Gambling

Vignettes show the activities of stock exchanges and gambling on sporting events on ocean liners once they are equipped for wireless transmission.

comments and context

Comments and Context

“Coming events cast their shadows before…” or perhaps their sounds and static. There were many experiments with the electronic transmission of sound going back to Thomas Edison’s early inventions; and many versions of wireless telegraphy and communications by radio waves between hilltops and even over the Atlantic Ocean before Guglielmo Marconi perfected wireless communication. In between and subsequently there were many scientists and many experiments to perfect communication, and entertainment “over the air.”

Throngs of people with wads of money in their hands make their way to the gambling casino at Saratoga, New York. Uncle Sam stands to the right, thumbs in his suspenders, boasting about having the largest gambling facility in the world. Caption: Uncle Sam — Biggest trade, biggest trusts, biggest buildings, biggest machinery, and now I’ve got the biggest gambling joint. Well, say!

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Comments and Context

Saratoga, upper New York state’s site of health-water springs and high society’s genteel racing track, was transformed by the addition of casinos and gaming parlors. Cartoonist Ehrhart cast a sarcastic eye on the questionable “improvements,” depicting Uncle Sam as a sharpie drawing every element of the public to its gates.

A short story with handwritten corrections and additions, telling the tale of an aspiring gambler on his way to Chicago when he gets pulled into a poker game with bigger stakes than he thought. The back of the last page has a scribbled note and a title for a new story “Sweet Tale,” not started.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

Unknown

A large red devil turns the crank of a large wheel decorated with scenes of gambling and with male and female figures labeled “Reformers,” “Citizen’s Committee,” “Women’s League,” and “Salvation,” as well as police officers hanging onto the wheel as it spins.

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Comments and Context

Published just after Easter, this Puck cartoon visited a frequent theme of cartoonists, as well as clergy and reformers, especially during the Lenten season, about sinful habits, and how society could ameliorate the unfortunate results of wanton behavior. Easter sermons predictably made headlines in these times. 

A young couple, wearing formal evening dress at a fashionable card party, discuss whether the card game “euchre” is gambling, with men and women playing cards at tables in the background. Caption: He. — Some clergymen denounce progressive euchre as gambling. She. — I think they’re horrid! He. — But I think it is gambling. She. — I think you’re horrid!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-04-24

The spirits of alcoholism, opium dens, prostitution, gambling, and street crime, as well as the figure of Death, issue from a tenement house. Caption: Not only an evil in itself, but the vice, crime and disease it breeds invade the homes of rich and poor alike.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon, effective in its simplicity, is an example of Puck‘s drift, similar to many magazines and newspapers of the day, from partisanship to social criticism. Its counterpart in literature was Naturalism, which was a focus on the uglier aspects of urban life (caused in part by unprecedented numbers of immigrants; 1900-1910 was the highest number of foreign arrivals) and what Theodore Roosevelt would call Social and Industrial Injustice.

If Theodore Roosevelt had known of Arthur E. P. Brome Weigall’s bet he would have forbidden Weigall from taking such heavy odds. Governor Wilson could not be beaten as his nomination satisfied all sections of the Democratic Party. However, Roosevelt does not regret the campaign as they fought for a “higher ideal.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-08

There is a difference of opinion on whether Theodore Roosevelt’s supporters bolted the Republican National Convention. Taft partisans support this accusation. However, from the viewpoint of a Roosevelt supporter, the convention was illegally constituted and Roosevelt’s delegates left to hold a convention of legally elected delegates. With this in mind, his secretary suggests that Dickerson McAfee and his friends call their bet off.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-10-03

President Roosevelt jokes to former New York Governor Frank Swett Black that “evidently that Clinton County man will have to buy his own clothes this year!” Roosevelt comments that Black seems to have been the only one who anticipated the extent to which Roosevelt would have success in the recent presidential election. He would like for Black to visit soon.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-09

President Roosevelt thanks former New York Governor Frank Swett Black for the letter, and tells him that he appreciates how much Black has done in the campaign. Roosevelt believes that Black has especially done a great service to the whole country by his involvement in “the Kentucky business.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-07

President Roosevelt is unsure what he can do for Mr. Shepard. Competent men are needed for canal work and competent men do not tend to be “hard up” like Shepard. Roosevelt suggests that Thomas Roberts Slicer send references for Shepard and Roosevelt will discuss the matter with Admiral John Grimes Walker. He agrees with Slicer’s views on gambling and objects to it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-02-29

Joseph Bucklin Bishop asks Theodore Roosevelt his opinion on Charles Dewey Hilles’s statement. He heard from an official’s wife that Helen Herron Taft hosts gambling bridge parties at the White House, which he finds hard to believe. Bishop congratulates Roosevelt on becoming a grandparent and thanks him for being “the best friend” their son, Farnham Bishop, “ever had.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-28

Dix W. Smith provides a tentative schedule for Theodore Roosevelt’s upcoming visit to Reno. First, Roosevelt will speak at the state university and then in the evening give a public address about “civic righteousness.” There will be time in between for other addresses and meetings with politicians. Smith adds that he thinks that the university would be more prominent by now if laws about gambling and divorce did not make fathers reluctant to send their sons there. On a personal note, Smith says he is interested in organized labor and is asking for some of the best labor representatives to be on Roosevelt’s welcoming committee.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-09

Governor Hoggatt sends President Roosevelt a report of Alaska’s administrative and legislative needs. Hoggatt believes the territory has multiple pressing needs, including more lighthouses, a new judicial division, and regulation of the growing railroad industry. He wishes to reduce the number of saloons and dance halls, believing these are centers for agitation against the government. The territory remains rich in natural resources but sparsely populated, and its mines are not producing because mining interest has largely shifted to other parts of the country. Hoggatt doesn’t feel that the territory has a large enough population or tax base to maintain its own standards of law and order, so he believes Alaska’s government not be reorganized until its future is more stable.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-24

United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom Reid comments on Winston Churchill’s recent promotion to the Privy Council, noting that it acknowledges his rise in the party without giving him a seat in the Cabinet. Churchill is still not well liked. Reid relays the debates on Horace Curzon Plunkett in the House of Commons and reports on English newspaper coverage of Roosevelt’s speech at Jamestown. He comments on unease over labor relations in France, the planning of an event after the Colonial Premiers’ Conference, opposition to a proposed move for a limitation of armaments at the Hague Conference, and Lewis Harcourt’s proposed English Land Bill.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-05-01

Leonard Wood discusses the progress of training the troops in the Philippines. Wood describes the problems with recent appointee Horatio C. Pollock, who owes large gambling debts and who kept records of Wood’s letters without his knowledge or consent.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-02-25

A rotund Uncle Sam with “Belmont’s tips” in his back pocket looks at a shorter Uncle Sam that has a “guide to Taggart’s gambling resorts” in his back pocket. On the ground is a “ballot box” that is “stuffed to order.” Caption: In yesterday’s cartoon I showed the three Uncle Sams—the farmer, the merchant and the laboring man—who will elect Roosevelt. To-day’s cartoon shows the two Uncle Sams who are opposed to Roosevelt.— Homer Davenport.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-03

In the first cartoon, William Lorimer holds up some cash and tells Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, “Betcha million you’re wrong, Joe!” Caption: He will bet on the Speaker’s decisions. In the second cartoon, Lorimer holds up cash as he watches President Roosevelt play tennis and says, “Betcha million he misses the ball!” Caption: A fine chance to wager a few on Teddy’s game. In the third cartoon, Lorimer plays crap with two men and says, “Fade you for a million!” Caption: What a chance on the crap games!” In the fourth cartoon, Lorimer looks at a horse race from the dome of the United States Capitol and says, “Fifty million on Azelina!” Caption: He can see the Bennings races from the dome of the Capitol. In the fifth cartoon, Lorimer points to an umbrella a man is holding and says, “Betcha million it don’t rain today!” Caption: Betting on the weather.

Comments and Context

Ferdinand G. Long, who drew for several newspapers in the United States and England, but most regularly for the New York World (where he created Sunday and daily strips including the seminal Mr. Peewee) drew this daily political genre-cartoon for the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph in 1908. Unfortunately its title was clipped off by the scrapbook compiler at Theodore Roosevelt’s White House. The Telegraph (1864-1918) was a minor newspaper but with an Associated Press franchise, the reason that publisher Cyrus Herman Kotzschmar Curtis purchased it, then killed it, in 1918.

The five vignettes, without the cartoon’s published caption, appear to address William Lorimer, the corrupt Republican United States congressman from Illinois. He was a notorious gambler and reputed influence-peddler and briber. When associate was later asked about charges against Lorimer, he said that he supposed “a million dollars,” spread around, would not have changed an election’s outcome. In fact Lorimer would be elected United State senator — by the state legislature; in the days before direct election of senators — and was subsequently expelled from the senate for having bribed his way into office.

Michael P. Bolan summarizes the reports he has gathered from acquaintances regarding George W. Lieberth, a recently appointed collector of internal revenue. Lieberth is reported to have often drunk, gambled, and engaged in bribery. A closing memorandum has contradictory statements that support Lieberth as an honorable man.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-25

A high-stakes poker game is being played by Uncle Sam, German Emperor William II, Japanese Emperor Meiji, Emile Loubet of France, and King of Great Britain Edward VII. The emperor of Japan is raising the bid by one battleship. Caption: Japan — I see your cruisers and raise you a dreadnought!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-09-22