Getting practice

President Roosevelt fires his “no. 2 for birds” shotgun at a “Panama lyre-bird” (Joseph Pulitzer) in the African wilderness. Meanwhile, a “Congress” lion and “Foraker & Brownsville” hippopotamus stay in the background. Roosevelt is surrounded by his big stick–“for fighting at close quarters”–a typewriter, a notebook, a wireless box, a camera, a “no. 6 for lions etc.” gun, a toothbrush, and a book entitled “Wild Animals and Their Habits.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon represents a fair summary of Theodore Roosevelt’s last months in office. He was wildly popular throughout the country, and by common consensus he could have been renominated by the Republican Party if he had not renounced interest on election night of 1904. And even as some Democrats urged him to run again, and recognized that their platforms and Roosevelt’s policies were consanguine, he could have been confident of reelection.

Despite these facts and history’s general recognition of his popularity, the president was mired in several annoying and serious controversies, and it is these matters the Boston Record‘s obscure cartoonist addressed. For historians, it is a visual checklist of the controversies and opponents of the end of Roosevelt’s second term, fast-forwarded, by cartoonists’ license, with an African jungle setting. Roosevelt prepared to leave the United States for a year in Africa and Europe a few weeks after retiring as president.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-16

Creator(s)

Unknown

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