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Russell Sage, Jay Gould, and Cyrus W. Field, as the Three Musketeers, stand on Wall Street with their swords raised in support of James Gillespie Blaine as the Republican presidential candidate. Sage’s sword is labeled “Put-and-Call Gambler,” Gould’s sword is labeled “Railroad Wrecker,” and Field’s sword is labeled “Elevated R. R. Grabber.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1884-06-18
Grover Cleveland shakes hands with Puck’s figure for the Independent Party labeled “Independent Voter.” Behind them are bell tents with banners labeled “Reform.” In the lower left corner is a “Withered Flower” with the face of Roswell Pettibone Flower.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1884-06-25
Schuyler Colfax stands at a lectern labeled “Speaker Colfax – Pious Hypocrite and Credit Mobilier Bribe-Taker.” James G. Blaine stands at a lectern labeled “Speaker Blaine – ‘Magnetic’ Blusterer and Railroad Stock-Jobber.” Joseph W. Keifer stands at a lectern labeled “Speaker Keifer – The Corrupt Tool of Robeson et al.” Blaine gestures toward three portraits hanging on the wall in the background, of former Democratic Speakers of the House, labeled “Kerr, Randall, [and] Carlisle.” Caption: The three last speakers of the “Untrustworthy and Disreputable Democratic Party,” and the three last speakers of the “Grand Old Republican Party of Moral Ideas.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1884-07-16
Puck, as a barker at a sideshow, presents as a “freak” the New York City tax payer. Puck points to a sign on the wall that states “Here you are now! The New York Tax-Payer!! The Greatest Curiosity ever on Exhibition! He pays $36 Per Capita. For the Privilege of Living in the Dirtiest and Worst-Governed City in the World!” Tax payers from Brooklyn at “$10.88 per capita, Berlin $7.35 per capita, Paris $5.40 per capita, [and] London $7.40 per capita” view the exhibit. Caption: He excites the wonder and amusement of the civilized world – including Brooklyn.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1886-01-06
New York Governor David B. Hill presses the “Notoriety” button for the “Presidential Elevator.” Uncle Sam, the manager of the elevator, is sitting nearby. He tells Hill that he is too early, and suggests that he use the “Solid Reputation” button next time. Caption: Elevator-Man “You are altogether too early, Mr. Hill. This elevator don’t begin running until 1888 – and you are ringing the wrong bell, anyhow!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1886-02-03
David B. Hill holds a large brush and George H. Sterling holds a bucket of paste, as bill stickers post a notice that states “Notice. We Hereby Boycott Cleveland, the Civil Service Humbug!! David B. Hill Governor – George H. Sterling would-be Weigher would-be Port-Warden” on a wall labeled “White House Grounds.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1885-12-02
William S. Holman holds up a page from “The Sun” newspaper that shows his portrait above the caption “Our Candidate for President – W. S. Holman.” His hat and coat are on a chair and he is rolling up his shirt sleeves. He is armed with guns and knives, and a large club is leaning against a desk. He is threatening to kill Charles A. Dana. Dana kneels before him, pleading for mercy. On the desk is another page of the newspaper that states “Holman – the Peoples Choice.” A display cabinet behind the desk contains Samuel J. Tilden beneath a sign “The Sun’s Candidate in 1876” and Winfield Scott Hancock labeled “A Good Man 250 lbs” beneath a sign “The Sun’s Candidate in 1880.” Caption: W. S. Holman–“This portrait settles it, Mr. Dana! I am forced to kill you in self-defense!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1883-10-24
Print shows a domestic scene with Benjamin F. Butler as the mother of a sick child labeled “Butler Boom” who is being examined by Puck as a physician. Various medicines labeled “Grand Reforms, Tewksbury Investigations, Big Reforms, Big Talk, Wind, [and] Friend of the Convicts” are on a table and the floor. Caption: N.C. Physician “You have almost talked the baby to death, madam; it will require great care to keep him alive until the 6th of November.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1883-10-31
A woman labeled “Republican Party” is held in the “Condemned Cell” of a jail labeled “To Be Executed Nov. 6th 1883,” with Charles A. Dana labeled “Jailor” and Henry Watterson labeled “Turnkey.” Watterson looks dismayed and Dana appears shocked when Puck, as a “Messenger Boy,” arrives with a newspaper that states “Reprieve – Nov. 6th – By Order of the People.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1883-11-14
Chester A. “Arthur” appears as a wealthy sheik holding a rope attached to a fat cow labeled “Federal Patronage.” He turns away William “Mahone,” an old man, ascetic or hermit, who has returned home from his desert wanderings. Caption: Hard-Hearted Father–“I am sorry, William, but I can’t kill this fatted calf for any played-out Re-adjuster like you!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1883-11-21
A man hands money to a Congressional Page to purchase the legislative services of a Congressman. On the left and in the background, Congressmen are shown sitting in the House or Senate chamber with signs advertising their prices, such as “I will do anything for $20,000, I can be bought for $10,000, My price is according to the size of the job, [and] My price is only $5000.00.” Caption: As it is plain that most of our Congressmen are for sale, they might as well display their prices prominently.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1884-01-09
Carl Schurz and newspaper editor George W. Curtis carry fellow editor Whitelaw Reid up the gangplank of a “French Steamer.” Puck, holding his lithographic pencil, stands at the bottom of the gangplank. Includes references to James G. Blaine and Louis Pasteur. Caption: Let him be taken to Paris and treated for Blainiac rabies without delay.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1885-12-16
Print shows Jay Gould bowling on Wall Street using bowling balls labeled “Private Press, General Unscrupulousness, False Reports, [and] Trickery” to knock down pins labeled “Banker, Small Operator, Speculator, Stock Dabbler, Broker, Inexperienced Investor, Capitalist, [and] Curb Stone Broker.” At the right is a slate showing Gould’s holdings in various railroads, “Western Union, Missouri Pacific, Manhattan ‘L’, Wabash, New York Metr. ‘L’, [and] Wabash Preferred” totaling “53,000,000.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1882-03-29
Three cooks stand in front of a large hearth. One holds a large spoon labeled “Assembly Committee” and gestures to the others to stop. The second holds a bowl labeled “Special Grand Jury” from which he drops a handful into a large pot. The third holds a box labeled “State Senate Committee” from which he is about to add more ingredients to the large pot labeled “Investigation of the Department of Public Works, New York” heating over a fire labeled “Public Pressure.” A man thumbing his nose, who may be Hubert O. Thompson, appears in the steam.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1884-01-23
John Kelly stands at the far end of a room, as Charles Dickens’s character Fagin, wearing a robe with a “Tammany Fund” money bag in a pocket. He is rubbing his hands together as a show of satisfaction. In the center of the room hangs an effigy labeled “N.Y. Tax-Payer” with three men labeled “Register, County Clerk, [and] Sheriff” who are learning to be pickpockets and have their hands in pockets filled with money. A notice hangs on the wall on the left, “Graduates of this School are sure to make from $50,000 to $80,000 a Year.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1884-02-06
Print shows Robert Green Ingersoll speaking from a stage in an auditorium filled with an audience whose heads are half-dollar coins. Dangling from a cord at the edge of the stage is T. De Witt Talmage as a marionette or wooden toy, with one hand pinned to the Bible.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1882-05-03
Print shows two images of Samuel J. Tilden, dressed identically, to the left and right of a barrel full of coins, labeled with monogram “SJT.” Papers extending from their pockets state “For President, S. J. Tilden. For Governor, S. J. Tilden.” Caption: “Mr. Tilden will not support any candidate whom he has not personally selected” — Daily Paper.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1882-05-10
In this vignette cartoon, William Dorsheimer is seated at center in the “Office of the U.S. District Attorney and Editorial Rooms of the New York Star” where he receives a letter from “Daniel Manning Sec’y Treas.,” asking him “to stop the acceptance of bribes by the employees of the Custom House, without delay.” The surrounding cartoons all show instances of customs officials being offered bribes by travelers returning from abroad, including a “sketch by our special artist,” i.e., Puck, showing a customs official headed home, laden with merchandise in the form of bribes.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1885-10-14
Ferdinand Ward, as Napoleon I, sits on a pile of stones labeled “Ludlow St. St. Helena” in the middle of a river with the New York City skyline behind him. Some of the signs on buildings state “I don’t know Ferdinand Ward,” “His name is familiar, but I can’t place him,” “I never had anything to do with Ward,” and “Never heard of Ward.” Caption: The friends of his “flush” days don’t care to know him now.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1885-10-21
David B. Hill and a donkey labeled “N. Y. Democracy” sit on the ground, staring at each other, next to railroad tracks with a caboose rolling into the background. They look as though they were thrown off the train for freeloading.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1885-11-04