Digital Library

The Joshua of our silly senate in his great act of trying to make the sun stand still

Edward Oliver Wolcott as the biblical Joshua rides on a horse labeled “U.S. Senate” at the head of a small infantry comprised of John Sherman, George F. Hoar, George G. Vest, William A. Peffer, David B. Hill, Julius C. Burrows, Thomas H. Carter, William V. Allen, William J. Sewell, John M. Palmer, Roger Q. Mills, Justin S. Morrill, Matthew Quay, and others unidentified. Many are carrying spears or bow and arrows. They are chasing the sun labeled “Gold Standard” and descending upon a small community of farms and factories. One man carries a military standard that states, “Resolved, that some legislation be had by the U.S. Senate looking to an international conference with the nations of the world for the promotion of Bimetallism. Wolcott’s Resolution in Caucus.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-01-06

Patient waiters are no losers

Uncle Sam, wearing a sombrero, stands beneath an apple tree where the apples are labeled “Hawaii, Canada, Cuba, [and] Central America,” with a large basket to catch the apples when they fall. Apples labeled “Louisiana, Texas, California, Alaska, [and] Florida” are already in the basket. Caption: Uncle Sam–I ain’t in a hurry; – it’ll drop into my basket when it gets ripe!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-01-13

He’s back again!

A gigantic, well-dressed pig labeled “Protection Glutton” confidently strides into Congress carrying a paper that states, “We demand a prohibitory tariff on all imports, in the interest of the suffering laborer, the down-trodden farmer, and the struggling infant industries of the country.” Among the Congressmen present are Thomas B. Reed, Nelson Dingley Jr., Matthew Quay, Garret A. Hobart, and possibly Mark A. Hanna.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-01-13

The two drummers

Uncle Sam and John Bull are dressed as traveling salesmen. Uncle Sam’s pockets and wallet are filled with “Orders,” while John Bull has only a few “Orders.” John Bull is shocked and complains that Uncle Sam is taking away all his regular customers.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-07-12

The mote in our neighbor’s eye

Print shows at center, Uncle Sam as a policeman attempting to stop a bullfight, calling it a “brutal and degrading sport.” Vignettes surrounding the main image show a “Six Day Bicycle Race” with exhausted riders trying to continue, a “Foot-Ball” game with one football player jumping on another as medical staff carry off an injured player, “Pigeon Shooting,” “Prize Fighting” where the crowd cheers as a boxer gets knocked down, and a “Base-Ball” game where a baseball player is “Assaulting the Umpire” with a bat.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-07-12

A crying need – a law to suppress the shyster

Print shows a lawyer taking papers that state “Fake Lawsuit for Damages” from a bag labeled “A Shyster” in a courtroom. As he turns toward the bench, he sees the judge point to a paper hanging from the bench that states, “Notice: To insure against the bringing of frivolous or blackmailing suits, lawyers will hereafter be held responsible for the costs of all the suits brought by them.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-07-19

The last stand – science versus superstition

“Newton, Abbott, Briggs, Savage, [and] Adler,” and one man holding a flag that states “Think or be Damned” stand behind a machine gun labeled “History, Archaeology, Evolution, Enlightenment, [and] Geology.” They stand among boxes of ammunition labeled “Scientific Facts, Historical Facts, [and] Rational Religion.” They take aim at a group of clergy on the drawbridge of a castle. The clergymen are labeled “Medieval Dogmatism” and are armed with halberds and a banner that states “Believe or be Damned.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-07-19

A puzzle

President McKinley as a dairy farmer milks a cow labeled “Patronage,” and many hands hold out containers, most labeled “From Ohio,” for a share of the milk. Mark Hanna was a senator from Ohio who had considerable influence with the President. Caption: How can McKinley satisfy Ohio, and still have a little patronage milk left for other patriots of the country?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-01-20

The business man’s perpetual nightmare

A businessman sleeps in a bed with the spirit of a two-headed congressman labeled “House” and “Senate” howling at his bedside, trying to ruin his sleep with “War Talk!, Extravagant Talk!, Appropriations!, [and] Jingoism!” Papers on a nightstand state “Business Disturbance, Upsetting of Values, Etc.” and “Doings of Congress – Jingoism – Tariff Tinkering – Etc.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-01-20

Wrapped up in his pet idea

President McKinley, wearing a long cape labeled “Protection Monomania,” sits at a desk working on his “Tariff Plans,” while ignoring a businessman who offers “Suggestions for Financial Reform.” In baskets beneath the desk are papers that state, “Don’t forget the issues of the last campaign. [signed] A Banker” and, “Please give a little attention to the money question. [signed] Businessman.” Caption: Citizen–Mr. McKinley, I have called to offer a few suggestions about some needed reforms of our financial system. / McKinley–My dear sir, you must excuse me; – I’ve turned all that over to Senator Wolcott.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-01-27

A foolish request

A clergyman points to a notice labeled “Society’s Divorce Record” that lists “Divorced – Yesterday; Married – Today.” He appeals to a fashionably dressed young woman holding a lorgnette.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-07-26

An unequal contest; they can find no flaw in his armor

Print shows diminutive gladiators labeled “Jones,” “J.D. Sayers” with large sword labeled “State Anti-Trust Laws,” “Bryan” with large sword labeled “Demagogism,” “Hearst,” “Pingree,” “Hogg of Texas” with sword labeled “State Law,” Theodore Roosevelt with sword labeled “Roosevelt,” and “Alger,” and also Joseph Pulitzer. A crowd in the background carries banners that state “Down with Trusts” and “Down with Dept. Stores.” They are struggling against a large gladiator wearing armor labeled “Trusts, Power to Undersell Competitors, Vested Rights, Right to Buy and Sell, Natural Right of Association, Business Progress, Steady Work, [and] Payment of Good Wages.” The gladiator is carrying a shield labeled “Constitution of the U.S.” and a sword labeled “Low Prices.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-07-26

Likely to happen under the coming administration

Sanford B. Dole, President of the Republic of Hawaii, conducts a land auction, selling property that he probably does not own, and contributing to the Americanization of Hawaii. Caption: The annexation hustlers in Hawaii will start a genuine American real estate boom, and reap all the profits there are in it.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-01-27

“We won’t do a thing to it!”

Two masked legislators labeled “Anti-Administration Senator” and “Jingo Senator,” holding long knives labeled “Hatred of Cleveland” and “Hatred of England,” stand outside the “U.S. Senate,” waiting to ambush an “Arbitration Treaty” standing at the entrance to the Senate.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-03

Will the Trojan horse trick work?

A large Trojan Horse labeled “Sound Money” is shown with many businessmen climbing out, carrying papers labeled “Tobacco, Steel, Wool, Coal Demands for More Protection, We Want More Protection Iron, Drugs We Demand Higher Protection, Give Us More Protection Coal, [and] Tin and Iron.” The businessmen clamber down a ladder and up the steps to the U.S. Capitol, attempting to take Congress by storm. Caption: Intrepid attempt of the Protection Greeks to capture the Capitol.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-03

Triumph for the walking-delegate

A well-dressed union representative labeled “Walking Delegate” stands outside a prison cell, holding a paper that states “Law to Prohibit Convict Labor in State Prisons.” A dejected prisoner sits in the cell. Caption: But idleness, misery and insanity for the unfortunate convict.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-10.

Sweet dreams

President William McKinley lies in bed dreaming of William Jennings Bryan riding the Democratic donkey and leading members of the Democratic Party. Party members carry banners that state, “Anti-American Foreign Policy,” “16 to 1 or Bust All Paper Should be Coined into Ten-Dollar Bills,” “Death to Trusts (the necessities of life are too cheap already),” “Down with the Courts,” and “Free Silver.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-08-02

Progress in the north

Two Eskimos with sled dogs sit and converse outside an igloo with a child sitting at the entrance. Caption: First Eskimo “You look worried, Kiki. What’s the matter?” Second Eskimo “No wonder! My wife has been worrying me all the week to buy her a dogless sleigh.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-08-02

The cause of it

Print shows Puck talking to a veteran of the Grand Army of the Republic and gesturing toward a shark in the background wearing a military uniform, holding a gaff, and standing on the steps of the “Pension Agency” where a sign hangs that states “Pensions for Everybody. Apply Early. War Record Immaterial.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-08-09

The decay of home-life among the “smart set”

This vignette cartoon portrays the aspirations for social life among the well-to-do. At center, “The Will-o’-the-Wisp of Social Aspirations” shows a crowd of rich people chasing after “Social Ambition,” a wraith-like female figure floating just beyond the edge of a cliff who entices them to follow her. Among the vignettes are women promenading while “Displaying Gowns at the Summer Resort” and “Kow-towing to Royalty,” “Coaching in the Highlands” and spending “All Day on the Golf-Links,” “Cruising in the Mediterranean” and “Being ‘Sporty’ at Monte Carlo.” This sort of rake’s progress “among the ‘Smart Set'” ends with a final vignette labeled “What It Leads To” that shows a long line of well-dressed men and women leading to the judge’s bench where he hands out documents labeled “Divorce.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-08-09