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Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Rhode Island Senator Eugene Hale, and others hold up pitchforks to keep a Republican elephant standing up on “the high tariff pyramid.” President Roosevelt sits on the elephant’s head.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-05
At the top of a human pyramid on a platform is “The Senator.” On the next level, two men are sitting on bags of money on a platform labeled “The Big Interests.” Below them are men with bags labeled “Graft” and “Dough Bag,” standing on a platform labeled “The Bosses.” Beneath them comes a larger group of men standing on a platform labeled “The State Legislature.” Finally, at the bottom is a group on a platform labeled “The People,” who are being crushed by the weight of those above them.
Puck‘s chief cartoonist Joseph Keppler, Junior, drew an unfortunately timeless indictment of American politics in this center spread drawing. The common people are oppressed, yet hold up the system — a system populated by more and more greed and pecuniary motivations.
The “Dem. Party” donkey with six followers places “Cleveland’s cradle 1884” into a river. Pyramids are visible in the background.
This cartoon by Joseph Keppler Junior mirrors very closely — down to the poses and scenery — a Puck cartoon by Bernhard Gillam almost exactly 20 years previous. In both cartoons, the Democratic Party was desperate for a Moses to lead from the political wilderness. The party in 1883 had been out of national power for 33 years; at the time of this cartoon they had not occupied the White House for six years. Grover Cleveland had been the only Democratic president since before Abraham Lincoln. In fact, it is Cleveland’s name inside the empty cradle.
Lewis Morris Iddings, diplomat in Egypt, suggests that if President Roosevelt enters the continent by the Suez Canal there will likely be time for a trip to the pyramids and the sphinx, which would be a nice visit for Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-09-14
President Roosevelt looks up at a sphinx with the likeness of Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna. The caption on the sphinx reads, “Hanna boom 1904.” Roosevelt holds a “Guide to Political Washington D.C.” In the background, Major General Leonard Wood and Estes G. Rathbone fight atop two pyramids. Caption: A number of bills are being presented in Congress for the erection of monuments of noted statesmen in the Washington Parks.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-11-24
President Roosevelt sits on a horse holding a “presidential boom” paper as he looks at the Great Sphinx which features the winking head of Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna. The sphinx also holds a large paper that reads, “presidential boom.” Caption: The sphinx—also Napoleon. —F. Opper in New York American, with apologies to J. L. Gerome. (Copyright by W. R. Hearst).
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-11-29