Opper, Frederick Burr, 1857-1937

The fin de siècle newspaper proprietor

A newspaper owner, possibly Joseph Pulitzer, sits in a chair in his office next to an open safe where “Profits” are spilling out onto the floor. Outside this scene are many newspaper reporters for the “Daily Splurge” rushing to the office to toss their stories onto the printing press, including “A Week as a Tramp!! Wild and Exciting Experiences of a Daily Splurge Reporter,” “A Reporter of the Daily Splurge Spends a Thrilling Week in an Asylum!” “An Organ Grinder’s Life,” “Life in Sing Sing – a Splurge Reporter in Disguise,” “Divorce Court Details,” “Private Scandal,” “A Night Around Town” by a woman reporter “in Men’s Attire,” life on the streets “As a Flower Girl,” “Thrilling Exposé,” “How beggars are treated on 5th Ave. by Fanny Fake,” and “High Spiced Sensation.” A notice hanging on the wall of the office states, “The Motto of the Daily Splurge – Morality and a High Sense of Duty.” Caption: He combines high-sounding professions with high-spiced sensations, and reaps a golden profit thereby.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-03-07

The industrial “cold snap” is over

William McKinley is pictured as a snowman holding papers labeled “Prohbitory [sic] Tariff.” He is melting beneath a blazing sun labeled “Business Revival.” In the foreground, Matthew S. Quay and James D. Cameron try to scoop up the slush while Whitelaw Reid holds up a newspaper to block the sun. Standing on ladders are Charles W. Foster holding a thermometer that registers “Hot” and a fan, and Joseph B. Foraker holding up an umbrella labeled “Ohio Popularity” to keep the sun off McKinley. Benjamin Harrison is sitting on a fence in the background, whittling. Caption: And the protectionists can’t keep their snow man from rapidly melting away.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-03-14

The latest version

Richard Croker, a Tammany Hall boss, is pictured as Hamlet, exiting a castle labeled “Tammany Hall,” carrying a moneybag labeled “Pickings” and papers labeled “Deed $90,000 House, Ranch – Racing Stable, [and] Investm[ent] – Stock Farm.” He encounters the ghost of Boss Tweed who stands at the edge of an “Abyss for Smashed Bosses,” holding in his arms a moneybag labeled “Stealings” and papers labeled “‘Diamond Wedding’, Erie Deal, [and] 5th Avenue House.” Croker is headed for the abyss. Caption: Hamlet Croker (to Ghost Tweed)–I’ll follow thee!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-04-11

A very shaky show

David B. Hill appears as a strong man on a stage in a theater, wearing a suit stuffed with straw and medals that state, “I am a Democrat, From Liquor Dealors, [and] Champion of Peanut Politics.” Weights lying around him, also stuffed with straw, are labeled “Powerful Influence Against Cleveland, Anti-Reform Club, Strength with the New York Machine, [and] Hill’s Presidential Prospects.” Edward Murphy Jr. is standing at the “Box Office” in the background and William E. Chandler is the only person in the audience. Caption: [S]tuffed “Strong Man” … Dave Hill / [Trea]surer … Ed. Murphy / [Applau]se Furnished by … Bill Chandler

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-04-18

Social hypocrisies, and the painful scenes they save us from

This vignette cartoon shows men and women in various social situations where politeness overrides one’s actual emotional response, maintaining decorum and preventing a social disaster.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-01-26

McKinley’s valentines from his expectant and hopeful fellow-citizens

President McKinley stands at center holding a large cornucopia and emitting rays labeled “Prosperity,” while around him are vignettes showing people from all walks of life – doctors, cabbies, club men, real estate agents, actors, nobility seeking rich American wives, tramps, children, and old maids, even “The Hungry Heathen” – all with valentine wishes for McKinley and the hope of prosperity for themselves.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-17

“All aboard for the millennium!”

“Captain Bill McKinley” stands at the bow of a steamboat labeled “High Protection” and “Monopoly & Co. builders” that has been patched in several places, lists to the stern, and is overloaded with passengers. Mark A. Hanna is standing at the helm in the pilothouse. McKinley is inviting more people to board while the boat is still at dock. A large sign on the wharf states, “Grand Excursion to Washington in the Elegant Steamer ‘High Protection,’ Bill McKinley, Captain. A Fortune Guaranteed for every Passenger!!! No More Debts!! No More Mortgages!! No More Poverty!! No More Work!!!!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-06-03

Trying it on

An unhappy William McKinley, wearing a military hat with cockade labeled “Protection,” is at a tailor’s shop known as “Hanna, Platt & Co. Political Clothiers.” He is being fitted for a coat with “Gold” buttons and a ribbon labeled “Gold Standard.” The coat is much too big for him, though the tailors, Marcus Alonzo Hanna and Thomas Collier Platt think it is a perfect fit. In the background, a suit hanging on a rack is labeled “Sectional Strife – Very Cheap” and a military uniform on another rack is labeled “Force Bill – Marked Down.” Caption: Hanna and Platt–Vell, vell, vell, vat a magnifercent fit!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-07-22

Uncle Sam’s “crazes” past and present

This vignette cartoon depicts, at center, the current “craze” for “Free Silver,” showing Uncle Sam riding a silver rocking horse. Surrounding vignettes show him participating in several fads “Past and Present,” such as the “Blue Glass Craze” after A. J. Pleasonton’s discovery of the properties of blue light; the “Prohibition Crusade”; the “Roller-Skating Craze”; a puzzle craze in the 1880s including the “Fifteen Puzzle,” with 15 sliding blocks in a square box, and “Pigs in Clover,” a “rolling-ball dexterity puzzle”; the “Paderewski Craze” around 1891 for piano music by Ignace J. Paderewski; the cycling craze, which has not yet ended; and the “Schlatter Craze,” which did come to an end with the disappearance and death of faith healer Francis Schlatter.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-07-29

The silver-tongued ventriloquist and his dummies

A “Silver Mine Owner” depicted as a “silver-tongued ventriloquist” sits on a box labeled “16 to 1” on a stage, with William Jennings Bryan as a dummy sitting on his lap, holding papers labeled “Free Silver Harangues.” In two boxes at the mine owner’s feet are dummy Arthur “Sewall” on the right and dummies William A. “Peffer,” Benjamin R. “Tillman,” John Peter “Altgeld,” and George Fred “Williams” on the left. Caption: If the show succeeds, he’ll get all the profits.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-08-12

Poor paterfamilias – the family rises and he has to pay the freight

The father of an upwardly mobile family is forced to keep pace financially with his wife’s ambitions. The main vignette shows the father perspiring as he works harder, using a large pump labeled “Business” to pour more money into “Paterfamilias’ Pocket Book” to which a queue of tradesmen labeled “Caterer, Chef, Modiste, Carriage dealer, Milliner, Decorator, Furniture dealer, Florist, Jeweler, [and] Wine dealer” help themselves. The surrounding vignettes depict lavish parties, artwork on the walls, more frequent purchases of clothing for the children, his wife’s new understanding of the term “cottage,” and the increase in the size of the servant staff.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-08-21

The sea-serpent season upon us again

A “Sensation Press” reporter stands on the shore near “Gray Gables,” Grover Cleveland’s summer home at Cape Cod, pointing to a sea serpent labeled “3d Term Twaddle.” Caption: The latest and most improbable feat of the sensation-newspaper man’s imagination.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-07-31

Puck’s presidential possibilities. No. II, Old-man-ready-to-be-struck

Benjamin Harrison sits atop a chimney, holding rods with metal tips. Several other rods are tied to his body and his hat. He hopes to get struck by a lightning bolt labeled “Republican Presidential Nomination” during an electrical storm. The rods are labeled “Jingo Record, G.A.R. War Record, Grandson of his Grandfather, Reciprocity, Grandfather’s Hat, Vigorous Foreign Policy, A Cheap Coat Makes a Cheap Man, [and] Paternalism.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-08-29

Rival political gardeners

Roswell P. Flower and Levi P. Morton are watering flowers labeled “Presidential Hopes” by pouring money on them. Morton’s flower is much taller than Flower’s flower. Caption: The same method, but different results.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-09-19

New York’s Republican “standard-bearer”

Levi P. Morton walks with a cane, holding a “Check Book,” with his left arm around a standard that states, “Down with the iniquitous Democratic Party!! It has the impudence to tax prosperity instead of poverty!!” Thomas Collier Platt has his right hand on the standard and is pointing to himself.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-10-17

After the carnival

Uncle Sam sits on a bed the morning after a wild night. He is rubbing his head to ease the pain and there is a handgun in his pants pocket. On the floor there is a bottle labeled “Jingo Fire Water” spilling its contents, several papers scattered about that state, “Jingo Speeches in Congress, War Care, War Talk, [and] Jingo Press War Talk,” and nippers labeled “To Twist the Lion’s Tail.” “The Sword of Bunker Hill” hangs from a wall lamp. Sam’s hat hangs over the lamp, with a hole burned through the fabric. One of Sam’s boots is upside down in a pitcher on the nightstand, and a picture of “John Bull,” hanging on the wall, has a large X drawn through it. The “Rising Sun of Peace” shines in the background. Caption: Uncle Sam–By Jingo, it was a great racket! – but I showed ’em the kind of stuff I’m made of, anyhow! – I wonder how John feels?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-02-26

What a newspaper puff can do

This vignette cartoon chronicles the social and financial fortunes of the “Smallclip” family following Mrs. Smallclip’s interview with reporters and artists for the society pages of the newspaper. The society report leads to a dinner with “old friends” at their “modest home,” resulting in another notice in the society news where they are referred to as “leaders of fashion.” This causes Mrs. Smallclip to refurnish their home “on a scale in keeping with her new social status,” which places a financial strain on Mr. Smallclip. Mr. Smallclip is beset with bills as the cost of Mrs. Smallclip’s ascending social status begins to overwhelm him. The final vignette shows the Smallclip family a year later in humble housing, Mr. Smallclip having failed to meet the financial obligations of society leadership.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-04-01

A painful position for nurse McKinley

William McKinley, dressed as a nurse, perspiring, sits in a rocking chair with an infant labeled “Gold Standard” on his lap and another child labeled “High Protection” crying on the floor. Caption: “I’ve got to take care of this Gold Baby for my political living, but I love my own tootsey-wootsey the best!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-09-02

The Supreme Court, – “as it may hereafter be constituted”

A trial is taking place at the U.S. Supreme Court where the regular justices have been replaced by hayseed justices. In the foreground is a “Waiting Pen for Gold Bugs and Millionaires” where “W. Rockefeller, J. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Astor, Sage, Vanderbilt, [and] Gould” are waiting. Caption: If the silverites ever get a chance to put their populistic and revolutionary platform into force.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-09-09

Bryan is the ablest worker for sound money

William Jennings Bryan stands on one side of a scale, cranking out speeches labeled “Wind, Weak Speech, Cheap Oratory, Boy Talk, Silly Speech, Free Silver Sophistry, Dangerous Propositions, Mercenary Reasoning, Silly Speech by Bryan, Bryan’s Blatherskite Oratory, Foolish Speeches by Bryan, Bryan’s Demagogic Speeches, [and] Bryan’s Inflammatory Talk,” which land at the feet of William McKinley, standing on the other side of the scale, holding a paper labeled “Gold Standard.” Caption: The more he talks, the more McKinley weighs.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-10-21