Your TR Source
President Roosevelt is gratified by Edward Brandegee’s letter, and has forwarded it to Captain Ross. Roosevelt thought a recent race by the Harvard Crew team was great, and comments that sons of two men who graduated with the Harvard class of 1880 were on the team.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-02
William H. Taft hands Frank H. Hitchcock a medal labeled “Postmaster General” and pronounces him the winner of the “Great American Road Roller Race,” while an animated President Roosevelt appears jubilant and dances in the background.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-28
William Jennings Bryan, William Randolph Hearst, and Alton B. Parker are at the starting line of a race. Bryan wears weights on his legs that read “Kansas City platform” and “Chicago platform” and has a feather in his hat that reads, “I got a new job,” Hearst rides a “regular in both campaigns” barrel with deflated wheels, and Parker rides a donkey with “1896” and “1900” on his legs. David B. Hill gives Parker advice while Grover Cleveland watches Democratic National Committee Chairman James K. Jones write down odds. George Gray, Richard Olney, Arthur P. Gorman, and Dame Democracy watch from a covered box. Uncle Sam watches from behind.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-03-27
Two beautiful young women ride large fish in a race.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1914-09-26
A turtle with the face of William Jennings Bryan is racing a rabbit with the face of William H. Taft. Caption: The Tortoise — If that chap only goes to sleep, I’ll win out by a mile.
Few observers of the American political scene in 1908 expected the Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan to win the election over Republican William H. Taft for the open seat in the White House. In 1904 the “Solid South” was broken, with Missouri breaking its long-term ranks and swinging in line for the Republicans.
In fact, Bryan’s third attempt at the presidency was not as big a loss as his first two, not Judge Parker’s disastrous showing again President Roosevelt in 1904.
A bloated William Jennings Bryan, with a paper extending from his pocket labeled “Membership Fat Man’s Club. W.J. Bryan,” rides a diminutive Democratic donkey, while an even larger William H. Taft rides a diminutive “G.O.P” elephant. Caption: A case for the S.P.C.A.
At the end of his life, in 1925, William Jennings Bryan had enjoyed, or endured, periods of corpulence, probably inflicted by uncountable chicken dinners on the Chautauqua Circuit. That was his image as portrayed by Frederic March (as “Matthew Harrison Brady”) in the motion picture Inherit the Wind. In fact neither at the end of his life, nor in 1907 as in Frank A. Nankivell’s caricature on the cover of Puck, was Bryan ever as heavy as drawn.
The cartoonist’s point, rather, was to contrast and compare the likely 1908 presidential candidates. Were they to be burdens on their parties? The answer for William H. Taft was “probably not,” as he was probably the most popular candidate who was not Theodore Roosevelt.