Reading his future
Subject(s): Fortune-telling, Hearst, William Randolph, 1863-1951, Sibyls
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An old woman, known as “Madame Democracy Palmist,” reads William Randolph Hearst’s palm and speaks of the future. Caption: “You have reason to fear a large, dark man, who will shortly return from abroad!”
Comments and Context
William Jennings Bryan had been on an extensive world tour through 1905-1906. The tour was largely forgotten by history, but Bryan met with many world and cultural leaders on these journeys. Since he was a party leader in the United States and always a potential president, leaders and monarchs generally were happy to meet the famous Bryan. He met with fewer heads of state than, perhaps, Ulysses S. Grant on his famous and extensive post-president tour, or than Theodore Roosevelt would meet in a few years after he left the White House, yet Bryan had significant discussions about international affairs, and cultural exchanges with such as Count Leo Tolstoy.
Bryan was due to return from the long foreign trip a few weeks after this drawing appeared on Puck’s cover. Cartoonist Frank A. Nankivell drew publisher William Randolph Hearst as nervous, and consulting a fortune-teller. She is Madame “Democracy” [meaning the Democratic Party] Palmist and has a donkey under her chair, and wears a skirt festooned with Democratic donkey heads.
Hearst is nervous for this reason: he was serving the second of his two terms in the House of Representatives (another fact generally lost to history), and the presidency was one of his political ambitions. He had run for mayor of New York City, governor of New York State, and was second in balloting at the 1904 Democratic presidential convention. He desired to run for president in 1908.
In Bryan’s absence from American shores, Hearst was among the most prominent Democrats on the radical edge of the spectrum, along with Bryan. Hearst eventually opposed Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, famous championing right-wing issues, but in 1906 was a radical reformer.
If Bryan returned and took up a campaign for the presidency a third time, Hearst would have had no traction (Bryan had sat out 1904). In fact, whether the Palmist foretold it or not, that is what unfolded. Bryan ran again and lost again, and Hearst retired from elective politics.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1906-06-27
Creator(s)
Nankivell, Frank A. (Frank Arthur), 1869-1959
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:
Reading his future. [June 27, 1906]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278549. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Nankivell, Frank A. (Frank Arthur), 1869-1959. Reading his future. [27 Jun. 1906]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 5, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278549.
APA:
Nankivell, Frank A. (Frank Arthur), 1869-1959., [1906, June 27]. Reading his future.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278549.
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 5, 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.
