Opper, Frederick Burr, 1857-1937

The custom-house code of morals under our beautiful tariff system

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.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-10-14

The “Little Napoleon of Wall Street” in exile

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.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-10-21

An end to all disagreement

Print shows a group of men, probably President Garfield’s physicians, exiting Francklyn Cottage where Garfield died. The men hold slips of paper that state “Self Exoneration”. Three men standing on the left hold papers that state “Private Theory, Temperance Ideas, [and] Power of Prayer”. (They may represent physicians that were dismissed when Garfield appeared to be recovering).

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1881-09-28

Our merciless millionaire

Puck hangs onto the coat-tails of William H. Vanderbilt, who is holding a money bag labeled “Donation of $500,000 to Build a New Medical College,” as he climbs the steps to a building labeled “N. Y. College of Physicians & Surgeons.” At the top of the steps are trustees and men with surgical instruments eagerly awaiting the donation. On the right, in the background, is a man standing in the doorway of a building beneath a sign that states “Crape & Plantem. Undertakers.” He is waving a white cloth. Caption: Vanderbilt – “The public be – doctored!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-10-29

Keeping account

Uncle Sam prepares a list of places in China where “Americans [have been] killed by Chinese,” and a Chinese man prepares a list of places in America where “Chinese [have been] killed by Americans,” including the latest incident in “Wyoming Territory.” Caption: China “Taking in the late massacre of my people in Wyoming Territory, there seems to be a slight balance to my credit!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-09-16

Tammany throws away its “butt,” and the monopoly bootblack picks it up

Benjamin F. Butler is a shoe shiner with his kit, stooping to pick up a smoldering cigar butt labeled “Grady” that John Kelly, on the left, has discarded. They are on a sidewalk in front of the “Tamma[ny] Ciga[r] Stor[e]” where there is a sign posted on the building that states “Cleveland Cigars – New and Popular Brand” with a cigar store Indian figure at the door.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-09-24

Now let the show go on!

A woman labeled “Mrs. Lockwood,” holding papers that state “Nomination for Pres. Womens’ Rights Party,” bursts through an opening in the floor of a stage to appear next to a clown labeled “B. B.” who is holding a paddle labeled “Demagogism” and a string of sausages labeled “His Own Nomination, Womens’ Suffrage Nomination, Tewksbury Pauper Nomination, Convict Party Nomination, Greenback Nomination, [and] Last Nomination.” Caption: Arrival of the political columbine to join the political clown.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-09-17

The bogus workingman and his lonesome boom

Benjamin F. Butler is a laborer standing next to a box of “Tools for Exhibition Purposes,” with “Butler’s Valet” next to him. At the valet’s feet are papers labeled “R. R. Stock [and] Monopolists’ fees” and behind him is a safe labeled “Bonds.” Butler is holding papers labeled “Speech.” Through a window is seen a tattered man standing next to signs that state “Grand Butler Mass Meeting” and “Please Keep Order and Don’t Crowd.” Caption: Butler (to his valet) – “Keep an eye on the valuables, while I go out and address the mass-meeting!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-09-10

The trials and tribulations of the transferred “coburger”

A dejected soldier sits at a train station beneath a sign that states “Trains Leave Every Hour for Fort Tombstone Fort Lonesome Fort Scalp’em and all Western Army Outposts” and near another sign that states “Special Accommodations for Transferred Army Officers,” with an infant on his lap and his traveling orders labeled “Ordered to go West Secy. Endicott” between his knees. His extended family of wife, mother-in-law(?), children’s nanny, and several rambunctious children accompany him. In the lower right foreground is a valise labeled “Major Dunerfull.” Caption: The effect of government reform on a military man of quiet domestic ambitions.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-08-26

The original political dude out-duded

Print shows Chester A. Arthur dressed as a dandy, walking on a sidewalk with a young woman labeled “Republican Party” who is carrying a small dog labeled “Protection.” Standing behind them, on the sidewalk, is Roscoe Conkling, also dressed as a dandy, with a medallion with the number “306” (a reference to the number of delegates who voted for U.S. Grant at the Republican Convention), in the background is the U.S. Capitol labeled “Congressional Club House”.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-09-26

“April fool!”

John Kelly bends to pick up a wallet labeled “New York City Mayoralty” that is lying in the street. Puck, hiding behind a tree, is holding on to a string attached to the wallet, ready to pull it out of Kelly’s reach.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-04-08

Celestial wrath

Startled French soldiers in rice paddies confront an angry blazing sun rimmed with cannon barrels and bayonets, and stating “Population 500,000,000.” Signs labeled “Malaria, Disease, [and] Fever,” as well as Chinese soldiers also face them. Caption: China – “I will make it HOT for you!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-09-12

Monopoly in Hades–How the place will be run, two years after Jay Gould’s arrival

Illustration showing Jay Gould as the Devil holding a paper labeled “Majority of Stock”, standing outside an office labeled “Successor to Satan”; he is presiding over the “Hades & World Lightning Transportation Line” which is a railroad train headed for a station labeled “Terminus – President Jay Gould.” The locomotive is labeled “Crasher” and uses “Brimstone” for fuel, a passenger car is labeled “Only Anti-Monopolists Carried,” also the “Sulphuric Telegraph Co. – Gould Pres.” which has many devil-like demons stringing wire cables on telegraph poles and an office where telegraph operators work at desks beneath a sign that states “Any Imp who attempts to strike will be transferred to the Western Union Company”, as well as “The Bottomless Pit Roasting Co. – Jay Gould, Pres.” where an “Anti-Monopolist editor”, “Puck”, and “Thurber” are roasted “in effigy.” At bottom, a man labeled “Satan Janitor”, with bandages, carries a scuttle filled with brimstone, a watering-can labeled “Kerosene”, a broom, and a key ring, skulks down the steps from Gould’s office. Caption: How the place will be run, two years after Jay Gould’s arrival.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-09-19

The cave of despair

Jay Gould appears as a giant holding a large club labeled “Monopoly,” sitting on rocks, gleefully watching a line of downtrodden people entering a cave labeled “Western Union Telegraph Company – All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here.” On the horizon, the sun is labeled “Strike.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-08-29

Still waiting

Print shows several men with brooms and shovels locked outside a fence with a large, spiked gate labeled “Civil Service Reform”, among them are Thomas F. Bayard, Samuel J. Tilden, Henry Watterson, Charles A. Dana, and John Kelly. Inside the fence, on the sides of the gate, are Chester A. Arthur and George W. Curtis. In the distance is the White House flying a flag that states “Possession is nine points of the law!!!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-08-15

The goose that lays the golden eggs

Print shows Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa spoon-feeding a promissory note that states “Pay the Bearer $5 When Ireland is Free” to an Irish servant girl labeled “Bridget”; on the floor between them is a hat labeled “Rossa” filled with golden eggs labeled “Money from Bridget”. On a table to the left is a large bowl filled with golden eggs labeled “Irish Contributions from Servant Girls”, and hanging on the wall at center are notices that state “Funds Wanted for Bleeding Ireland” and “Headqua[rters] of the Dynamite Coterie.” Broken eggs spill coins on the floor. Caption: Rossa “Begorra, we’ll never kill her while her appetite lasts!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-08-22

Gorilla warfare under the protection of the American flag

Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa swings like a gorilla from an American flag and drops dynamite bombs on England.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-03-19

The resistless march of reform – the “hostiles” must go!

A large group of politicians, newspaper editors, Tammany Hall bosses, and others are dressed as Native Americans. One carries a banner that shows a crude drawing of the Tammany tiger labeled “Flathead Tribe.” The group is on a long march in opposition to President Cleveland’s civil service reform agenda. In the upper left corner is the “Blainiac Reservation” and in the opposite corner is Cleveland and his cabinet laying tracks for the “Reform R. R.,” keeping ahead of the “Administration Construction Train.” In the foreground, Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks is leading the Democratic donkey labeled “Bourbonism,” carrying two baskets, one with “Old Ideas” and the other labeled “The Perennial Pappooses” holding Charles A. Dana and Benjamin F. Butler. Standing just to the right is John Kelly carrying Philip H. Dugro in a cradleboard.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-08-12

Dorsey, the American “informer” – he finds one willing ear

Print shows the interior of the “N.Y. Sun Editorial Rooms” where “Political Scandals [are] Promptly Attended to,” also “Post Mortem Scandals Especially Desired”, with elderly editor Charles A. Dana sitting at a desk, listening through an earhorn to Stephen W. Dorsey who is labeled “Public Contempt,” wearing tattered clothing, and with his left arm in a sling labeled “Acquitted by a Washington Jury.” Dana is transcribing “Dorsey’s Own Statement”; an inkpot on the desk is labeled “Gall.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-07-25

A flirtation that may lead to serious results in the fall

Whitelaw Reid, dressed as a woman holding a folding fan labeled “Tribune Windiphone,” stands on a beach with John Kelly who is wearing a swimsuit and bonnet. At his feet is a dead fish labeled “Magnetism.” In the background is a banner that states “Tammany Bathing Ground.” Caption: He (John Kelly) will again be drawn into the vortex of politics; and it is his nature to lead and not to follow. –New York Tribune.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-07-29