Puck, v. 53, no. 1378 | - Theodore Roosevelt Center

A skeleton of his own

Uncle Sam holds a paper labeled “Protest against Russian Outrage.” He is standing with his back to a slightly open door revealing a skeleton labeled “Lynchings” and holding a handgun and rope in his closet. He looks at the skeleton, realizing he is caught in a double standard.

Comments and Context

Whether lynchings of Southern blacks were actually on the rise in this period — and statistics indicate so — publicity about them was on the rise, in magazines and newspapers (traditional and sensationalist press), in novels and plays, and in solemn political cartoons. President Theodore Roosevelt made a particular goal of his administration to publicize and condemn lynchings, and encourage anti-lynching legislation.

More rough riding

President Roosevelt as a “Rough Rider” carries a pike labeled “Fearlessness” and rides an elephant labeled “Administration.” He has chased many men labeled “Dishonest Official” and “Corruption” from the “Post Office” Department. There are mail bags labeled “Corruption, Scandal, [and] Bribery” and letters labeled “Bribe, Scandal, [and] Bribery” flying in the rush of wind as corrupt officials flee Roosevelt and the rampaging elephant.

Comments and Context

When Theodore Roosevelt became president, there were few Americans in or out of his Republican Party, or the nation as a whole, who thought that he would mend his ways as a reformer. Reform was an aspect of every position he held, from the New York Assembly, to party councils beginning with the 1884 presidential convention, to “civilizing” efforts in the Western prairies, to the national Civil Service Commission, to the New York City Police Department, to the Department of the Navy and the War Department around the Spanish-American War, to the Governor’s office in Albany. The Republican Old Guard famous feared his approach to the presidency in the case of William McKinley’s death (“Don’t you realize,” cried Senator Mark Hanna, “there’s only one bullet between that madman and the president of the United States?”) — and scarcely were assured when McKinley was assassinated, by Roosevelt’s promise to “continue, absolutely unbroken, the policies of the [McKinley] administration.