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New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck is a judge and Richard Croker is a policeman, holding a club labeled “Tammany,” bringing a man labeled “Reform” before the judge in a courtroom.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1898-02-23
William Jennings Bryan is being carried in a chair by four men, two of whom are labeled “Tillman” and “J.F. Williams,” down a street, behind a group of crazed men labeled “Free Silver, Riot, Repudiation, Populism, Anarchy, [and] Class Hatred.” Two of the men are carrying small flags that state “Down with Supreme Court” and “Down with Property Holders.” Policemen labeled with the states of the Union and holding billy clubs labeled “Sound Money Vote” are lining both sides of the street.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-09-02
A police officer holds Oscar L. Baldwin, cashier at the Mechanics’ National Bank in Newark, by the shoulder while Baldwin, using “Speculation Soap Suds,” blows a soap bubble labeled “500,000 Paid in Capital” and “Surplus Fund $400,000” that drips money into a top hat in front of many old men labeled “Bank Director” and investors entering on the right, in the background. At his feet are papers labeled “Cooked Statement.” Puck gestures toward the old men and suggests the police officer consider arresting them as well. Caption: Puck to Representative of the Law–“You have got the thief – now take the men who let him steal the money of the trusting depositors.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1881-11-09
William McKinley walks down a street in the neighborhood of “Anarchy Slum” with a tall, well-dressed female figure labeled “Gold Standard” on his arm and two policemen labeled “Palmer” and “Buckner” walking behind them. On the wall is a presidential campaign poster that states, “Vote for Bryan, Watson and Repudiation.” In the background, Mary E. Lease is standing at the corner of a building, and Benjamin R. Tillman and John Peter Altgeld are standing on a cobblestone street labeled “Populist Alley.” An unidentified man, possibly William Sulzer, is leaning against the wall of the building, between “Miss Gold Standard” and “Palmer.” Caption: Miss Gold Standard and her escort have a brace of strong policemen to see them through the slums of Popocracy.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-10-07
A large policeman labeled “Civil Service Reform,” holding a nightstick labeled “Public Opinion,” stands outside a building labeled “Public Offices.” He is about to be assaulted by two diminutive men. On the left is Frank Swett Black wearing a hat labeled “Gov. of N.Y.” and carrying a large blackjack labeled “Black’s Civil Service Reform Bill.” On the right is Charles H. Grosvenor holding a brick labeled “Grosvenor’s Anti-Civil Service Reform Bill” and “Congress” that he intends to throw at the officer.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-05-19
Six policemen labeled “Chafin, Taft, Debs, Watson, Hisgen, [and] Bryan” gather around a young boy labeled “Reactionary Voter” standing on “Radical Ave.” The boy appears confused by all the political parties represented by the various candidates – Eugene W. Chafin of the Prohibition Party, William H. Taft of the Republican Party, Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party of America, Thomas E. Watson of the Populist Party, Thomas L. Hisgen of the United States Independent Party, and William Jennings Bryan of the Democratic Party. Caption: Chorus of Kindly Cops — Don’t you know where you belong, little boy? / The Waif — No-o-o! I’m a-all turned round. Boo-hoo!
“The Lost Child” is a curious cartoon in the Puck Magazine canon, and in its portrayal of the contemporary political situation. S. D. Ehrhart, who had been moonlighting or freelancing for a small radical publication The Square Deal, presents an unusual scenario in the double-page cartoon.
A preacher in the pulpit harangues his congregation with a speech that begins “Noise or Nothing!” Two police officers with large billy-clubs, in the pulpit with him, exchange glances. Caption: Let them be put under the same restrictions as other Sabbath-breakers.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1884-02-13
Print shows a policeman labeled “Gov. Foster” grabbing the arm of a diminutive man labeled “Hoadly” who is holding a piece of fruit labeled “Dem. Nomination 83” that he has stolen from a street vendor who is an old woman labeled “Ohio Democracy” knitting behind her table of fruit labeled “Nomination Appointment Office.” Papers extending from the pocket of the policeman are labeled “Indiana ‘Soap’ Campaign 1880” and “Theft of the Presidency 1877.” Caption: Honest Charley Foster is horrified to find Hoadly filching.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1883-08-08
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.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1883-07-18
President Wilson appears as a police officer with William Jennings Bryan behind him as they walk down a street lined with buildings labeled “Crooked Business, Food Adulteration, Public Land Graft, [and] The Pork Barrel.” They are watched closely by men looking out doorways and windows, including two men labeled “Flim Flam Finance” and “Tariff Graft.” Caption: The political underworld doesn’t quite know where it is at. Just how much will the new man stand for?
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-03-26
A woman wearing a red dress, holding money, stands between the “Health Department Bureau of Licences and Inspection” and an opening in a wall labeled “Graft.” In a cut-away showing the scene behind the “Graft,” the man (probably a plainclothes officer) who collects the money through the opening in the wall is passing money to a uniformed officer, who in turn passes the money to a large hand (probably that of a politician) entering the frame from above. It is a wild scene with a woman lying on a table, the body of a man stabbed to death beneath the table, a man rolling dice, others drinking, and a shooting taking place in the background. While the woman in red hesitates, the implication is that she has no choice but to pay the graft. Caption: She is here. Man is responsible for her. His laws against her and her traffic but afford opportunity for police extortion. You know this. You may wince at the idea of “regulation,” but is not regulation preferable to the vilest forms of graft? Of two evils, must the greater be chosen?
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-01-15
A police officer labeled “Graft Tariff” prevents a working class family from having a picnic on the grass while a group of men labeled “Beef Trust, Coal Trust, Steel Trust, Lumber Trust, [and] Clothing Trust,” with two servants, one labeled “A.P.T.L.,” are having a picnic on the lawn labeled “Prosperity.”
This cartoon by Udo J. Keppler was published just as the Wall Street Panic of 1907 was threatening to turn into a crash or depression, yet seemed to ignore the burning issue of the day. Of course the generic “us versus them” cliche might have been pertinent once again, except for the fact and the public perception that big business was as much a potential victim as a real perpetrator of events.
At bottom, in a dark and gloomy landscape, the police have imposed martial law conditions on the laboring class and punish violators with impunity, while at top, those responsible for the deplorable working and living conditions stand on a cloud labeled “Immunity,” above the law and the lawlessness.
In the middle years of the century’s first decade, Puck gradually had been growing more radical; sometimes its pendulum swung, and sometimes the issue or a personality flavored their slow evolution. This was generally the case with many journals during the Muckrake era, but Puck‘s editorial shift was finally determined by mid-1907, and resulted in its publication of some of the most brilliant social protest and commentary cartoons of the period.
In his speech to the Saint Louis, Missouri City Club, Theodore Roosevelt shares his opinion on public service, describes his own service and he makes the case for social progressivism. Among his examples of public servants, Roosevelt mentions past Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Buchanan, and Franklin Pierce.
1912-03-28
Three policemen that exceeded their authority and entered a church were sentenced to 15 days arrest by the Municipal Council.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-08-02