Puck, v. 64, no. 1644 | - Theodore Roosevelt Center

The same old model

William Jennings Bryan shows a model sailboat labeled “Personal Popularity” to Uncle Sam. Hanging on the wall in the background is a keel labeled “Principle” and identified as the “Taft Model.” Caption: Uncle Sam — Your sail’s all right, son; but where’s your keel?

Comments and Context

“The Same Old Model” might have been the most pro-Bryan cartoon Puck Magazine ran. Cartoonist L. M. Glackens actually conceded that William Jennings Bryan, the presidential candidate in 1908 (after two failed Democratic campaigns for the office) had personal popularity.

The rival salvationists

An annoyed Uncle Sam sits against a full moon with his hands over his ears. He is caught between the noise of the “G.O.P. Salvation Army” with William H. Taft on the bass drum and James S. Sherman on the cymbals, and “The Bryan Volunteers of America” with William Jennings Bryan also on the bass drum, Samuel Gompers on the cymbals, John W. Kern singing, Alton B. Parker with a large bell, and Henry Watterson with a tambourine, among others. Uncle Sam has papers labeled “Agricultural Prospects” and “Industrial Reports” spread across his lap, “Crop Forecast” in his pocket, and is sitting on papers labeled “Resumption of Business.”

Comments and Context

In 1880, Joseph Keppler, founder of Puck and father of Udo J. Keppler, who drew this cartoon, published a similar drawing of partisans of Ulysses S. Grant as the “Political Army of Salvation” — annoyingly singing, banging drums, and parading on behalf of a third term for Grant.