“You talk too much, Harry!”
Subject(s): Payne, Henry C. (Henry Clay), 1843-1904, Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919, Talking birds, United States. Post Office Department, United States. Post Office Dept.
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President Roosevelt points his finger at a bird with the face of Postmaster General Henry C. Payne that utters various words and phrases: “Hot air,” “Wind bag,” “Stump speech,” “Liar,” and “I just laughed.”
Comments and Context
The excellent caricaturist Charles Green Bush apparently had a lapse in perception, or extra ink to expend, in this bizarre depiction of a rotund President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903.
The concept of the cartoon, however, was typically and unerringly prescient. The parrot is Postmaster General Henry Clay Payne, and the issue at hand was the burgeoning Post Office scandal… or scandals, of complicated and often long-lived venality. Neither Payne nor Roosevelt was every implicated in the scandals, and the president admired his associate’s honest; but he sorely regretted Payne’s naivete.
The president attacked the crises by firings, forced resignations, new personnel, and investing people like Fourth Assistant Postmaster General Joseph Bristow with broad powers.
Payne, impetuously and often prematurely, defended associates (some of whom eventually were prosecuted for corruption) and attacked critics — using words and phrases quoted in Bush’s cartoon.
Collection
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
Creation Date
1903-06-22
Creator(s)
Bush, Charles Green, 1842-1909
Language
English
Period
U.S. President – 1st Term (September 1901-February 1905)
Page Count
1
Production Method
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:
“You talk too much, Harry!”. [June 22, 1903]. Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o302181. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Bush, Charles Green, 1842-1909. “You talk too much, Harry!”. [22 Jun. 1903]. Image.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 5, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o302181.
APA:
Bush, Charles Green, 1842-1909., [1903, June 22]. “You talk too much, Harry!”.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o302181.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 5, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division.
APA:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division.
