A graceful exit

In the first section, President Roosevelt holds his big stick and walks toward the “House” and the “Senate.” In the second section, Roosevelt accidentally hits the “House” as he reaches for a “message from the jungle.” In the third section, Roosevelt glares at the “House,” who sits on the ground, and hits the “Senate” in the head as the messenger laughs. In the fourth section, Roosevelt walks away as the “House” and the “Senate” point their fists at him.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Camillus Kessler drew for several St. Louis newspapers — the Women’s National Journal, the Republic, The Star, and Joseph Pulitzer’s Post-Dispatch— all consistently Democratic in focus. This cartoon, for the Star, is however virtually free of partisan rancor. It treats President Roosevelt’s tilts with Congress not as bitter controversies (which they were) but as unconscious side-effect of his other preoccupations. Most readers would have assumed that the whacks delivered to Congress in the cartoon were over the raging Secret Service imbroglio, but Kessler attributes the message about Roosevelt’s upcoming African safari as a distraction.

Few would have been dissuaded; by this point in the Secret Service dispute, the president was scoring more points than Congress in the exchanges. Kessler lent it a comic turn, and it is interesting to note the form of slapstick humor. Physical comedy of this sort had overtaken vaudeville and burlesque stages, early Sunday funnies like Happy Hooligan, and the nascent motion picture shorts.

Kessler’s drawing style had improved, and his humorous talent had outstripped his political sophistication, so that Pulitzer transferred his platform to the publisher’s New York outlet, The World, where for years the cartoonist specialized in single-panel human interest cartoons. He was one of the better stylists in the school headed by Clare Briggs, H. T. Webster, J. R. Williams, and Fontaine Fox: suburban themes, domestic humor, nostalgia, and activities of American boyhood.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-09

Creator(s)

Kessler, Camillus

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