Republican elephant (Symbolic character)

A donkey carries the “Democratic Dough Bag” and an elephant carries the “Republican Dough Bag” as they walk down “Wall Street,” seeking campaign funding for the upcoming presidential election.

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Comments and Context

Welsh immigrant J. S. Pughe was Puck Magazine’s go-to animal cartoonist, whether in political cartoons — typically the Democrat donkey and the Republican elephant, but a wide menagerie in his political bestiary — as well as interior, black and white gag cartoons. All the humor magazines (and journals featuring cartoons as respite from text columns and advertisements) enjoyed cartoons with anthropomorphic animals, bugs, and birds in human situations. T. S. Sullivant was the best and most prominent of these cartoonists; in this period he drew for Judge and the Hearst papers. Pughe was Puck’s answer to Sullivant, even to the style of drawing characters with exaggerated, large heads.

A group of Republicans try to push, pull, and coax the “G.O.P.” elephant to jump a hurdle on a race course. William B. Allison stands on the far side of the hurdle. Philander C. Knox is pulling the elephant’s trunk. William P. Frye, Nelson W. Aldrich, Stephen B. Elkins, Joseph Gurney Cannon, and Eugene Hale are pushing the elephant, which is being ridden by a plump man labeled “Stand Pat,” wielding a whip. The hurdle has four bars, the lowest labeled “Cost of Living 1896,” the next “Cost of Living 1900,” then “Cost of Living 1904,” and the highest “Cost of Living 1908.”

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Comments and Context

The “High Cost of Living” has been a perennial bugaboo of politicians and icon of cartoonists through the years. In the administration of Woodrow Wilson, and especially in the two years following the Armistice ending World War I, the issue was paramount. It often was manifested by an impossibly tall and thin dour character.

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.

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Comments and Context

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.

William H. Taft sits on a hammock with the “G.O.P.” elephant, wooing her with a box of “Ohio Bonbons.”

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Comments and Context

Once again a Puck cartoonist, presumably on a slow news day during summer holidays, resorted to depicting the presumptive Republican presidential nominee (a year in the future), mostly to have fun at his expanse.

President Taft climbs a mountain labeled “White House Glacier” with members of his campaign committee hanging from ropes attached to his waist. On the left are “Crane, Penrose,” and the Republican elephant, and on the right are “Sherman, Barnes, [and] Root,” who is driving a piece of heavy machinery. Caption: What can Taft do? They are his guides and he is tied to them.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-02

Two little children labeled “Taft” and “Sherman” are crying because they have lost their way. Vice President Sherman, as a little girl, is holding the string to a pull-toy which is an elephant on a base with wheels. Caption: Pitiable plight of little Willie and Jamey.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-09

The ghost of the Republican elephant rises from behind a tombstone that states “Sacred to the memory of a united Republican Party.” President “Taft” and “Teddy” Roosevelt believe that it is coming after them and are fleeing in fear. Caption: A graveyard is no place to be on Hallowe’en.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-30

Uncle Sam wakes up in bed, hung over, with everything in his room caught up in a whirlwind of bottles of alcohol labeled “Stand Pat Booze, Bull Moose Bitters, [and] That’s All Wilson,” a pitcher of “Debs Dope,” a ballot box, playing cards, chips, cigars, and furniture. Within the whirlwind is another whirlwind with the Democratic Donkey, Republican Elephant, and a Bull Moose buzzing around his head.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-11-06

The Republican elephant stands among the bones and ghosts of dinosaurs. One is offering a membership card that states “Ancient Order of Extinct Animals – Membership Ticket.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-11-27

Lame duck president William H. Taft is having Christmas dinner at the White House, served by the Republican elephant, when the Democratic donkey bursts through a window, causing the Republican elephant to spill the “Soup.” Caption: The Democratic Donkey makes an informal call at the White House.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-12-25

Charles W. Fairbanks, as an old woman, sits in a rocking chair in front of a fireplace, holding a portrait of the “G.O.P.” elephant. “Blessed Are the Pacemakers” appears on a sampler above the mantle. Fairbanks is wearing a pair of shoes labeled “Nomination Sneakers,” and a basket of knitting labeled “Political Fancy Work” lies on the floor next to the chair. A cage with a bee inside is on a table labeled “Presidential Bee.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This Puck magazine cover by Udo J. Keppler is a textbook example of the political points that subtly can be made below the surface of simple cartoons. That is, deceptively simple, for some cartoons contain visual elements — signs and symbols — and some rely on labels, phrases, and “code words.”

The “G.O.P.” elephant, as an emperor during the Manchu Dynasty, sits on a throne looking at men labeled “Wilson, Champ Clark, Foss, Harmon, [and] Underwood” armed with large knives or swords.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-11-15

President Taft, as Solomon, holds a baby elephant labeled “G.O.P.” aloft in one hand and a large sword labeled “Party Cleaver” in the other. One man labeled “Stand-Patter” pleads for Solomon Taft to spare the elephant. Another man labeled “Insurgent” stands to the right looking concerned, but not pleading for mercy.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-11-29

Theodore Roosevelt, as a large red-suited devil, sits on cliffs at the seaside. A diminutive “G.O.P.” elephant, holding a paper labeled “Nomination” behind its back, stands at Roosevelt’s feet. On the waves of the sea is the word “Defeat.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-01-03

Theodore Roosevelt, as Napoleon I, returns from political exile. He stands before French troops under the command of President Taft, who is riding the Republican elephant. They carry banners labeled “Republican Delegates, Federal Job Holders, [and] The Old Guard.” One soldier among them is labeled “Hitchcock.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-03-06

Theodore Roosevelt is dressed as an elderly woman, wearing furs, and holding on to a strap labeled “The Outlook” on a crowded streetcar. He is addressing the Republican elephant labeled “G.O.P.” sitting on a seat next to a small child labeled “Taft” who is holding a toy dog labeled “Tariff Board.” Caption: “Madam, are you going to permit that child to keep his seat and let ME stand?”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-03-27

The Republican elephant labeled “G.O.P.” holds an empty “Dinner Pail” which he is asking a woman labeled “Mrs. Consumer” to fill. She is holding an “Empty Market-Basket” labeled “Tariff Tax on the Necessities of Life.” Caption: The Republican Elephant–Well, the campaign is on. Fill the Dinner-Pail for me. / The Woman in the Case–You great big Gop! How can I give you a Full Dinner-Pail from an Empty Market-Basket?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-05-01

The Republican elephant labeled “G.O.P.” bows to Theodore Roosevelt as the Roman emperor, Caesar, in a colosseum.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-05-22

A disagreement has broken out among Republicans who were working to construct a tower labeled “Republican Harmony.” They have broken off into small factions clustered around building blocks labeled “Progressivism” with the Republican elephant sitting against it sniffing “Smelling Salts,” “Radicalism” over which “Munsey” and “Woodruff” are engaged in a discussion, “Conservatism” on which President Taft sits gesturing toward “La Follette” who is standing on his head and “Pinchot” trying to make a point to “Barnes” who is facing a diminutive “Job Hedges,” “Standpatism” around which “Cummins, Cannon, Sherman, Penrose, [and] Root” are involved in a heated discussion, and “Meism” upon which Theodore Roosevelt is jumping up and down and gesturing wildly. Others present are “Dixon [and] W.B. McKinley” who appear about to come to blows, as are “Perkins [and] Garfield.” “Lorimer,” wearing a bandage labeled “Vindication,” addresses “Lodge [and] “Gov. Stubbs” and, in the background, on the right, the man standing on a block addressing a crowd may be Charles W. Fairbanks. The few tools visible sit idle. Caption: Sad finish of the Republican tower of Babel.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-06-12

Theodore Roosevelt grimaces in anger with both arms raised. He is wearing Uncle Sam’s clothes, who is running off in a barrel to hide his nakedness. Also departing in fear are the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey. Convention Number.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-06-19