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

The immortal George

At center, George Washington is being questioned about cutting down a cherry tree. Vignettes around him show Washington as a lover, a joke writer, a lawyer, a preacher, a street vendor selling food, a husband arriving home late and drunk, a friend, and a newspaper editor. In each vignette Washington strives to “Always Tell the Truth,” which in all situations fails him. He has no clients, no parishioners, no sales, and is about to be sued for “Libel.” He is not likely to sell any jokes, get a date, or mollify an angry wife.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-02-23

Reed’s rope

Speaker of the House Thomas B. Reed unrolls rope labeled “Debate” from a spool labeled “Rope for Democrats” and feeds it to congressional Democrats who use it to tie nooses around their necks in the House chamber labeled “Fifty Fifth Congress.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-02-02

A few pleasant recollections of the fifty-fourth Congress

A large group of members of the Fifty-fourth Congress are pictured. Many are dressed as natives, with some wearing grass skirts. Most are armed with spears or clubs, while some have shields. Four are reading the “Reminiscences of John Sherman,” one turns the crank on a spit where John Bull is being roasted, and Thomas B. Reed is standing on a platform on the left. A statue labeled “Jingoism” appears at center. Grover Cleveland appears in effigy with several spears or arrows stuck in him. Joseph G. Cannon sits on the floor on the right.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-05-27

Another party heard from

Neptune sits among the sunken wrecks of the Spanish fleet during the Spanish-American War. Caption: Neptune–Great whales! If those Yankees keep this up much longer I’ll have to move!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-08-03

The hares and the tortoise (from Aesop, altered to suit)

The race for the Republican presidential nomination is underway between the tortoise labeled “Morton” and the hare(s) labeled “McKinley, Reed, [and] Harrison.” Includes a revised version of the fable by Aesop.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-04-10

It looks that way now

Four men labeled “Tracy, Saxton, Morton, [and] Schieren” appear as children fighting to be the first to get up a ladder labeled “Rep. Nomination” and reach a large apple labeled “New York Governorship.” Caption: The boy that gets the ladder is the boy that gets the apple.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-07-18

He’s back again!

A gigantic, well-dressed pig labeled “Protection Glutton” confidently strides into Congress carrying a paper that states, “We demand a prohibitory tariff on all imports, in the interest of the suffering laborer, the down-trodden farmer, and the struggling infant industries of the country.” Among the Congressmen present are Thomas B. Reed, Nelson Dingley Jr., Matthew Quay, Garret A. Hobart, and possibly Mark A. Hanna.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-01-13

The mote in our neighbor’s eye

Print shows at center, Uncle Sam as a policeman attempting to stop a bullfight, calling it a “brutal and degrading sport.” Vignettes surrounding the main image show a “Six Day Bicycle Race” with exhausted riders trying to continue, a “Foot-Ball” game with one football player jumping on another as medical staff carry off an injured player, “Pigeon Shooting,” “Prize Fighting” where the crowd cheers as a boxer gets knocked down, and a “Base-Ball” game where a baseball player is “Assaulting the Umpire” with a bat.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-07-12

Likely to happen under the coming administration

Sanford B. Dole, President of the Republic of Hawaii, conducts a land auction, selling property that he probably does not own, and contributing to the Americanization of Hawaii. Caption: The annexation hustlers in Hawaii will start a genuine American real estate boom, and reap all the profits there are in it.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-01-27

Triumph for the walking-delegate

A well-dressed union representative labeled “Walking Delegate” stands outside a prison cell, holding a paper that states “Law to Prohibit Convict Labor in State Prisons.” A dejected prisoner sits in the cell. Caption: But idleness, misery and insanity for the unfortunate convict.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-10.

Another revelation of strength

Uncle Sam stands on a wharf with five diminutive figures with attributes of the rulers of Austria (Franz Joseph I), Russia (Nicholas II), France (Felix Faure), Germany (William II), and Italy (Umberto I), and with John Bull representing England. Uncle Sam is showing the others an American steamship constructed out of bundles, barrels, and bales of exports, many indicating revenue in dollars, which, he believes, they “can’t resist.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-08-17

Satisfying their curiosity

John Bull sits on a strong fortress representing England, with a telescope in one hand and strings attached to battleships in the other. On the edge of the continent are four figures representing “Germany” (William II), “Austria” (Franz Joseph I), “Italy” (Umberto I) and “France” (Felix Faure) wondering what John Bull is doing. In the background, a battle rages between the United States and Spain around the island of Cuba. Caption: The Continental Powers–What are you doing there? / John Bull–Oh! nothing, nothing at all; – just looking on!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-05-18

Anything for a scandal

President McKinley stands at the edge of a mud-hole labeled “Slander” and “Abuse,” his right hand raised in a “stop” gesture, and holding in his left hand a mud-splattered American flag. Three diminutive figures are standing in the mud-hole in the process of throwing mud. They are William Jennings Bryan, Joseph Pulitzer labeled “N.Y. World,” and William Randolph Hearst labeled “N.Y. Journal.” The U.S. Capitol is in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-09-28

Greedy Johnnie

John Bull stands in the foreground with his arms full of foods and toys labeled “Gibraltar, Ceylon, Bermudas, British India, Canada, [and] Australia.” At his feet are items he has dropped, fruits labeled “Egypt, Honduras, British Africa, [and] British Guiana,” and a parcel of roasted chestnuts labeled “West India Islands.” A small group of figures labeled “Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, [and] France” and Uncle Sam are standing in the background. Caption: He has got a lot of good things, – but how long can he keep them to himself?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-02-19

The old leading man retires

Matthew S. Quay and Thomas Collier Platt hold papers labeled “Great Republican Farce Comedy – Presidential Aspirations – Star Part.” Around them stand Thomas B. Reed, William B. Allison, William McKinley, and Levi P. Morton as actors in costume. On the far left, Benjamin Harrison is exiting the building. Caption: The Stock Company (in chorus)–“I want that part – it requires whiskers, and I’ve got ’em!”, “Give that character to me, and I’ll keep the house in order with it!”,”Let me have it – I’m a regular Napoleon in that kind of role!”, “Don’t mind those young fellows, – a man of mature age is needed to play it right!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-02-26

Bad for business

A band of street musicians is comprised of yellow journalism newspaper editors/publishers. Two men are playing “The War Wave” on horns labeled Daily Sensation (Joseph Pulitzer) and Morning Exciter (possibly James Gordon Bennett, Jr.). A man (possibly Charles A. Dana) is playing a tune labeled “Rumblings of War” on a bass drum labeled Daily Brawler. Two other men are playing tunes labeled “War Talk” and “War News.” A man with one hand over his right ear is standing at the entrance to a building labeled “Business Interests” and “Commerce and Manufactures”; with his left hand he gestures toward the musicians to stop or move on.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-03-25

What he wants to see, be gosh!

Print shows a “Hayseed Legislator” standing on the sidewalk of “Fifth Ave.” in New York City, pointing his umbrella toward a tenement house labeled “The Vanderbilt Flats Formerly the Marble Palace.” On Fifth Avenue there are street urchins, a hurdy-gurdy man with a monkey, a fruit vendor, and a man picking through the trash. Seen through windows on the ground floor of the tenement house are a woman using a sewing machine and a Chinese laundry. On the rooftop, a woman is hanging clothes on a clothesline. Caption: The New York up-country legislator will never be satisfied until he has taxed the millionaire out of the state.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-10-26

They can’t be hitched to the same carriage

President William McKinley is at the reins of a carriage labeled “Administration” carrying Uncle Sam and Columbia. Three men labeled “Hanna, Lodge, [and] Dingley” are having difficulty harnessing two unruly horses labeled “Expansion” and “Protection” to the carriage.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-11-09

A modern crusade without fire and sword; – will it end in a rival establishment?

German emperor William II, wearing a two-tiered tiara, is welcomed by throngs of Arab Muslims who carry a banner that proclaims “Allah is Great, and William His Prophet.” Across a narrow body of water, Pope Leo XIII, wearing the papal tiara, sits on St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-11-16

A poor marksman and a poor gun

A man labeled “Dingley,” holding a smoking blunderbuss labeled “High Protective Tariff,” stands over a dead sheep labeled “Wool Industries.” He was aiming at a wolf labeled “Foreign Products” that is looking over the top of a fence.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-11-30