A tip to Fatima Ted
Subject(s): Bluebeard (Legendary character), Locks and keys, Reform movement, Tariff
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The gigantic figure of Bluebeard labeled “Protected Monopolies” holds a set of keys identified as the “Keys to Rate Regulation, Meat Inspection, Pure Food and Anti-Trust Laws.” He is speaking to Theodore Roosevelt, dressed as “Fatima,” and pointing to a room labeled “Tariff Revision.” Caption: Blue-Beard — With these keys, my dear, you may go as far as you like, but don’t let me catch you in that room!
Comments and Context
The Bluebeard story is famous, and at the time of this cartoon readers would also have known the popular 1882 short story by Frank R. Stockton “The Lady? or the Tiger?” Everyone can relate to the dilemma of choices… and the temptation to peek behind a forbidden door.
Indeed, apropos this cartoon, the trusts in America had gone through a rough patch. Several years of exposures, financial scandals, revelations, governmental trust-busting, relentless muckraking stories in magazines and newspapers, and a passel of sweeping laws and regulations in many realms of the monopolists, had titans of industry keen to preserve as many prerogatives as they could. High protective tariff rates, their traditional comforter, was where, in Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon, they drew the line.
Subsequent biographers of Theodore Roosevelt discovered what the trust magnates might not fully have known: the President had very little inclination to address the tariff at all. He paid fealty to high rates, as a good Republican, yet he advocated the consideration of reciprocity treaties with individual countries — which could be considered one-by-one free trade. Although he schooled himself as needed on issues of currency and railroad rate schedules, and such, he freely admitted (to friends and diaries) that economic matters befuddled him. His wife Edith, keeper of the household budget, was already aware of that chink in his armor.
With this issue of Puck, incidentally, the magazine for the first time adopted a letterpress manner of printing colors, sometimes directly from photographed art, abandoning the stone-lithography process by which it revolutionized journalism in 1876.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1906-08-15
Creator(s)
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:
A tip to Fatima Ted. [August 15, 1906]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278564. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956. A tip to Fatima Ted. [15 Aug. 1906]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 12, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278564.
APA:
Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956., [1906, August 15]. A tip to Fatima Ted.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278564.
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 12, 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.
