Puck Christmas 1904

At center, Father Knickerbocker, a symbolic figure for New York City, welcomes Santa Claus to the underground of New York City. The surrounding vignettes show Santa distributing Christmas presents and planning for next year. The “Angel of Peace” is hoping for an end to the hostilities between Japan and Russia.

comments and context

Comments and Context

At the center of Samuel Ehrhart’s collage of Christmas-themed gags is Uncle Sam and Father Knickerbocker (the New York City counterpart of Uncle Sam), rather overshadowed by a subway station resembling a palace. All of New York, and indeed the nation, was fascinated by the new subway system. It had opened its rail lines and station on the October 27, 1904, just before the presidential election. When the campaign was over, and the gaudy St. Louis World’s Fair closed in early December, the nation turned its eyes to a virtual Eighth Wonder of the World: miles of underground tracks in America’s biggest city.

In fact there had been intercity trains in New York, but they were all surface or elevated trains. Predictably in a city usually ruled by the corrupt Democratic machine Tammany Hall, the elevated train system was open to corruption, monopoly control, and disputes over fares. In fact both municipal parties, and the city’s judiciary, participated in corrupt acts related to the trains. Some of the young Roosevelt’s crusades in the New York State Legislature were involved with monopoly control (often orchestrated by Jay Gould) and judges receiving bribes for their decisions.

It was hoped that underground trains would keep their management above-ground, and this was generally the case. The IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) line, the first of three eventual systems, was constructed and owned by the city, coordinating with the existing surface and elevated tracks. Eventually the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit) and IND (Independent Subway System) joined the maze, all owned by the city, leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary of the state-owned Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA).

As the largest municipal rail system in the world, the subways eventually grew to encompass 472 stations for 850 miles. The fare at the time of Puck‘s cartoon was a nickel. By 2020 it grew to $3, with unlimited transfers allowed between lines and systems.

The “palace” depicted in Ehrhart’s cartoon was indeed representative of some stops in important stations and significant parts of the city. Gabled ceilings and mosaic wall tiles graced some stations.

The subway was still a much-discussed jewel at the time of this cartoon, but the vignettes in the cartoon also tell of topics of the day. Clockwise from the top, the Russo-Japanese War (the peace mediation of which earned President Roosevelt a Nobel Prize) attracted the world’s attention. A cityscape dominated by skyscrapers (previously an attribute of Chicago) was an architectural trend. And Santa’s stocking-stuffer reflected cartoonists’ predictable jokes about American heiresses seeking titled husbands from foreign lands.

In the another vignette, the paucity of “servant girls” serves as grist for the cartoonist’s mill. Others address the over-abundance of Broadway plays (more than 125 separate productions in 1904) and perhaps the advent of “movies,” and make the predictable comment about politicians desiring offices to dispense to worthy supporters. This is is curious as it depicts Roosevelt as a hungry child (as the incumbent, he had patronage control already), the incoming Vice President Charles Fairbanks, who would have no offices to dispense; W. L. Douglas, incoming governor of Massachusetts (he was weekly advertiser in Puck, and perhaps this was professional courtesy extended to the shoe manufacturer), and Robert M. La Follette. His inclusion seems strange because he had just been re-elected governor of Wisconsin — not yet prominent among state governors, and with no special offices to dispense at this time — and would not enter the United States Senate until 1906.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-12-21

Creator(s)

Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937

Period

U.S. President – 1st Term (September 1901-February 1905)

Repository

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Page Count

1

Record Type

Image

Resource Type

Cartoon

Rights

These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.

Citation