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Senator Mason spoke at the annual banquet of the Giddings Republican Club. He suggested that Senator Foraker would be the Republican candidate for president in 1904. Mason believes that the tariff will be the major issue in 1904, and he expressed his support for President Roosevelt’s actions in the Booker T. Washington incident.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-10-25
President Roosevelt sits at his desk writing an extensive message as a young body turns a large wheel of paper. On the wall are mounts of a “black bear” and a “bob cat” and beside Roosevelt’s desk is his suitcase and his rifle.
President Roosevelt returned to Washington from a speaking tour of the Midwest and South, punctuated by a two-week bear hunt, on October 19, 1907. At the tail end of his railroad swing north, “short selling” by men who had hoped to corner the copper market resulted rather in their bankruptcy, and that of brokerage houses, other commodity firms, and banks.
The first vignette depicts President Roosevelt and his dogs marching into the canebrakes to find a bear. The second vignette shows a lot of downed trees and the sun high in the sky. The third vignette shows Roosevelt in his tent and a tired dog outside the tent with the moon in the background.
Cartoonist Ralph Wilder quotes a newspaper headline, or plausible rumor, about President Roosevelt’s hunting dogs being exhausted during the two-week tracking of black bears in the Louisiana canebrakes. In fact the bayous and canebrakes — tall and dense, rather like bamboo — and the boggy bayous were inhospitable to hunters and their hounds alike.
A “sheriff” holds a rope over his shoulder with several men attached to it walking along a path “to the jail.” In the foreground is a bear near a sign, “Line of march of bear hunt,” with several reporters and photographers taking pictures. Other reporters and photographers sit in trees saying, “Photo of primeval forest” and “bear before being shot.”
The day after President Roosevelt commenced his two-week black-bear hunt in the Louisiana canebrakes, cartoonist Ralph Wilder of the Chicago Record-Herald — certainly not alone among his fellow artists — began to draw comments on the trip. It was a period in the middle of a wide-ranging speaking tour when reporters and cartoonists would not be allowed to cover or even pursue the president at a distance. The same unofficial but stern prohibition would be imposed on Roosevelt’s African safari eighteen months later.
President Roosevelt escapes into the canebrakes with his rifle and leaves a razorback hog, “3rd term talk,” howling and chained to a stake.
Ralph Wilder, successor of John T. McCutcheon the Chicago Record-Herald, seized upon President Roosevelt’s two-week hunt for black bears in the Louisiana canebrakes around Stamboul, to combine themes of the day: the hunt itself, Roosevelt’s previous and unsuccessful hunt, despite a bear being chained to a stake for his easy shot (refused), the contemporary “Nature Fakir” controversy, and the persistent talk of a third term for the president.
A variety of men catch and paint “3rd term talk” on bears.
This cartoon by Ralph Wilder was another somewhat rare exception to the glut of cartoonists’ mundane treatment of President Roosevelt and the third term rumors that beset him after he foreswore the aspiration on election night, 1904. As Roosevelt was set to arrive in the Louisiana canebrakes for a two-week hunt after black bears, the cartoonist added that activity — the president harbored a near-obsession, as the prey had eluded him several years earlier — to the annoying third term talk.
Three secret service men and a bull dog quietly walk away from a house on Oyster Bay saying, “Hush!” “Don’t make a noise, he’s asleep!” “Sh-h-h-h!! He’s sleeping” and “He is asleep!” Inside the house the following noises are made: “Z-z-z-z!! Bzzz! Z-z-zoch!! Z-z-z! B-z! B-z-zip! Bz-z!” Caption: “‘A live bear has taken up his home in the woods on Sagamore Hill, and in the early hours this morning he paid a visit to the home of President Roosevelt. Secret service men hastily organized a hunting party. The hunt lasted until 6 o’clock. The bear got away. It is the belief that it has been living here for several days.’ — Extracts From a News Item From Oyster Bay.”
Cartoonist Ralph Wilder, the stylistic disciple of John T. McCutcheon in Chicago, humorously illustrated a news item on a slow-news day in the mid-August of President Roosevelt’s long vacation in Oyster Bay. If a bear was in the vicinity, and did in fact escape the notice of the nation’s most famous bear hunter, Wilder confused the issue by drawing bear tracks that look like human footprints.
In the first vignette, President Roosevelt stares at bill no. 279671 and wonders what New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt thinks of it. Caption: Mr. Roosevelt–“I don’t know whether to sign this bill or not. I wish you would find out what Tom Platt thinks about it. Just tell him I have signed it.” In the second vignette, Platt gives his response, which includes a lot of expletives. Caption: Mr. Platt–“– –!!!–??” In the third vignette, President Roosevelt sees Platt’s response and smiles as he signs his name to the bill. Caption: Mr. Roosevelt– “It’s safe.”
Students of the era’s political cartoons might think, at first glance, that this is a cartoon by John T. McCutcheon. In fact it is by Ralph Wilder, who succeeded McCutcheon when the latter left the Record-Herald, Wilder’s paper, for the Chicago Tribune. McCutcheon graduated from being the most influential Chicago and regional-Midwest cartoonist, to a cartoonist of national fame and acceptance. Whether Wilder was advised to draw like McCutcheon, or could not help himself in the shadow of the master, is not recorded or heralded.
President Roosevelt, dressed as a firefighter, drives away as a house labeled “Central America” catches on fire labeled “war.”
Students of times subsequent to this cartoon might not be aware of the conflicts that were called the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Central American Wars. It was not a mere stereotype but fact that countries of that region were frequent adversaries, frequently invading each other, frequently employing members of local groups with shifting loyalties, frequently making, and breaking, the peace. From Mexico and also into South America, the numbers of governments and leaders through the decades were numerous. The numerous revolts and declarations of independence of the region of Panama against Colombia is, today, a forgotten but plausible justification dealing with rebel leaders prior to arranging for construction of the Panama Canal.
Andrew Carnegie comforts President Roosevelt who is looking toward the U. S. Capitol building and a man labeled, “Reformed Spelling.” Caption: Mr. Carnegie–“He seems to have been among some bad company, Theodore.”
At the time of this drawing’s publication, the United States Congress formally resisted President Roosevelt’s executive orders that government bodies, including the Government Printing Office, adopt Simplified Spelling in all documents and publications.
A baseball player holds a “presentation speech” and hands President Roosevelt an “annual pass to all ball games” while two boys look on over a fence.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-16
![The president expects to catch up with his reading during [the?] sea trip from New Orleans](https://theodorerooseveltcenter.s3.amazonaws.com/TRC/LC/thumbnails/477/0200/Crop477-0200/0201a.jpg)
President Roosevelt sits on the “Hurricane Deck” of a ship being tossed in the waves. He is reading “The Winning of the West,” with other books nearby titled “And the East,” “And the North,” “And the South.” Below, the captain cries, “Cut away the mast!” to a sailor wearing a life preserver.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-10-04
President Roosevelt stands in a submarine with an American flag and waves his hat as a “peace dove” flies by.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-08-27
A man reads handwriting on a wall: “Back of the City stands the State and back of the State stands the nation—President Roosevelt—.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-05-12
Two senators bow to President Roosevelt who drives a cart with goods: “arbitration treaties,” “railroad legislation,” and “tariff revision.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01
Chicago Record-Herald, September 16, 1901, pages 1-14 (complete):
Page 1: Black and white photograph captioned: Historic Pennsylvania [missing] M’Kinley Funeral Cortege Passes – “Solemn Service is Held at the House of Death” – Report of funeral held at the Milburn house – “Change Plans for President M’Kinley’s Funeral” – Change in the Washington schedule so the body could spend the night at the McKinley’s home in Canton – “News of the Morning Indexed and Summarized” – Short summaries of articles in the newspaper – “Buffalo Weeps at the Bier of Nation’s Chief” – Public viewing of McKinley’s body at Buffalo City Hall – “Plans to Guard President Roosevelt” – Arrangements of Washington police
Pages 2-5 (Information from summary on front page. Middle pages are unable to be cataloged due to the deterioration of the paper.)
Page 2: – Mrs. McKinley Breaks Down
Article discusses Theodore Roosevelt’s article in The Outlook. Roosevelt condemns Sherman Act and tobacco plan.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1911-11-18
Article discusses Theodore Roosevelt’s criticisms in The Outlook of President William Howard Taft’s trust dismemberment policy, government control of business, U.S. Steel, and tobacco trust.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1911-11-17
Vice President of Street Company J. F. Reichmann was instructed by his lawyer Levy Mayer to not speak to a Interstate Commerce Committee who wanted information about accusation that Reichmann’s company had a monopoly on rail transportation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-12
Three-panel cartoon shows the patriarch of a family reading in the newspaper that President Roosevelt “likes to see large families,” the family boarding the train, and their arrival at the White House. President Roosevelt looks startled at their number but is “delighted” to see them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
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