Nothing left for the Ruth in politics

“Democratic Ruth” looks at President Roosevelt labeled, “The Republican Boaz” who pushes a shredder attached to a tractor labeled “G.O.P.” in the “Democratic stubble-field.” In the shredder are “issues,” while in the background is a donkey that says, “Hurry Ruth. I’m starving.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Political cartoons usually are reliable and gifted windows to the past, as illuminating to students of later times as to contemporary readers. But occasionally, as windows, they are closed, or of dark glass through which one cannot see clearly. This cartoon by Kirk L. Russell is one such example, poor in theme (an Old Testament analogy, from the book of Ruth) and execution.

The Washington Post had recently lost its political cartoonist, Clifford Kennedy Berryman, to the rival Evening Star, so it is possible that the smaller Post settled for inferior talent at first.

In the second chapter of Ruth, the widowed Ruth tells her widowed mother-in-law Naomi that Boaz, the master of the fields where she labored, seemed romantically interested in her — he had instructed his laborers to leave more grain on the ground for Ruth to glean and take home. Eventually they married, and Ruth is counted in the ancestry-line of Christ.

None of these facts easily can be assigned to an allegory about general talk about an affinity between President Roosevelt and elements within the Democratic Party, however. Naomi is not pictured in the cartoon. Boaz-Roosevelt is leaving no wheat, much less tares, for Ruth; all the issues are harvested. It would be natural for Roosevelt to keep issues to himself, unless fulfilling a Biblical allegory. Cartooning students will note that depicting the south end of an elephant might be acceptable, but obscuring the face of a putatively comely Ruth is, perhaps, ruthless.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-02-03

Creator(s)

Russell, Kirk L., 1873-1934

Language

English

Period

U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)

Page Count

1

Production Method

Printed

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