Pughe, J. S. (John S.), 1870-1909

Declined with thanks

Pope Leo XIII holds out his robe labeled “Catholicism” and bows to Columbia who politely returns the bow and declines the offer to shelter under his robe. Behind Leo XIII is “St. Peters” at the “Vatican” and behind Columbia are buildings labeled “Public School” and “School.” Caption: His Holiness–Dear Miss Columbia, won’t you come under my robe? – you’ll be so much more comfortable! – for further particulars, see my late encyclical. / Miss Columbia–Much obliged, Pop; but I’m doing very well as I am!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-02-13

He’d better cut behind

President McKinley drives a sleigh labeled “Prosperity,” drawn by a horse labeled “Administration.” He is towing two small sleds. One labeled “Defective Currency System” is carrying William Jennings Bryan, and the other labeled “Deficit” is carrying a bloated Nelson Dingley. Caption: McKinley–I wonder what makes this pesky thing pull so hard?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-01-19

Warming up a sure winner

Puck appears as a jockey on a galloping horse labeled “Free Trade” on a racetrack labeled “International Commercial Race-Track.” John Bull stands on the track next to the British Prime Minister Lord Rosebery as a jockey, sitting on a horse labeled “British Commercial Supremacy.” Caption: John Bull–Good ‘evins! Hif that there filly is goin’ to start, hit’ll go ‘ard with my ‘orse!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-08-01

Our sleeping beauty

A woman wearing a crown labeled “Commerce” lies sleeping on a bed. A “Business Man” stands on the left with cobwebs and a top hat at his feet. A sleeping “Laborer” sits on a wall with cobwebs around him. Caption: May the new Secretary of the Treasury be the prince who will awaken her to a long and happy life.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-17

“She has seen better days”

An old woman with a traveling bag labeled “Miss Democracy” sits alone by the side of a road. The United States Capitol is in the background, flying a flag that states “March 4th.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-03-03

The latest unfortunate experience of an unfortunate animal

Print shows a “Before” and “After” cartoon. In the “Before” scene, the “Democratic Donkey” is piled high with bags of “Dividends, Salaries, Profits, [and] Rents” that are tied on with a ribbon labeled “Income Taxes,” standing outside the “U.S. Supreme Court” where the Supreme Court justices are offering a two-wheeled cart for the donkey to use to carry the load. In the “After” scene, the “Democratic Donkey” is harnessed to the cart labeled “Supreme Court Decision on Income Tax,” which is overloaded with bags of “Dividends, Salaries, Profits” still bound with a ribbon labeled “Income Taxes.” “Rents” which are “(Exempt)” have fallen to the ground. The way the load is positioned in the cart raises the donkey off the ground. It remarks, “What shall I do now – I’m worse off than ever!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-05-01

They expect the impossible

President William McKinley appears as Moses with two rays of light emitting from his top hat, and wearing a red cape labeled “McKinley.” He stands next to a large rock labeled “Prosperity” that has split and is spewing money toward a throng of people representing mostly the working class and the poor who stream from the factories in the background. Caption: The people foolishly think that McKinley will be able to tap the rock of prosperity, à la Moses, and make money flow like water.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-03-10

The dead issue

President Cleveland stands on the steps of the “White House” watching a funeral procession with the hearse labeled “Calamity Cry killed by Business Revival” and a long line of Republican mourners. Among them are Reed, Harrison, McKinley, Sherman, Chandler, Hoar, W. Reid, and Boutelle. The U.S. Capitol is on a hill in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-06-05

The financial fakir fooling the farmers

A man wearing a sash labeled “Harvey,” with a horn attached, stands on a platform with stacks of books, pointing to a board that states, “Coin’s Financial School – Declare fifty cents Silver to be Worth One Dollar in Gold and You will Make Two Dollars of One Dollar, therefore Silver has Twice the Purchasing Power of Gold. Figures Never Lie. If You Don’t Believe This, Buy My Book and Be Convinced! (Only 50 cents a copy).” Standing in front of the platform are several hayseed farmers.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-06-12

The “British despot” beaten again

John Bull stands on land labeled “England” as an army of animated steel railroad rails march ashore in military formation from ships docked just offshore. In the background, Uncle Sam is standing on land labeled “United States” with steel factories spewing smoke behind him. Caption: The invasion of England by the great American steel rail army.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-03-24

A little suggestion

President McKinley takes a break to smoke a cigar while a wax figure sits at his desk to suggest that he is hard at work reviewing applications from office seekers who are clamoring in the background, hoping to get an audience with the President. Caption: A wax-figure substitute would enable the President to get a breathing-spell, now and then, from the onslaught of the office-hunters.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-03-31

Just what might have been expected

William McKinley sits on the porch of a house labeled “Presidential Hopes,” flying a banner that states “The Foreigner Pays the Tax,” built on stilts on a sandy beach. Below, a rising tide labeled “Business Revival” has washed away the house and McKinley runs for safety. Caption: He built his house on a sand-heap, and the rising tide is making short work of it.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-06-26

He has one medicine for all ills

President McKinley as a physician dispenses strong “Tariff” medicine in the men’s ward of a sanatorium. The beds lining the walls are occupied by a “Business Man” suffering from a “Loss of Confidence,” a “Populist” disturbed by “Mental Aberation in Regard to Free Silver and Government Paternalism,” and a “Jingoist,” a “Spoils Man,” an “Anarchist,” a “Filibuster,” a “Monopolist,” all with similarly distressing ills. Last is a man sitting on a bed with a sign that states “Hallucinations about Home Markets and Infant Industries.” In the background is a door that leads to the “Woman’s Ward,” where “Woman’s Suffrage” and “Woman’s Rights” are the diseases.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-04-14

The skeleton at the feast

Republican politicians wearing Roman togas are seated around a banquet table with a skeleton that is holding a standard labeled “McKinley’s Shaky Financial Record.” Gathered around the table are John “Sherman,” Stephen B. “Elkins,” Russell A. “Alger,” Charles H. “Grosvenor,” William “McKinley,” Mark A. “Hanna,” Christopher L. “Magee,” William M. “Hahn,” Joseph B. “Foraker,” Cornelius N. “Bliss,” Herman H. “Kohlsaat,” Edward Oliver “Wolcott,” and Whitelaw “Reid.” Caption: The ancient custom of the Romans of seating a skeleton at their banquet-tables, to remind them of death, is now being revived by our Republican friends.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-06-10

Gone crazy

An old man labeled “Silverite” rides on the “Dem. Party” donkey, racing toward an “Abyss of Political Mania.” A policeman labeled “Sound Money Democrats” chases him on horseback.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-06-24

He couldn’t read

A mule and the wreckage of a wagon appear by the side of railroad tracks and an old man labeled “Silverite” hangs from a sign that states, “Danger! Look Out for Sound Money Locomotive.” A train rumbles off into the background with the caboose labeled “Sound Money Sentiment.” Caption: A pictorial prophecy for election day, November 3rd, 1896.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-07-15

They mourn their loss

William McKinley, Benjamin Harrison, and John Sherman are pictured as old women in mourning among gravestones labeled, “Here lies our dear McKinley Bill. Ruthlessly assassinated in the flower of its youth by the tariff reform bandits of the 53rd Congress,” “Sacred to the memory of the Federal Election Law, annihilated by the guerrillas of the 53rd Congress. R.I.P.,” and “Here lies the Sherman Silver Law. Cruelly done to death by G. Cleveland. We bear our loss with fortitude.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-09-12

Puck’s presidential impossibility. The political peanut vender

A peddler labeled “D. B. Hill,” selling “Fresh Roasted (Political) Peanuts,” stands outside the gates to the White House, where a sign has been posted that states, “Notice! No Peddlers or Suspicious Characters Allowed on These Premises.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-10-31

“Every one for himself!”

Two dogs stand on a table. One labeled “Platt” has its front paws on a platter labeled “Patronage” on which is a piece of meat labeled “Raines Bill.” The other dog wearing a collar labeled “Croker” is looking wide-eyed at Platt.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-04-22

When McKinley is president

Uncle Sam sits on the steps to the White House as a man (McKinley), wearing a top hat labeled “Monopoly,” walks up the steps to enter the White House.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-04-29