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Puck, v. 54, no. 1385

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The age of prosperity

The age of prosperity

Two old farmers talk on the platform at a train station. They are concerned about farm boys leaving the farms for the city, as well as mortgages being held by banks outside the local community. Caption: Uncle Josh — The boys won’t stay on the farms no more. / Uncle Silas — No; an’ you can hardly expect ’em to. Nowadays, even the mortgages don’t stay on the farms.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Increasingly at the time of Gallaway’s cartoon, when Puck hit upon a good humorous gag, the magazine was inclined to bounce the usual partisan cartoon. But even a commentary about country boys leaving for the big cities had subtexts of politics or social commentary. The reference here to mortgages being held by distant banks, but also the threats of foreclosures.

Wanted – another Moses

Wanted – another Moses

The “Dem. Party” donkey with six followers places “Cleveland’s cradle 1884” into a river. Pyramids are visible in the background.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon by Joseph Keppler Junior mirrors very closely — down to the poses and scenery — a Puck cartoon by Bernhard Gillam almost exactly 20 years previous. In both cartoons, the Democratic Party was desperate for a Moses to lead from the political wilderness. The party in 1883 had been out of national power for 33 years; at the time of this cartoon they had not occupied the White House for six years. Grover Cleveland had been the only Democratic president since before Abraham Lincoln. In fact, it is Cleveland’s name inside the empty cradle.