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No, it wasn’t much of a storm

No, it wasn’t much of a storm

President Roosevelt holds an umbrella as it rains down pitchforks that bounce off. Caption: No, it wasn’t much of a storm.

Comments and Context

A political cartoon brilliant in its simplicity refers to one of the last chapters of the interminable dispute between President Theodore Roosevelt and Congress over the expansion of the Secret Service. His request that Congress authorize its increased scope and size, and Congress’s perfunctory rebuffs, escalated to insults, angry and sarcastic messages, speeches, resolutions, and the president’s suggestions — eventually with some examples and proof — that some Congressmen were engaged in corrupt acts and feared a new investigatory agency.

The cartoon (with a caricature clearly drawn in the style of T. S. Sullivant) cleverly summarized the tempest-in-a-teapot between the president and South Carolina’s Democrat senator, “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman. A sarcastic speech by the senator attacked the president’s honor, asserted his own, and dared the White House to defend its proposal for a new bureau of investigation. Upon that, Roosevelt, almost like a Muckraker, exposed secret land deals from which Tillman illicitly had profited. 

Reserve ammunition

Reserve ammunition

In the first section of the cartoon, President Roosevelt throws a “message” snowball that hits “Congress” in the back of the head. In the second section, “Congress” runs with a “rebuke” umbrella raised and says, “I’ll fix that boy,” as Roosevelt hides behind the wall with a huge snowball. In the third section, Roosevelt throws the huge “exposures” snowball at “Congress,” who has dropped his umbrella.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This Nelson Harding occasionally has been reprinted in articles and history texts, and therefore is familiar as a comment on the sometimes contentious relationship between President Roosevelt and the Congress. The precise inspiration seldom is received notice.

Cartoon in the Washington Star

Cartoon in the Washington Star

President Roosevelt holds an “executive order” and a “classified service” umbrella to keep dry from the dark clouds of “political patronage.” Over a dozen “fourth class postmasters” run toward him as two “congressmen” look surprised.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The day prior to this cartoon’s publication — and, significantly, while Congress was recessed — President Roosevelt signed an executive order for the classification by competition of all fourth-class postmasters in fourteen states between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River, an area containing more than half of the United States population, and approximately a third of all such postmaster positions. That group of employees comprised one of American politics’ richest caches of patronage jobs, a source of influence and power for politicians.

The modern King Canute

The modern King Canute

Print shows South African President Paul Kruger labeled “Oom Paul” sitting on a throne labeled “Transvaal Republic” on the seashore. Kruger is about to be swamped by a large wave labeled “Industrial Progress.” He attempts to open an umbrella labeled “Old Fogyism” in an effort to mitigate the blow.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-09-27

First man on the line

First man on the line

A young boy sits in the rain with an umbrella and a little dog, outside the locked and boarded-up entrance to the “25 cent seats” labeled “Opening Day April 10th Pink Socks vs Green Socks.” The boy has a “Base Ball Guide” in his coat pocket and there is a small basket of food on the ground, at his feet. Caption: “Cheer up, Towse! Only got about a week more to wait!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-04-02

Puck Easter 1908

Puck Easter 1908

A well-dressed man carries his wife’s Easter bonnet beneath an umbrella, so that in her absence, due to an illness, at least her bonnet will be seen in public. Caption: His wife was ill.

Comments and Context

Cartoonist L. M. Glackens had the assignment to draw the cover for Puck‘s holiday issue (special numbers usually were arranged for Easter, Mid-Summer, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) in 1908. As he matured as an artist, his handsome work was ever more evident in Puck; and the young Welshman J. S. Pughe was ill throughout the year, reducing his own workload.

The idea of a man parading his wife’s Easter bonnet in a rainstorm is funny yet today, even if traditional Easter parades are no longer conducted. The border motif seems strange — a devil chasing a cowl-clad brother — perhaps more appropriate before lent. However, Easter Sunday in 1908 fell on April 19, days after this issue’s cover date.

The closed canteen and the open dive

The closed canteen and the open dive

An old woman labeled “Prohibition,” holding an umbrella labeled “Intolerance,” stands between two sluices that power waterwheels. She is holding a board in the shape of the U.S. Capitol labeled “Politics” in one sluice, blocking the water to the waterwheel on the right, which has paddles labeled “Good fellowship, Recreation, Temperance, Discipline, [and] Health” and runs past “The Closed Canteen.” On the left, water labeled “U.S. Army” flows through the sluice and over a waterwheel with paddles labeled “Drunkenness, Immorality, Disorder, Vice, Disease, [and] Gambling” that runs past “The Blind Tiger” and “The Open Dive,” where a man labeled “Divekeeper” is carrying a bag of “The Grist of Vice.” Puck calls Prohibition’s attention to the problems resulting from closed canteens. Caption: Puck (to Prohibition) — Look around: See whom you benefit while you keep that sluice-gate shut!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-05-10

Impudence

Impudence

William Jennings Bryan offers his small, ineffective umbrella labeled “16 to 1,” “Anti-trust,” and “Anti-Expansion,” to a woman labeled “Columbia” who is carrying a more effective umbrella labeled “Prosperity.” Caption: Bryan. — Won’t you come under my umbrella?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1900-09-05