at the “Presidential Aspirants’ Poker Club.” Reed is wearing a crown and royal robe, Harrison is wearing his iconic top hat, and McKinley is dressed like Napoleon I and has a stack of red, white, and blue chips in front of him.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-01-03
Newspaper editor Whitelaw Reid sits at a desk, writing editorials condemning the Democrats for the Wilson Tariff Bill, expressing such “Copy for the Tribune” as “The Wilson Bill is meant to increase wages in England and lower them in America!!”, “The country on the eve of fearful financial disaster!! – All caused by the Wicked Democrats,” and “Awful programme of destructive legislation!!!! – Democrats bent on ruining the country.” Three ghosts labeled “The Oldest Inhabitant, Falstaff, [and] Baron Munchhausen,” looking indignant, are standing in the background. Caption: Eminent “Story-Tellers” of Fiction–We thought we were unapproachable in our line; – but we’re nowhere alongside of him!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-01-17
Father Knickerbocker struggles to hold aloft a dumbbell that is labeled on the left “Plattism,” showing Thomas Collier Platt with papers labeled “Jobs” and “Deals,” and on the right “Crokerism,” showing Richard Croker with papers labeled “Jobs” and “Deals.” Caption: He’s pretty strong; but the double-boss dumb-bell will prove too much for him.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-01-31
At center, Uncle Sam and President Cleveland shake hands, with a portrait of Liliuokalani, Queen of Hawaii, in the background. The surrounding vignettes feature a cast of characters, identified or referred to in the text as “Croker,” “Parkhurst,” and “Tammany” reform, “Iago Manley” and “Othello Reed,” “Peffer, Lease, Dana, Pulitzer, [and] Depew,” Harrison sitting in his over-sized top hat, and Thomas Collier Platt turning a crank that manipulates George R. “Malby” as “Speaker” of the New York State Assembly, David B. Hill sitting in an over-sized “Senatorial Chair N.Y. State,” and “McKinley” dressed as Napoleon I, riding a “War Tariff” rocking horse. Each scene includes “Valentine” text, such as this for “Peffer” and “Lease,” each holding papers labeled “Speech”: “From bleeding Kansas’s wind-swept plains, / Where whiskers take the place of brains, / You come with all your verbose strength / Of speeches of unending length. / Here, take the hint Puck gives – resign! / Let Mary be your Valentine”; and this for McKinley: “McKinley Bill! McKinley Bill! / Why do you ride that hobby still? / The cause of pool, combine and trust, / And idle mill-wheels red with rust. / Mistaken Man! We’ll never pine / For you to be our Valentine.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-02-14
In this vignette cartoon Uncle Sam sits in a chair, enjoying a good cigar and the latest issue of Puck magazine. The surrounding vignettes feature Puck characters who are thankful that, despite setbacks, they each have something this year to be thankful for, such as the very “British” game of golf, though polo and tennis are out of fashion; as police corruption surfaces, lower ranking officers are promoted; the mother-in-law has chosen elsewhere to observe the holiday; a meal is had for the asking; the Japanese may be winning the war, but they are not pushing the Chinese out of the laundry business; and football injuries are not severe enough to prevent playing in the big game.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-11-28
John Bull stands in the “House of Lords,” looking over a curtain at an old man wearing a crown and robe, clutching a large book labeled “Mediæval Traditions of the British Peerage” and a large scroll of paper labeled “Hereditary Right to Obstruct Popular Legislation.” At his feet are papers labeled “Peoples’ Measures.” Caption: John Bull–Roseberry [sic] says he can be mended, but I guess he’d better be ended!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-12-12
President Cleveland is at the center, hounded by newspaper reporters who try to run the government. Puck suggests that they should resolve to leave the running of the government to those elected to do so. In the surrounding vignettes are instances where people should make resolutions to stop doing the things that most annoy those around them, such as bringing crying infants to the theater, trying to get change for large bills at the train station during rush hour, or leaving the door open after exiting a building.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1895-01-02
Uncle Sam stands in a cashier’s window labeled “U.S. Treasury” next to a notice that states, “Pay Your Income Tax Here – No Escape for Millionaire Tax-Dodgers.” Russell Sage, Hetty Green, and George J. Gould stand in line, looking forlorn and crying as they pass their “Check for Income Tax – Russell Sage, Check for Income Tax – Hetty Green, [and] Check for Income Tax – George Gould” to Uncle Sam. In their pockets are papers labeled “Taxes Evaded.” Caption: Uncle Sam–I’m sorry for you, my unfortunate friends; – I know the Income Tax is “inquisitorial and oppressive;” but I’ve got to meet the one hundred and sixty million dollars of pension appropriation, somehow!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1895-02-06