Lost opportunities

In the first vignette–“Opportunity No. 1,” President Roosevelt reaches out his hand to shake with the “Florida wild cat.” In the second–“Opportunity No. 2,” Roosevelt chases down the “Florida razor back” with a knife in his right hand and a spear in his left. In the third–“Opportunity No. 3,” Roosevelt holds a “Florida bear” at gunpoint. In the fourth–“Opportunity No. 4,” Roosevelt holds a “warrant” for the “Florida tiger.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

A few days into President Roosevelt’s hunting trip in Louisiana, midway in a swing through the Midwest and South, otherwise devoted to speeches and public appearances, the Florida Times-Union whimsically addressed the trophies that Roosevelt might bag, or miss. The hunting sojourn in Louisiana was between October 6 and 19, 1907, in the state’s iconic canebrakes, a swath of dense and dangerous vegetation and animal life that actually stretched from northern Florida, where its base was swampland, to Louisiana, where bayous contributed to the inhospitable environs. It was on the Mississippi-Louisiana border where the president had hunted the black bear, unsuccessfully, earlier in his presidency and from which experience grew the legend and popularity of the teddy bear.

Interesting to contemporary readers in the cartoon of Calvert (as James Calvert Smith signed his cartoons later in his career) are the animals he depicted in Roosevelt’s imagined hunts. The “razor back,” oddly drawn, was a species of feral hog not native to North America but recently introduced is small numbers that escaped their enclosures; related to wild boars and an invasive species in the deep South. Wildcats and panthers (called in the cartoon a “Florida tiger” avoiding sunlight with smoked glasses) were common, and dangerous, animals in these areas.

The black bear was Roosevelt’s specific prey on this trip, as it had been on the frustrating “teddy bear” hunt. There were a variety of subspecies of black bear in these areas, and the president bagged a two-hundred pound she-bear (as he described in a letter to his son Kermit) near the end of this hunt.

To the extent these animals yet exist in the civilized and populated areas of the South today, the efforts of President Roosevelt himself are responsible, as he eventually established preserves and sanctuaries in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida by the hundred-thousands of acres.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-15

Creator(s)

Smith, James Calvert, 1878-1962

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