“Mon Dieu! Are there any more at home like you?”
Subject(s): Corruption, Hamilton, Andrew, 1854-1908, Hyde, James H. (James Hazen), 1876-1959, Insurance, McCurdy, Richard A. (Richard Aldrich), 1835-1916, Rats, Thebaud, Louis A.
Click on image to zoom in
Rats are fleeing a sinking ship labeled “Frenzied Insurance” in the background. James H. “Hyde” has already made it to the shore labeled “France” where another rat, Judge “Andy Hamilton” is standing. Richard A. “McCurdy” and his son-in-law Louis A. “Thebaud” are still swimming ashore.
Comments and Context
The biggest rat in J. S. Pughe’s cover cartoon in Puck is James H. Hyde, the disgraced former board member of his family’s Equitable Life Assurance Society, caught in both financial improprieties and a scandalous, extravagant costume ball he threw. He moved to France, which would be his home for decades, when other opportunities disappeared and social embarrassments appeared.
The other rats depicted are Andrew Hamilton, who was then what would be called today an agent or a publicist for corporate tycoons, mostly in the Insurance Trust. During the spectacular New York State Assembly investigations largely speared by attorney Charles Evans Hughes, Hamilton was sought for questioning about his knowledge of possible corruption. But he was in France for most of 1905 and therefore unavailable. At the last moments, he showed up unannounced, and provided lightning character endorsements of friends. Predictably, he returned to France.
The other two rats were connected to the Mutual Life Insurance Company. Richard A. McCurdy was president; and his son-in-law Louis A. Thebaud, of French extraction, held a lesser position but yet was paid more than $900,000 in 1905. Revelations of this sort — no “rats,” by the way, were ever charged or convicted of misfeasance — encouraged European sojourns.
Pughe relied on “rats leaving a sinking ship” as an obvious meme of the day: two cliches for the price of one. But he used one of the great books of the Muckraking Age, Frenzied Finance, as a takeoff point for the sinking ship’s name. That book, by Thomas Lawson, was on everyone’s lips at this time. But his book was about the mining business; Pughe made a pun with the flag, “Frenzied Insurance” in the wake of months of scandals and headlines.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1906-02-28
Creator(s)
Pughe, J. S. (John S.), 1870-1909
Period
U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)
Repository
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Page Count
1
Record Type
Image
Resource Type
Rights
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
Citation
Cite this Record
Chicago:
“Mon Dieu! Are there any more at home like you?”. [February 28, 1906]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278491. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Pughe, J. S. (John S.), 1870-1909. “Mon Dieu! Are there any more at home like you?”. [28 Feb. 1906]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 24, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278491.
APA:
Pughe, J. S. (John S.), 1870-1909., [1906, February 28]. “Mon Dieu! Are there any more at home like you?”.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278491.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 24, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
APA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
