Moon

William H. Taft in the shape of the moon uses a “my policies mirror” to get the sun in the shape of President Roosevelt to shine on him. Around the sun are three stars: J. S. Sherman, Frank H. Hitchcock, and Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker. Taft sings, “I care not for the stars that shine.” Meanwhile, on “the earth,” a Republican elephant looks up toward the moon through a telescope. Caption: Presidential firmament.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Unseasoned cartoonists — and the St. Louis Republic’s Edward Joseph McBride did not have a long or distinguished career — often bite off more than they can chew, conceptually, or seldom are able to focus. These are two explanations for the nature of his usual genre cartoons. They are like mother hens, gathering as many topics and issues of a campaign week under its wings, instead of addressing one.

Industrialist Andrew Carnegie, peace advocate and sponsor of the upcoming International Peace Congress at the Hague, holds a shepherd’s hook labeled “Peace Congress” and reaches up to grab the “naval program” horn dangling from a moon featuring President Roosevelt’s likeness.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Andrew Carnegie had been persuaded to be the principal supporter of the Second International Peace Conference at Hague, set for October 1907. Since the first conference in that Dutch city, nominally convened at the invitation of Russia even as it planned its own military buildups, Carnegie had sold his steel and related enterprises, and became arguably the world’s richest man. With that increased fortune, and more time to himself, the canny Scots-American pursued interests from simplified spelling to establishing “free libraries” to promote peace.

David B. Hill appears as a jackass wearing a coat with a ribbon that states “I am a Democrat,” standing on rocks, kicking at the moon, which shows the face of Grover Cleveland. Puck and a group of citizens are laughing at him.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-05-23

Print shows a pack of dogs, with their tails between their legs, howling at a full moon labeled “Prosperity” outside the U.S. Capitol building. The dogs are labeled “Tillman, [?], Vest, Jones, Bryan [his tail tied to a can labeled “16 to 1″], Altgeld, Gore, [and] Hogg.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-10-25

William Jennings Bryan, as Romeo, hangs off a balcony, speaking to an old woman labeled “Democracy” as Juliet, with “Nurse Grover” Cleveland standing behind her. The full moon in the upper left is labeled “Free Silver.” Standing in the bushes below is William Randolph Hearst. Caption: Romeo — Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, that tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops- / Juliet — Oh, swear not by the moon, that twice inconstant moon! / Romeo — All right, I’ll cut it out! It’s a dead one anyway!

Comments and Context

A sign of more literate times is this Puck cartoon based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. More than a riff on “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” cartoonist Udo J. Keppler assumes readers’ familiarity with other characters from the play, as well as current politics.

William Jennings Bryan had been on a world tour tour through 1905-06, visiting many cities of the world and meeting notables in government and culture. There was intense speculation in the United States about whether the Democratic Party would turn to him a third time to ruin for president; or whether he actually was interested. There were very few fresh faces among Democratic aspirants, but more than a few old-timers and former Populists. Almost by default the yellow journalist William Randolph Hearst, then a radical and a two-term congressman with open presidential ambitions, was available to fill the vacuum.

Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks as Don Quixote stands with shield and lance next to a well on which stands a suit of armor labeled “Indiana Organization.” To the right of Fairbanks, in the background, is a hobby horse. The full moon above shows the face of President Theodore Roosevelt. Caption: The flower of Indiana knighthood keeping watch over his boiler-plate.

Comments and Context

To history, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks is a largely forgotten figure, both as senator from Indiana and as Theodore Roosevelt’s vice president, 1905-1909.

To his contemporaries, Fairbanks was active for two decades in national Republican politics and elected service, but also was largely neglected. The man who represented Indiana was a power in his state’s politics (though eventually overshadowed by Albert J. Beveridge, his Hoosier rival); he was a close ally of the martyred president William McKinley, and had presidential ambitions.

The “trusts” play a cello with a scroll of Attorney General Philander C. Knox’s head. In the background, a cow labeled “beef” jumps over the moon labeled “living prices.” President Roosevelt, dressed in blackface and with donkey’s ears, walks away with a doll.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-01-29