Bells

William Jennings Bryan dressed as a farmer holds a “list of missing issues”: “Grindstone (Swollen Fortunes), Cider Press (Railroads), Yoke (Trust Regulation), Dinner Bell (Plutocratic Domination).” As he hears a dinner bell with a tag that reads, “I’m a victim of a plutocratic conspiracy,” Bryan says, “That sounds like my old bell.” In the background is the White House.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Kirk L. Russell, endeavoring to have his work look like that of Clifford Kennedy Berryman, whose role he assumed on the Washington Post, was perceptive in this cartoon. The theme it depicted was one of gradual development, not an overnight event, and had two aspects, captured by Russell.

Wilbur S. Hinman investigated the matter of the HMS Guerriere‘s bell supposedly being taken when the USS Constitution captured it. He informs C. A. Foster that the Constitution‘s logbook does not mention such an incident. However, Captain Isaac Hull’s correspondence mentions taking a flag from the ship.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1897-10-12

A future Fourth of July celebration is depicted where women have gained suffrage and equality. Young and old women ring a bell labeled “Equal Rights.” A notice on the bell tower states “Strike Out the Word Male.” Women emerge from underground and participate in a procession, marching under banners that state “United Order of Matinee Women” and “Higher Culture Division.” The procession passes two statues, one of a woman holding a rolling pin labeled “Erected to the Memory of the First Woman Who Wore Breeches” and the second of an eagle wearing a bonnet, labeled “The American Bird is a Hen Eagle and Lays Eggs. [?] Blake Sculp.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-07-04

President Cleveland pulls on a rope labeled, “Cleveland’s letter to Citizens of Chicago,” and rings a bell labeled “Sound Money Alarm” to warn them that dark smoke labeled “Free Silver Coinage” from a raging fire is bearing down upon them.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-05-08

Print shows a “Church Bell” as a female figure, an injured elephant labeled “Republican Party” with bandages and an eye patch labeled “Nov. 1882”, and a Chinese man.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-09-05

A woman labeled “Corrupt Corporations” stands in a bell tower, hanging onto the clapper of a bell labeled “Third Term” which bears the countenance of Theodore Roosevelt.

comments and context

Comments and Context

“Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight” is one of those occasional lines from a poem that is otherwise obscure by a poet who is known for nothing else. The same situation sometimes attends songs and hymns. In the case of this cartoon’s theme and caption (which correctly should be “Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight”), a poem by a 16-year-old girl from a small Michigan town, traded for a subscription to a Detroit newspaper, gained a semblance of immortality.