Sirens (Mythology)

Marcus Alonzo Hanna, in a small sailboat with sail labeled “Under no circumstances will I consent to become a candidate,” sails past a rocky coastline. Two female sirens with the lower torso of chickens, one playing a lyre labeled “Wall Street Interests” and the other holding a paper labeled “Trust Influence,” try to lure him onto the rocks.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon by Joseph Keppler Junior is a major example of supreme irony, and unavoidable exigencies of the publishing business.

Seth Low, possibly as Odysseus, raises a sword labeled “Nonpartisanship” to strike a sea monster labeled “Misrule,” as a woman labeled “Greater New York,” standing on rocks and chained to a rock labeled “Tammany,” tries to get away from the monster.

comments and context

Comments and Context

For a season the New York City municipal election profiled in this cartoon was a “perfect storm” for reformers. The corrupt Democratic “machine” was in decline, its “boss” Richard Croker foolishly having retired to his native Ireland to run the city from afar. Tammany lost local elections and was enmeshed in more scandals than usual. New York City had recently consolidated with the City of New York (hence the label “Greater New York”) and Seth Low, shown here wielding a sword, had been a reforming mayor of Brooklyn who now sought the mayoralty on a Citizens Union ticket. When the Republicans endorsed the independent candidate, he won handily. Two years later, Tammany, having licked its wounds, defeated him by running George B. McLellan, Jr., son of the Civil War general.

A galley labeled “Government Of, By, and For the People” sails past rocks labeled “Bossism” where other ships have wrecked, drawn by “Party Solidarity” sung by Republican sirens “Connors, Aldrich, Cox, Penrose, Woodruff, [and] Lodge” and “Partisanship” sung by Democratic sirens “Mack, Conners, Murphy, [and] Taggart” sitting on rocks above the crashing seas. Caption: The old stuff doesn’t go any more.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-06-01

A siren wearing a scarf labeled “Get Rich Quick” sits on a rock ledge labeled “Margin Gambling” and plays a lyre labeled “Stock Market” with strings labeled “Erie, Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, U.S. Steel, Amal. Copper, American Ice, Brooklyn R.T., Reading, [and] Inter. Met.” On rocks below is a wrecked ship labeled “Exploited Bank” and on nearby rocks are the bodies of victims.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

Creation Date

1908-02-19