Temptation

Outside a church, an old woman labeled “Democratic Party” stands between William Jennings Bryan as a friar labeled “16 to 1” and Arthur P. Gorman as the devil. She is smiling as she looks toward the devil. Caption: Mephisto Gorman — You’ve been fasting long enough with dull Friar William. Follow me. I’ll lead you to -.

comments and context

Comments and Context

One of the thematic preoccupations of cartoonists in these years was the end of Lent — signifying (in cartoons, if not in real life) shedding the bonds of holy circumspection. In the interior pages, black-and-white humorous cartoons dealt with society girls and eligible bachelors.  Sometimes dealing with temptations. Cartoonist Pughe adds politics and current events to mix in this center-spread cartoon in Puck.

Theodore Roosevelt thinks Sheldon Leavitt touches upon a topic of far-reaching importance in his letter, but he does not feel competent to deal with it. Roosevelt thinks it is a great deal more important to be able to deliver one’s self from evil than it is not to be led into temptation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-03-01

A well-dressed man is sitting in a chair, overwhelmed by opportunities to attend a “Last Bachelor ‘Blow Out’,” to go “See the Bogus Ballet” with its dancing girls, to go “to the Club and Join in a Quiet Game,” to “Spend a Night in Bohemia!”, to see an “Intellectual Vaudeville Show,” to go to “The Bal-Masque,” or to go “to the Hoo-Doo Athletic Club” for a boxing match.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-10

Uncle Sam as Tantalus is bound with ropes to posts labeled “High Protective Tariff” and “Free Silver Agitation” by two men labeled “Protected Manufacturer” and “Silverite.” The men are preventing Uncle Sam from satisfying his desire for “Prosperity,” depicted as a female figure holding a cornucopia, separated from Uncle Sam by an “Ocean of Politics,” and standing among factories spewing smoke along the waterfront.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-06-02

Print shows Father Knickerbocker, a symbolic figure for New York City, bound to a stone wall labeled “Ring Rule” by chains labeled “Partisanship,” tempted by a bunch of grapes labeled “Rapid Transit” hanging on a vine that is just out of reach.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-04-26

James Gillespie Blaine is pictured as Tantalus chained to a large rock labeled “Mulligan Letters” and standing on rocks labeled “Guano” and “Northern Pacific R. R.,” yearning to reach a table laden with food and drink labeled “Presidential Cake, Patronage, [and] Spoils.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-10-08

Print shows John Kelly as the serpent labeled “Tammany” in the Garden of Eden offering an apple labeled “Harmony” from a tree labeled “Bossism” to “H.O. Thompson,” as Adam, labeled “County Democracy” and Alexander V. “Davidson,” as Eve, labeled “Irving Hall” who holds out his hand to take the apple.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-09-19

A well dressed man holding a “Hymn” book stands between two young women dressed as devils.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-03-12

William Jennings Bryan, as an old man, sits in a chair looking up at a jug of “Perpetual Candidacy Booze” and a “Nomination Perfecto” cigar floating above. On the floor is a paper that states “I hereby pledge myself to quit liquor and tobacco in any form. Bill Bryan” with the seal of “Uncle Sam (witness).”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-05-08

A man and a woman sit at a musical revue. The man is staring at a chorus girl who is temptingly standing in front of him. The man’s wife or girlfriend is looking at him with a concerned look on her face.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-03-01