Van Winkle, Rip (Fictitious character)

President Roosevelt sits on a table with a “third term” glass in his hand and the “1908 Republication National Convention” pitcher on the table. On his left shoulder is “the Roosevelt policies” rifle, and he has his left hand on “the pledge.” Caption: Will he play Rip Van Winkle?

comments and context

Comments and Context

Claude Maybelle’s cartoon in the Brooklyn Eagle was an earnest condemnatory comment on Theodore Roosevelt, and a curious jumble of icons and allusions. Hardly a cartoonist or editorial writer of Roosevelt’s full presidential term, 1905-1908, failed to address his declination of interest in succeeding himself in the White House. He had announced such on election night of 1904, declined any elaboration beyond asserting his firmness, and in fact engineered the nomination of his favored choice, Secretary of War William H. Taft, against other aspirants.

Uncle Sam, as Rip Van Winkle, wakes up next to his broken rifle labeled “Competition.” Joseph Gurney Cannon, wearing colonial dress, stands before him, offering him a flagon of “Stand Pat Schnapps.” Sitting on a rock in the background is J. S. Sherman holding up a flagon as well. Caption: “No more of that, thank you. I’m awake.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This handsome cartoon cover of Puck weeks into the Taft presidency and sixty-first Congress, illustrates the assumption of Old Guard Republican Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon that years have passed, as per the Rip Van Winkle legend, and that Uncle Sam may awaken to life as it was before Theodore Roosevelt. “Stand Pat” conservative policies of high tariffs and a free hand for big business are Cannon’s presumptive “good old days.”

Rip Van Winkle educates himself about the events of the past twenty years, surrounded by newspapers referring to William Jennings Bryan, the Evelyn Nesbit and Harry Kendall Thaw scandal, hostilities with Mexico, President Roosevelt’s clashes with Speaker of the House Cannon, and Roosevelt’s attacks on the Tammany Hall political machine. Van Winkle exclaims, “Shucks!! I’m going back to sleep!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913

Outside a building labeled “Washington Inn” with an image of the U.S. Capitol on the sign, a large group of Republican legislators, politicians, and others are laughing at an old man wearing tattered clothing labeled “Democracy.” He looks dazed, as though he has just wandered in from the past; his walking stick is dated “1861.” Two dogs labeled “N.Y. Tribune” and “N.Y. Times” sniff at his heels. Among those present are George M. Robeson, Ulysses S. Grant, John Logan, James Gillespie Blaine, Chester Alan Arthur (dressed as a woman, serving food and drinks), Charles J. Folger, George Frisbie Hoar, Joseph Warren Keifer, Horace F. Page, William Mahone (doing a hand-stand), J. D. Cameron, Roscoe Conkling, John Sherman, George F. Edmunds, John P. Jones, and Thomas Collier Platt.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-03-14

Uncle Sam is seated at a table in front of “Uncle Sam’s Inter-State Market,” with a businessman labeled “Northern Capital” on the right and an agricultural producer labeled “Southern Goods – Cotton, Sugar, Tobacco, Whiskey” on the left. Standing before the table are James G. Blaine labeled “Bloody Shirt,” and John Sherman, Whitelaw Reid, and Joseph B. Foraker, who all have long flowing hair and beards like Rip Van Winkle. Blaine is leaning on a rifle labeled “Shot Gun.” Two young African American men are sitting on a bale of cotton and a keg of “Tobacco” in the lower right corner, and in the middle ground African Americans are harvesting cotton. In the background, along the shores of a harbor, is a prosperous city. Caption: Uncle Sam “My fossil friends, the War ended twenty years ago. Have you been sleeping ever since?”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-09-16

An elderly man labeled “The Law,” with a long beard and holding a broken gun labeled “Fines,” peers at a group of bloated criminals standing and sitting on the porch of “The Jolly Grafter’s Inn, Successor to Ye Stern Justice” who are laughing at the old man before them. Those on the porch are labeled “Big Offender, Respectable Crook, Handy Judge [with a glass of] Judicial Favors, Corporate Lawyer [with mugs of] Legal Aid, Tax Dodger, Special Privilege, Insurance Grafter, Corrupt Business, Rail Road Merger, [and the] Oil, Coal, [and] Beef Trust[s].” On a table is a newspaper labeled “The Daily Graft,” and growling at the man is a dog labeled “Subsidized Press.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck had fought cheek-to-jowl with reform politicians, Muckraking journals, and President Roosevelt over most of the recent years, week after week. In this crowded center-spread cartoon, J. S. Pughe expressed the utmost cynicism about laws and regulations that were hard-fought and hard-won in 1906.

Rip Van Winkle, his beard long and his clothes tattered, lies sleeping near an abandoned ship yard. An overturned jug labeled “High Protective Tariff” is at his side and a sign behind him states “Prohibitive Cost of Construction.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-11-15

Theodore Roosevelt as “Dame Van Winkle” stands with his back to a fireplace, pointing with his left hand toward the door, banishing President Taft as Rip Van Winkle carrying his rifle labeled “Sherman Law Enforcement” and his dog wearing a collar labeled “Wickersham.” Caption: Dame Van Winkle banishes Rip and his dog.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-12-13

Uncle Sam, as Rip Van Winkle, returns from his tariff sleep to discover that other countries now dominate foreign trade. His old rifle labeled “Monopoly Tariff” is outdated. John Bull sits with other representatives of foreign countries outside the “Inn of South American Trade.” In the background, steamships with flags of many nations unload freight. An insert shows a map and “The North Americans Idea of the Western Hemisphere.” Caption: Sam Van Winkle finds a lot of hustling strangers in his place at the inn.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-02-08