The return of the scouts
Moses C. Wetmore and Norman E. Mack carry a shoulder pole labeled “For Contributions” from which hangs a tiny bag. They explain to William Jennings Bryan, as Moses, seated with Henry Watterson, John W. Kern, and Alton B. Parker around him, that there is very little money flowing into the Democratic campaign coffers. Standing on the left are Thomas F. Ryan and Perry Belmont. Caption: And they returned after forty days, and they said unto Moses: “Surely it is a land flowing with milk and honey, but there is nothing doing in collections.”
Comments and Context
Puck Magazine’s artists, and many cartoonists of the era, frequently relied on Biblical analogies and stories as contexts for their drawings; and mythology, operatic narratives, legends, and Shakespeare as well. “The Return of the Scouts,” with Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan as Moses, is based on the Book of Numbers, Chapter 13.