Gould, Jay, 1836-1892

Creation Date

1884-11-19

Creator(s)

Shylock’s bad bargain

Jay Gould, as Shakespeare’s Shylock from the Merchant of Venice, races past the Doges’ Palace in the Piazzetta di San Marco in Venice, being hounded by several men labeled “German Vote, Merchants Cleveland Club, Independent, Banker, Irish Vote” and Labor. On the Palace, above, is a bust of Grover Cleveland and a sign that states “Cleveland. Elected by the Independents in spite of ‘Republican Soap’ and Democratic Treachery in N. Y. City.” Gould has his arms raised overhead, carrying a cane in one hand and a paper that states, “Bond for one pound of Uncle Sam’s Flesh, Signed by J. G. Blaine,” in the other. Puck, carrying his lithographic pen, runs alongside him. Caption: “Thou stick’st a dagger in me – I shall never see my gold again!” [Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene I].

Collection

Creation Date

1884-11-12

Creator(s)

The honor of the country in danger

The spirits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln look at a throne draped with an American flag beneath a sign that states, “This coming term will end the first hundred years of the American presidency. Shall the century begun with Washington at the head of government end in disgrace with James G. Blaine in that sacred chair?” Below is Blaine, tattooed with scandals and frightened by the shades of past presidents, his hat labeled “Corruption” falling off, with his foot on the first step toward the presidency. Leaning against his back is Jay Gould holding a paper that states “Four Supreme Court judges to be appointed by the next president.” Also behind Blaine, on his hands and knees, is Stephen W. Dorsey, next to a paper on the floor that states, “Honesty No Requisite for the Presidency (Blaine’s Theory).” On the right stands Benjamin F. Butler as a court jester labeled “Barcain with Blaine.”

Collection

Creation Date

1884-10-29

Creator(s)

The olympus of corruption – “Apollo strikes the lyre and charms the gods”

James Gillespie Blaine is pictured as Apollo playing a lyre labeled “N. Y. Tribune” fashioned from the body of Whitelaw Reid, before a gathering of the gods on Olympus. Among those present are Cyrus W. Field as Mercury, George M. Robeson as Neptune, Charles A. Dana as Minerva, Jay Gould as Zeus, Thomas Collier Platt, Robert Green Ingersoll, and Rutherford B. Hayes as angels, Chauncey Depew, W. H. Vanderbilt as Pluto, Russell Sage, William W. Phelps, John Roach as Vulcan, Stephen B. Elkins as Dionysus, Joseph Warren Keifer as Hercules, John Alexander Logan as Mars, Benjamin F. Butler as Venus, Stephen Wallace Dorsey and Thomas Jefferson Brady as putti, and John Kelly as an owl.

Collection

Creation Date

1884-10-08

Creator(s)

A hard pull

James Gillespie Blaine is dressed as a knight, with the plumes of his helmet labeled “Dodger, Speakership Record, [and] Mulligan Letters.” He holds papers labeled “Aggressive Cash Campaign” and has his other hand in a bag of money labeled “Vote Persuader.” He is riding in a wagon labeled “J. G. Blaine, Unlicensed Vendor, Stocks, Political Influence, etc.,” the seat of which is labeled “Compressed Magnetism.” William Walter Phelps is riding on the back of the wagon, sitting on boxes of “Condensed Fireworks” and “Campaign Lies, Scandals.” He is holding a portrait painting of George Washington labeled “J. G. Blaine.” At the front of the wagon, “Dorsey, Brady, [Robeson, and] Keifer” are pulling, and at the back “Gould, Clapp, [and] Clayton” are pushing. Whitelaw Reid marches alongside as a one-man band playing a horn labeled “Brag,” a drum labeled “Bluster,” an organ labeled “Blaine Organ,” a bellows labeled “Campaign Wind,” and firing a cannon labeled “Blaine Orgun.” Stephen B. Elkins, in the background on the left, waves a whip that spells “Enthusiasm,” and former Vice President Schuyler Colfax, with a “Credit Mobilier” plume in his cap, carries the standard that states, “Westward The Star of Corruption Fakes its Way.” They are passing a sign that states “To Ohio.”

Collection

Creation Date

1884-10-01

Creator(s)

“The sleeping party”

A woman labeled “Republican Party” sleeps in the background, while members of her court, some dressed as women, also sleep in the foreground. Depicted are Whitelaw Reid, Murat Halstead, Russell Sage, John Roach, Jay Gould, Benjamin F. Butler, James G. Blaine, William H. Vanderbilt, John Logan, Cyrus W. Field, two dogs labeled “Phila. Press” and “Chicago Tribune,” Chester A. Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes, William W. Phelps, John Sherman, Simon Cameron, George F. Hoar, Alonzo B. Cornell, Stephen W. Dorsey, Thomas J. Brady, William M. Evarts, George M. Robeson, William E. Chandler, and Joseph W. Keifer. Caption: She bungled with the civil-service reform distaff, and she and all her court were condemned to sleep for __ years.

Collection

Creation Date

1885-08-26

Creator(s)

Monopoly in Hades–How the place will be run, two years after Jay Gould’s arrival

Illustration showing Jay Gould as the Devil holding a paper labeled “Majority of Stock”, standing outside an office labeled “Successor to Satan”; he is presiding over the “Hades & World Lightning Transportation Line” which is a railroad train headed for a station labeled “Terminus – President Jay Gould.” The locomotive is labeled “Crasher” and uses “Brimstone” for fuel, a passenger car is labeled “Only Anti-Monopolists Carried,” also the “Sulphuric Telegraph Co. – Gould Pres.” which has many devil-like demons stringing wire cables on telegraph poles and an office where telegraph operators work at desks beneath a sign that states “Any Imp who attempts to strike will be transferred to the Western Union Company”, as well as “The Bottomless Pit Roasting Co. – Jay Gould, Pres.” where an “Anti-Monopolist editor”, “Puck”, and “Thurber” are roasted “in effigy.” At bottom, a man labeled “Satan Janitor”, with bandages, carries a scuttle filled with brimstone, a watering-can labeled “Kerosene”, a broom, and a key ring, skulks down the steps from Gould’s office. Caption: How the place will be run, two years after Jay Gould’s arrival.

Collection

Creation Date

1883-09-19

Creator(s)

Leap-year

Near a wetland labeled “Campaign Swamp” are William M. Evarts and John G. Carlisle as two cranes on the left. Several frogs identified as “Lincoln, Arthur, Robeson, Edmunds, Cameron, Sherman, Logan, Grant, Davis, [and] Blaine” perch on the right. Another small frog, labeled “Me Too,” who may be Jay Gould, rides piggy-back on a larger frog that may be William H. Vanderbilt. “Lincoln” is making a leap over “Arthur” across a bit of water toward a board labeled “Presidential Nomination 1884” that is part of a dock or wharf. Caption: It would not surprise us to see the above acrobatic feat performed by this rising young frog.

Collection

Creation Date

1884-03-26

Creator(s)

The political Courtney

At a boathouse is an exhausted James Gillespie Blaine, suffering from “Guano Gout,” being attended by Jay Gould, Whitelaw Reid, George M. Robeson, William Walter Phelps, and Stephen B. Elkins who is searching a box of patent medicines labeled “Remedy, Record Cleaner, Tariff Fever Cure, R.R. Record Purifier, Tattoo Eradicator, [and] Vermont Reviver (Homoepathic)” for a cure. John A. Logan readies the racing shell labeled “Aggressive Campaign” that may be stuck in “Monopoly Mud,” and Stephen Wallace Dorsey, at the entrance to the boathouse, carries oars labeled “Soap” and [Star] “Router.” Hanging on the wall are shells and oars labeled “Guano Statesmanship, Speaker Ship’s Record Boat, Senatorial Record, [and] Tariff Issue.” Grover Cleveland waits in his racing shell labeled “Reform” and Carl Schurz stands at the entrance to the “Independent Boat House” which is next to the “Democratic Boat House.” In the background is a crowded grandstand. Caption: Logan – “Come, Jim, show some nerve, or nobody won’t believe you’re in the race! Ain’t you never going to be aggressive?”

Collection

Creation Date

1884-09-10

Creator(s)

The great rival advertising shows to “boom up” stocks

Print shows three “advertising” sideshows, on the left, the “Great Northern Pacific R.R. Show Patronized by the European Aristocracy” with Henry Villard as the barker and Carl Schurz playing a drum. Includes portraits hanging on the side of the tent showing a “Famous German Painter engaged at a cost of $15,000!!!”, a “Celebrated German Author, A Live German Baron!!, British Interests Member of Parliament, A Genuine English Lord, the real article, Bavarian General, [and] English Aristocrat.” On the right is the “Great Yellowstone Park Show” with “Uncle Rufus Hatch” as barker and Charles A. Dana playing the trombone; includes portraits hanging on the side of the tent showing a “Scout, Arthur’s Cabinet [Robert Todd Lincoln], Little “Phil” Sheridan, Great American General, [and] President Arthur” fishing. At center, in the background, is the “Western Union Show” with Jay Gould sitting in front of a tent labeled “Happy Family Inside.” Between the sideshows are several well-dressed, serious-minded men, one labeled “Investor”, considering the merits of each show before investing. Caption: Showman Villard “Step up and invest! Here you have English lords, German barons, foreign authors, bankers, poets – all imported expressly for this show, at enormous expense!” / Uncle Rufus “Here you are! This is the only genuine patriotic American show. Put your money here!”

Collection

Creation Date

1883-09-05

Creator(s)

The cave of despair

Jay Gould appears as a giant holding a large club labeled “Monopoly,” sitting on rocks, gleefully watching a line of downtrodden people entering a cave labeled “Western Union Telegraph Company – All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here.” On the horizon, the sun is labeled “Strike.”

Collection

Creation Date

1883-08-29

Creator(s)

Hopelessly bound to the stake

A man labeled “Workman” is tied to a stake labeled “Monopoly” and sits on a flaming pile of logs with the faces of Jay Gould, William H. Vanderbilt, Russell Sage, Roscoe Conkling, Cyrus W. Field, Whitelaw Reid who breathes flames labeled “Monopoly Press,” and Chauncey M. Depew who breathes flames labeled “Depew.”

Collection

Creation Date

1883-08-15

Creator(s)

The allies under the new flag – the Republicans and the monopolists train their guns on the workingmen

Print shows the Republican and monopolist allies raising a flag that states “Down with the Workingman and Up with the Tariff” in an artillery battery where they are aiming a cannon toward “Fort Labor” which is flying the flag of the “Workingmans Party”. In the allies camp are Roscoe Conkling, Jay Gould, Alonzo B. Cornell, William D. Kelley, William H. Vanderbilt, Ulysses S. Grant, John Sherman, George F. Hoar, John Roach, “Hastings”, and Whitelaw Reid.

Collection

Creation Date

1883-08-08

Creator(s)

The resistless march of reform – the “hostiles” must go!

A large group of politicians, newspaper editors, Tammany Hall bosses, and others are dressed as Native Americans. One carries a banner that shows a crude drawing of the Tammany tiger labeled “Flathead Tribe.” The group is on a long march in opposition to President Cleveland’s civil service reform agenda. In the upper left corner is the “Blainiac Reservation” and in the opposite corner is Cleveland and his cabinet laying tracks for the “Reform R. R.,” keeping ahead of the “Administration Construction Train.” In the foreground, Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks is leading the Democratic donkey labeled “Bourbonism,” carrying two baskets, one with “Old Ideas” and the other labeled “The Perennial Pappooses” holding Charles A. Dana and Benjamin F. Butler. Standing just to the right is John Kelly carrying Philip H. Dugro in a cradleboard.

Collection

Creation Date

1885-08-12

Creator(s)

The two gobblers

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

Creation Date

1885-08-12

Creator(s)

The tournament of today – a set-to between labor and monopoly

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

Graetz, F. (Friedrich), approximately 1840-approximately 1913

Creation Date

1883-08-01

Creator(s)

The new policeman on the beat – the monopoly gang defies him!

A policeman from the “New Chicago Anti-Monopoly Party” holds a broken nightstick labeled “Popular Support.” He is standing on a sidewalk at “Vanderbilt’s Monopoly Car Yard,” confronting a gang of monopolists that includes, among others, Jay Gould, William H. Vanderbilt, Cyrus W. Field, John Roach, Russell Sage, and an “Anti-Monopoly Grocery Monopolist” Francis B. Thurber. Gang members hold handguns and rocks. Puck, holding a club labeled “Only Support,” stands with the policeman. A flag that states “No Thoroughfare for Small Business Men” hangs from a building. An injured or dead man, identified as a “Small Business Man,” is lying in the street.

Collection

Creation Date

1883-07-18

Creator(s)

Justice in the web

Jay Gould is a spider on a web of “Western Union” telecommunication lines that extend from several utility poles and cover (ensnare) Justice atop a “Courthouse.”

Collection

Creation Date

1885-07-22

Creator(s)

The new leader and the old chorus

John Logan, labeled “New Leader” of the Republican Party, the “party of Reform and Puritee,” holds a paper that states “Logan Speec[h] at Boston July 1885.” He is standing in the street between the White House and the U.S. Treasury, leading a chorus of tramps identified as “J. Gould, Field, Mahone, Roach, Riddleberger, T. Platt, Ex leader [James G. Blaine], Robeson, Keifer, Chandler, Brady, [and] Dorsey,” and an unidentified blind man who looks like Benjamin F. Butler. Some carry battered hand-pails labeled “Empty Hopes.” On the United States Treasury building is a sign, “Notice No Tramps,” and on the White House, where President Cleveland is leaning out a window, is another sign that states “No Tramps Admitted.” Uncle Sam, as a policeman, is leaning against the wall.

Collection

Creation Date

1885-07-15

Creator(s)

Cut-throat business in Wall Street. How the inexperienced lose their heads

Print shows William H. Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Russell Sage and James R. Keene checking ticker tape connected to a large straight-edge razor labeled “Wade in & Butcher’em” and “This Indicator Rises & Falls with Stocks” with a bear and a bull and several money bags labeled “$” balanced on the back of the blade; below, draped over the handle are many investors reaching for bundles of “Pacific Mail, Western Union, [and] Erie” stocks, the blade is poised to drop. In the background another group of investors labeled “The Lambs Brigade” are headed into the “N.Y. Stock Exchange”.

Collection

Creation Date

1881-09-07

Creator(s)