[The Weekly Puck] The Party: Spoiled

[progbear]

Barred Out From the Promised Land

by Bernhard Gillam (1885)

Disappointed Democratic Moses: “Was It Worth Going Through So Much to Get So Little?”

Clearly a satire of the breakdown of the spoils system, the broken tablet reading, “Old Commandments: Thou Shalt Divide Up the Spoils,” is a dead giveaway (and the Roman numerals are a nice touch). The star, as usual, of this image is Tammany’s John Kelly (second from right in the foreground, with arms folded), fronting a host of other disappointed parties on a hill above the Cleveland White House. One could think of it as a sequel to this image. Also of note in this image: journalist Charles A. Dana (top center, to the right of the page break), Alexander V. Davidson (to Dana’s right) and Weekly Puck Breakout Superstar Hubert O. Thompson (front row, to the left of the page break).

I like how even lesser Gillam, like this, is still something most artists would kill to have something so high-quality just once in their career. Mind-boggling, as usual.

Comments

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

I love cartoons from that era-they had a lot of style.

Plus, I love most things from the 19 th century.

[andybr.livejournal.com]

they really should all just go and chill out at the bath house!

[progbear.livejournal.com]

I’d not at all be surprised if they did.

[barbarian-rat.livejournal.com]

I think you mentioned that Puck pointed his pen at both Republican and Democratic administrations ... So was/is Cleveland's administration considered any more corrupt than those of Grant through McKinley?

[progbear.livejournal.com]

Cleveland was Puck’s knight in shining armour, or Santa Claus (http://progbear.livejournal.com/620019.html) if you prefer. You must understand that both parties at the time were heavily fragmented at the time, Cleveland representing the “good,” progressive Democrats and John Kelly representing the “bad,” corrupt New York party politics of Tammany Hall and other factions (like H. O. Thompson’s County Democracy). So think of it as a “point and laugh” kind of cartoon. But Kelly would have the last laugh, having learned a lesson from the mugwumps, he was instrumental in getting Benjamin Harrison elected in 1888 via a protest vote campaign.

It got even more complex when William Jennings Bryan and the Populists rose to power in the 1890s. They were extremely unpopular with the urban Democrats that Puck represented (Of course by that time, Joseph Keppler had died—having essentially worked himself to death—and his son took the reins of the family business).

[barbarian-rat.livejournal.com]

Thanks that helps me see it more clearly. It't not a timeframe I have done much reading on. As I recall political corruption was rampant at that time and it led to the progressive movement and some real reforms