Puck, v. 48, no. 1232 | - Theodore Roosevelt Center

The riddle of the Sphinx

William Jennings Bryan, on his knees, appeals to a sphinx with the face of former president Grover Cleveland.

Comments and Context

Grover Cleveland was the most prominent Democrat between the administrations of Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson. He served two non-consecutive presidential terms, was a candidate three times, and was prominently mentioned as a potential candidate in 1900 and 1904. A conservative, he never enthusiastically endorsed the populist William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1896, 1900, and 1908. In a twist on the ancient theme of appealing to the silent Sphinx as an oracle, Bryan is shown here, one month before the election, pleading for a whisper of public support from the Democratic elder statesman. Bryan’s running mate was Adlai Stevenson, who had been Cleveland’s second Vice President, but the “association” did not persuade voters, who awarded Bryan with fewer votes than he had received in 1896.

The Aguinaldo guard

William Jennings Bryan stands in the stirrups of his mount, a donkey labeled “Democracy,” directing the honor guard led by Adlai E. Stevenson, and including Henry R. Towne, Joseph Pulitzer, and Carl Schurz carrying a large flag with a portrait of Emilio Aguinaldo under the heading “The George Washington of the Philippines.” Also included are Oswald Ottendorfer, Edwin Lawrence Godkin, William Bourke Cockran, John Peter Altgeld, and William Sulzer.

Comments and Context

Emilio Aguinaldo’s revolutionary campaigns for Filipino independence from Spain began in the 1890s, variously as a guerilla and conventional armed insurrection, through the Spanish-American War, ultimately with and against the victorious American liberators. As a rebel leader his forces sustained and committed atrocities. He was captured and then released by President Theodore Roosevelt as part of the United States’ general amnesty, a putative end of hostilities. Aguinaldo became a hero to his countrymen and a symbol for the cause of American anti-imperialists. Of William Jennings Bryan’s ragtag “army” on this political issue, their professions provide a hint of the American movement’s constituents: Stevenson was Bryan’s running mate, committed to the Democrat party plank; Pulitzer, Schurz, Ottendorfer, and Godkin were editors and publishers; Towne was an industrialst (Yale locks); Bouke Cochran a politician and orator of unorthodox consistency; Altgeld the radical Governor of Illinois (famous for partiality to the Haymarket bombers); Sulzer a New York politcian who eventually became Governor, only to be impeached. Cartoonist Pughe clearly considered the leadership of Bryan (on an undersized donkey) and the number and prowess of the “guard” to be targets of ridicule.