Avarice

An allegorical female figure labeled “San Francisco” is being tortured “on the rack” by a cast of medieval-looking executioners labeled “Cement Dealer, Lumber Dealer, Iron Workers’ Union, Steel Trust, Bricklayers Union, Building Materials, [and the central figure] Greed” in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed much of San Francisco. Caption: “Generosity” is easy when you can get your money back with interest.

comments and context

Comments and Context

There are many possible subtexts to Carl Hassmann’s brutal and explicit allegory of systemic political corruption in San Francisco. Or it might a “simple” indictment of the current administration’s mismanagement there, spectacular as it was.

An old man labeled “Millionaire” sits in a chair atop a pile of moneybags, bemoaning the fact that he now has little time to give away his money in a satisfactory manner. On the left are the church and the university looking for contributions and on the right are the hated “Relatives” looking to inherit new found wealth. Caption: “If I had begun earlier I might have had some fun in giving it away. Now I must leave it either to relatives whom I hate or to churches and colleges in which I have no interest.[“]

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-08-07

J. P. Morgan as a stock-market bull blows bubbles labeled “Inflated Values” as many deluded investors reach for them.

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Comments and Context

The immediate inspirations for this cartoon Keppler were J. P. Morgan’s organization and capitalization (some said over-capitalization) of the United States Steel Corporation at the time of this drawing, and the brief but unsettling panic on Wall Street caused by the machinations of Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and other financiers during the formation of the new company.

At center is a theater manager, his hands and pockets stuffed with money. Around him are four scenes showing how he manages a scam to extort higher prices for the theater tickets, using scalpers (called “Speculators”) and by bribing the police. A fifth scene shows how the public can change this practice, by not attending the theater productions. Caption: The manager the real culprit.

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Comments and Context

Puck here ventures into a controversy largely forgotten today, but a hot issue at the time, when theaters and musical production proliferated on Broadway. The so-called “Theatrical Trust” was comprised almost exclusively by Jewish mangers, owners, and producers. The “culprit” in the center drawing by Ehrhart has mildly Semitic features, but in the pages of Puck‘s rival comic weekly, Life, the first decade of the century saw a relentless campaign against scalpers, purveyors of offensive content, ticket scams, shoddy construction materials (theater fires were not uncommon), and banishment of certain critics. Life ran many theater reviews, and its critics were banned from many theaters. The “war” attracted charges of anti-Semitism because of vituperative columns and cartoons with caricatures.

A woman representing China struggles with the Russian Bear, while the German emperor and the British Prime Minister, Lord Robert Cecil Salisbury, implore Russia not to be so greedy and to share some of China with them. Uncle Sam sits on a fence in the background, whittling a stick. Caption: England and Germany (to Russia). — Hold on there! Don’t be so selfish! If she’s going to be saved, we want to have a hand in it!

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Comments and Context

Just as Germany was comparatively late to the major nations’s scramble for colonies, Russia sought to capitalize on the disorder and crumbling central government in China at this time. A German-Anglo alliance, formed to check Russian expansion was, obviously, short-lived, but Russia’s primary frustration was its timing: the Boxer Rebellion, growing furious at this time, targeted all foreigners in China.

Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna grabs Uncle Sam by the coat collar and gestures toward a building labeled “Ship Builders’ Trust.” Ex-Senator George F. Edmunds hides behind its door. Protruding from Hanna’s coat pocket are papers labeled “Hanna Payne Subsidy Bill,” formerly introduced by Senator George F. Edmunds.

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Comments and Context

Shipbuilding subsidies in the time-period of this cartoon bridged several controversial and shifting issues in American politics. In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War there were increasing demands to upgrade and increase the United States’ naval arsenal. Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent. There were serious debates in the Senate over whether it was more cost-effective and efficient to purchase warships from British or Norwegian shipbuilders. Patriotism and “protectionism” were parts of the debates. Protected monopolies (trusts) colored the motives of naval-expansionists. Marcus Hanna is depicted in this cartoon as a confidence man looking to swindle Uncle Sam. The presence of Edmunds provides a fuller background to the issues addressed. The Vermont Senator was a lion of the Senate stretching back to the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson (1868); and his reform record moved young Theodore Roosevelt to work for his Presidential nomination in the 1884 Republican convention. Edmunds retired in 1891 and became a lawyer and advocate of railroad and shipbuilding interests. Even as Puck Magazine’s interests favored a larger navy, the presence of monopolists in the debate was odious.

A Chinese play is being acted on a small stage with Joseph Gurney Cannon and Nelson W. Aldrich offering two small doll-like figures labeled “Small Dealer” and “Consumer” to a dragon labeled “High Protection” manned by two men labeled “Special Privilege” and “Graft.” J. S. Sherman, John Dalzell, and Sereno E. Payne play musical instruments on the left side of the stage. On the back of the stage is a Buddha icon labeled “Greed.” In the foreground, at the foot of the stage, are Chinese men labeled “Lumber Trust, Paper Trust, Steel Trust, [and] Beef Trust.” On the far right, beneath a sign that states “Box Reserved for Amer. Protective Tariff League,” is a Chinese man labeled “Chas A. Moore” holding a tray with two small figures labeled “First Voter.”

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Comments and Context

“Like a Chinese Play, It Goes On Forever” is an abecedarian and awkward variation on “trusts bad, politicians subservient, consumers powerless” themes. Cartoonist Frank A. Nankivell, who had lived part of career in Japan, had a difficult job in approximating Asian pictograph lettering, and he relied on stereotypes of culture and attire for the cartoon.

This cartoon shows the interior of a galley where rows of children are manning the oars. The overseer, a large man, is labeled “Greed.” Hanging on the wall is a notice that states, “Child-labor Investigators, Sentimentalists, Charity Organizations, and all Meddling Old Women Keep Out.” Caption: “Dedicated to the states where child labor is still permitted.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-08-04

Richard Croker, a Tammany Hall boss, is pictured as Hamlet, exiting a castle labeled “Tammany Hall,” carrying a moneybag labeled “Pickings” and papers labeled “Deed $90,000 House, Ranch – Racing Stable, [and] Investm[ent] – Stock Farm.” He encounters the ghost of Boss Tweed who stands at the edge of an “Abyss for Smashed Bosses,” holding in his arms a moneybag labeled “Stealings” and papers labeled “‘Diamond Wedding’, Erie Deal, [and] 5th Avenue House.” Croker is headed for the abyss. Caption: Hamlet Croker (to Ghost Tweed)–I’ll follow thee!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-04-11

A newspaper owner, possibly Joseph Pulitzer, sits in a chair in his office next to an open safe where “Profits” are spilling out onto the floor. Outside this scene are many newspaper reporters for the “Daily Splurge” rushing to the office to toss their stories onto the printing press, including “A Week as a Tramp!! Wild and Exciting Experiences of a Daily Splurge Reporter,” “A Reporter of the Daily Splurge Spends a Thrilling Week in an Asylum!” “An Organ Grinder’s Life,” “Life in Sing Sing – a Splurge Reporter in Disguise,” “Divorce Court Details,” “Private Scandal,” “A Night Around Town” by a woman reporter “in Men’s Attire,” life on the streets “As a Flower Girl,” “Thrilling Exposé,” “How beggars are treated on 5th Ave. by Fanny Fake,” and “High Spiced Sensation.” A notice hanging on the wall of the office states, “The Motto of the Daily Splurge – Morality and a High Sense of Duty.” Caption: He combines high-sounding professions with high-spiced sensations, and reaps a golden profit thereby.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-03-07

Uncle Sam knocks the heads of two men together, a masked man on the left holding papers labeled “A.P.A. Un-American Intolerance” and, on the right, a member of the clergy holding papers labeled “Greed for Public School Funds.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-11-07

Half-length portrait of Richard Croker, facing front, with right hand resting on papers labeled “Certificate of Stock, Consolidate[d] Ice Co., Auto Truck Company, Fireproofin[g], [and] Telephone Co.” The ghost of a disconsolate Boss Tweed, wearing prison stripes, appears in the upper left corner above Croker’s right shoulder.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-05-10

Marcus A. Hanna is Shylock, wearing a robe and holding a paper that states, “Understanding between Wm. McKinley and Mark Hanna. The aforesaid Mark Hanna shall have the Dictation of all Ohio Appointments, etc., etc.” Hanging from his waist are a purse labeled “Boodle” and a “Patronage Knife,” and extending from his pocket are balance scales.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-07-28

A “Middle West” farmer is being awakened by Albert B. “Cummins” as a rooster, while a man sneaks into the farmer’s barn and is caught in the illumination of a lantern beam labeled “Tariff Greed.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-09-01

A parade includes “Workers” who work hard at swindling honest working people of their hard earned money, as well as many gullible people easily duped while looking for an easy path to riches. Caption: Parade of the real “workers” of America.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-09-01

A large circle of men is each lifting from the pocket of the man in front of him “The Other Mans Money” as they march around a large map labeled “The United States of America.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-02-23

Russell Sage, Jay Gould, and Cyrus W. Field, as the Three Musketeers, stand on Wall Street with their swords raised in support of James Gillespie Blaine as the Republican presidential candidate. Sage’s sword is labeled “Put-and-Call Gambler,” Gould’s sword is labeled “Railroad Wrecker,” and Field’s sword is labeled “Elevated R. R. Grabber.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-06-18

A gigantic J. Pierpont Morgan clutches to his chest with his right arm large New York City buildings labeled “Billion Dollar Bank Merger.” In the foreground, a young child puts a coin in a “Toy Bank” as Morgan’s left arm reaches around the buildings to grab the toy bank for himself. Caption: Why should Uncle Sam establish one, when Uncle Pierpont is already on the job?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-02-02

Jay Gould and William H. Vanderbilt, wearing Roman togas, laugh between themselves as they “gobble” up telegraph and railroad companies to add to their monopolies. Caption: (We do not wish to suggest an analogy to the subject of a famous picture representing two Roman augurs laughing over the Imposition they are practising on the Public).

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-08-12

Print shows a jousting tournament between an oversized knight riding horse-shaped armor labeled “Monopoly” over a locomotive, with a long plume labeled “Arrogance,” and carrying a shield labeled “Corruption of the Legislature” and a lance labeled “Subsidized Press,” and a barefoot man labeled “Labor” riding an emaciated horse labeled “Poverty,”, and carrying a sledgehammer labeled “Strike.” On the left is seating “Reserved for Capitalists” where Cyrus W. Field, William H. Vanderbilt, John Roach, Jay Gould, and Russell Sage are sitting. On the right, behind the labor section, are telegraph lines flying monopoly banners that are labeled “Wall St., W.U.T. Co., [and] N.Y.C. RR.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-08-01