Leap Day Toons 1920

February 29 falls on a Saturday only once every 28 years; so in honor of this magical occasion, Siderealback Saturday presents a collection of editorial cartoons that happened to run on Sunday, February 29, 1920.

"There's No Law Against Running for President" by Don Herold in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 29, 1920

Humorist Don Herold was equally at home drawing full-fledged cartoons such as this one, or providing illustrations to his own humor columns. From September 29, 1918 to July 11, 1920, he syndicated a Sunday strip nationally while working at the Indianapolis Star. The Star had stopped running this strip a month before this cartoon appeared, suggesting that the series was self-syndicated.

"Standing Room Only" by Jay N. "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, February 29, 1920

"Ding" Darling also commented on the crowded field of presidential candidates that day. The eventual winner, Warren Harding, is somewhat hidden toward the back; in spite of Darling's Republican sympathies, the cartoonist never warmed to isolationist candidate Harding. Darling's "Nonpartisan Public," for some reason, seems to be the happiest person on the train.

"The Old Story" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 29, 1920

Speaking of trains: President Wilson had just signed legislation on February 28 returning the railroads, taken over by the government during the war, to private ownership.

"Here's Your Junk..." by Frederick Boyd Stevenson in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 29, 1920

Frederick Stevenson was another writer who dabbled in cartooning. I would differentiate him from Don Herold in that Herold did more than "dabble" in cartooning (but doesn't seem to have kept up any comic title for more than a few years at a time). Furthermore, Stevenson wasn't a humorist in his writing and lecturing at all; illustrating his full-page opinion pieces was often done by one of the Eagle's other artists.

"I Certainly Hate to See Him Go" by Clifford Berryman in Washington (D.C.) Evening Star, February 29, 1920

Interior Secretary Franklin Lane resigned effective at the end of February, so Clifford Berryman drew this fond send-off for him. Canadian-born Lane oversaw construction of the first Alaskan public railway; previous railroads in the territory were privately owned. He also saw a bill regulating oil and coal lands become law at end of his service, so it's somewhat ironic that he went on to work for the oil company that would be the center of the Teapot Dome scandal (although he died well before that scandal broke).

Another cabinet member to leave in February was Secretary of State Robert Lansing. Wilson was angered to learn that Lansing had urged Vice President Marshall to assume presidential duties after Wilson's stroke in September, 1919. It may or may not have been the First Lady who forced Lansing out of office, depending which historian you ask; either way, when Lansing offered his resignation on February 12, the President accepted it.

"Really a Most Remarkable Exhibition..." by Fred Morgan in Philadelphia Inquirer, February 29, 1920

The gravity of Wilson's condition was public knowledge by this time, and so were the reasons for Lansing's resignation. Still, President Wilson must have been healthy enough for a stalwart Republican cartoonist like Fred Morgan to safely criticize the President's "egotism" and "autocracy" as he skated away with Uncle Sam's "U.S. People's Prerogative" hat. The hole in the ice is labeled "League of Nations."

"Proof of Life After Death" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, February 29, 1920

John McCutcheon comments on New Jersey's new, anti-Prohibition Governor, Democrat Edward Edwards. Edwards and his cohorts bring a pulmotor to John Barleycorn's grave and strain to listen for signs of life: "What Does He Say?" asks an aide. Edwards reports, "He says he wants to get into politics."

"Posing for the Allies" by Edwin Marcus in New York Times, February 29, 1920

Turning to foreign affairs: cartoonists had finally figured out what Vladimir Lenin looked like. The New York Times cartoonist put Lenin and Trotsky in this parody of Raphael's putti cherubs. Hidden behind their facade are "Loot," "World Revolution," and a dead female.

"Gasoline Alley" by Frank O. King in Chicago Tribune, February 29, 1920

As long as we're here, I'll take note that by this point, Frank King's "Gasoline Alley" had become a stand-alone comic strip, now independent of his full-page "The Rectangle" feature. "The Rectangle" was discontinued two weeks earlier, along with Sundays' separate editorial section, which it had fronted. "Gasoline Alley" hadn't yet migrated to the color comics section of the Tribune, running instead across the top of page 13, section 7, the start of the Automobile news and advertising pages.

Not to Worry

"The vaccine is coming along well, and then speaking to the doctors, we think this is something that we can develop fairly rapidly, a vaccine for the future, and coordinate with the support of our partners. We have great relationships with all of the countries that we’re talking about, some fairly large number of countries. Some it’s one person. And many countries have no problem whatsoever, and we’ll see what happens. But we’re very, very ready for this, for anything. ...
"This is a list of the different countries. United States is rated number one. Most prepared. United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Thailand, Sweden, Denmark, South Korea, Finland, this is a list of the best rated countries in the world by Johns Hopkins. We’re doing something else that’s important to me, because he’s been terrific in many ways, but he’s also very good on health care and we really followed him very closely. A lot of states do. When Mike was governor, Mike Pence, of Indiana, they’ve established great healthcare, they have a great system there. A system that a lot of the other states have really looked to and changed their systems, they wanted to base it on the Indiana system, it’s very good. He’s really very expert at the field, and what I’ve done is, I’m going to be announcing, exactly right now, that I’m going to be putting our Vice President, Mike Pence, in charge and Mike will be working with the professionals and doctors and everybody else that’s working. The team is brilliant. I spent a lot of time with the team over the last couple of weeks, but they’re totally brilliant and we’re doing really well, and Mike is going to be in charge, and Mike will report back to me. But he’s got a certain talent for this and I’m going to ask Mike Pence to say a few words please. Thank you. Mike?"

Q Toon: Ric's Place

You may never have heard of Richard Grenell, but he has shown up in my cartoons a few times by virtue of his being gay. Religious Right-wingers pressured Mitt Romney to drop him as a foreign policy adviser during Romney's 2012 presidential run. More recently, he has been behind the Trump administration's lip service to LGBTQ issues, at least as far as asking foreign countries to be less homophobic is concerned.

Trump named Grenell as his Ambassador to Germany in September, 2017; he took office the following April. He promptly irked his German hosts by adopting Trump's propensity for Twitter and decidedly undiplomatic language, tweeting in his first day at work a demand for German companies to stop doing business with Iran.

He has weighed in on domestic politics in Germany and elsewhere, praising xenophobic ultra-right-wingers such as Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz and Germany's Alternative für Deutschland Party, and criticizing moderates and liberals including German President Angela Merkel.

On February 10, Trump named Grenell as Acting Director of National Intelligence, replacing Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, who fell afoul of the Corrupt Trump Administration when a subordinate briefed the House Intelligence Committee on Russia's efforts to get Trump reelected. As an "Acting" Director, Grenell bypasses the need for Senate confirmation; he can continue in office until March 11, or, if a permanent Director is nominated before then, until that person takes over.

The Corrupt Trump Administration is riddled with "Acting" officials. Mick Mulvaney has been "Acting" Chief of Staff since January 2, 2019. The Department of Homeland Security has been led by a series of "Acting" Secretaries since April of last year.

Trump has had an acting head of the Small Business Administration for 277 days, which is about one-quarter of his presidency. He’s had one in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency for 234 days, or about 20 percent. The Defense Department has been run by an acting head for 203 days, and the directorate of national intelligence is now at 188 days and counting. Four other Cabinet jobs — attorney general, interior secretary, Veterans Affairs secretary and Health and Human Services secretary — have all had at least 99 days of acting control.

It took seven months for the Senate to confirm Grenell as Ambassador to Germany. Since Trump believes, and the Republican Senate has acquiesced, "I have the right to do whatever I want," don't expect anything to deter Trump from keeping Grenell on as aDNI until the day finally arrives that we become a constitutional republic again.

I only hope I live to see it.

This Week's Sneak Peek

The stein is for keeping her coffee warm.

Primary Cullers

The last couple of Saturday posts ran pretty long and required exhaustive research, so this week, I'm just digging up a handful of my own cartoons and wasting less of your time. Let's take a quick trip down Memory Lane to Primaries Past, shall we?

in UW-Parkside Ranger, February 4, 1988

I've learned not to get too heavily invested in a single favorite candidate this early in the presidential race. Like Bruce Babbitt in 1988 (anybody remember him?) they tend not to fare particularly well. Oh, sure, I'd like to have seen Julián Castro do better this time around, but I'm not bereft or befuddled over his having to drop out before a single vote was cast.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, February 18, 1988

Iowa and New Hampshire have, by virtue of cutting to the head of the line, acquired outsize status in the nominating process. The two have awarded a total of 65 delegates this year, less than 1.5% of the 4,750 that will meet in Milwaukee this July. But three candidates shuttered their campaigns as soon as New Hampshire's votes were in; and for whatever reason, non-white candidates could gain no traction in these two overwhelmingly Caucasian states this year. #PrimariesSoWhite.

for UW-M Post, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, March 23, 1992

I cast my first presidential vote in Minnesota's 1980 caucuses, which were held on the same day as the New Hampshire primary that year (and were promptly shooed back by the national parties in deference to the Granite State). But ever since, I've voted in Wisconsin's caucus (1984) and primaries, which have usually been held in April.

in UW-Milwaukee Post, February 27, 1992

At the current state of the race, you often hear pundits drooling over the nightmare scenario of a brokered convention. The fact, however, is that by April, the field has winnowed down to two or three candidates, one of whom is on his/her last legs.

But at least we have April 7 all to ourselves this year. In 1996, Wisconsin moved its primary to mid-March and got lumped in with Illinois, Michigan and Ohio in what was dubbed the "Big Ten Primary." Each of those other states were significantly more delegate-rich than the Dairy State. We're not accustomed, as Iowa and New Hampshire voters are, to running into presidential candidates every time we walk out the front door; but in 1996, we saw even less of them than usual.

in Racine, WI Journal Times, March 15, 1996

Moving our presidential primary to March also meant that with Wisconsin's non-partisan elections in April and primaries for those elections in February, voters were asked to come to the polls three times in three months. In 2000, Wisconsin moved its presidential primary back to April.

Wisconsin Democrats and local election officials around the state successfully fought Republican efforts to move up this year's presidential primary, which will be held on the same day as the nominally non-partisan election for the state Supreme Court. There is a de facto partisan Republican majority on the Court, with an appointee of Scott Walker up for election to a full ten-year term this year; Democrats thought that the presidential primary would energize their base enough to vote him out.

What Democrats have failed to consider (aside from the possibility that the nomination might be settled by April 7) is that there will be plenty of Republican voters coming out to elect mayors, school boards, city council members county supervisors, and other non-partisan officials, and to vote on whatever local referenda might be on the ballot. The Democratic presidential primary will be the only openly partisan race on the ballot, and there will be nothing preventing Republicans from voting in it.

Do not be surprised if polls of "likely Democratic voters" prove to be way off the mark.

Q Toon: How's This Going to Look

Rush Limbaugh spent a good portion of his program recently gloating over supposed anxiety among Democratic leadership over Pete Buttigieg's decent performance in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. The Presidential Medal of Trumpitude recipient imagined party leaders whimpering the sentence at the top of my cartoon this week.

That's a direct quote. For what it's worth, Pete Buttigieg turned 38 on January 19, three weeks before Rush's remarks, so don't sic the Snopes on me.

Buttigieg isn't ashamed of his PDAs; and to their credit, while the other candidates have plenty of grounds for grudges against the upstart former mayor, they have come to his defense on this little contretemps. Even some Republicans voiced criticism of Limbaugh's comments.

Meanwhile, Melania Trump's sentiments about PDAs with her husband are well documented. So, fine, let's bring it on, Rush.

This Week's Sneak Peek

How are we supposed to explain to our children that this wretched but prodigious spewer of bile over the airwaves was awarded a Presidential Medal of Trumpitude live on all TV networks?

Miss Democracy Rides Again

After I published last Saturday's post "In Search of Aunty Democracy," tracing the origin of an obsolete cartoon representation of the Democratic Party back to 1899, Daily Cartoonist editor D.D. Degg pointed me to a number of older cartoons in which she appeared. Most of them were by Leon Barritt, who is best known in journalism circles for a June 29, 1898 cartoon in Vim depicting rival publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer dressed as "Yellow Kids" and stacking large alphabet blocks to spell out "WAR."

As described in the Washington Evening Star, "Miss Democracy is often represented as an elderly lady, tricked out with corkscrew curls and an abundance of flounces" (September 29, 1910, page 6). Columnist Mark Sullivan wrote that she was an "elderly spinster who... has been the personification of the historic traditions of the Democratic Party" (September, 1938).

"Is It Really Prosperity?" by Leon Barritt in New York World, July 31, 1897

Some of these old newspaper cartoons suffer greatly in the process of transferring microfiche photos of yellowing newsprint to internet-friendly .pdfs. Some were created by people who may have been fine engravers but poor cartoonists. And ones like our first cartoon were marred by having a column of type laid across a large corner of the drawing.

The width of newspaper columns of type in those days was fixed and unyielding, so if there was more copy on the page than fit with the graphics and advertising, the graphics had to suffer. Unless another print of this cartoon exists somewhere, we'll never know what those black squiggles under the sun of "prosperity" were supposed to be.

"Pretty Thoroughly Disguised" by Crapo (?) in Philadelphia Press, ca. August 2, 1896

The signature on this cartoon from the Philadelphia Press looks to me like "Crapo," but I can't be sure of that. As with most of the cartoons in today's post, the issue is the tension between the party's free traders on the one hand and its populist backers of high tariffs and free silver on the other.

"Don't You Ride, Mr. Cleveland?" by Charles G. Bush in New York Telegram, ca. April 24, 1896

"Those Fellows' Legs Won't Even Reach the Pedals" by Leon Barritt (?) in New York Press, ca. April 26, 1896

I can't find a signature on either of these cartoons, but the printing of the caption in the second resembles that in some cartoons by Leon Barritt, who was the regular cartoonist for the New York Press in the mid-1890's. The New York Press had, according to its Page One flag, the "The largest circulation of any Republican paper in the United States," which explains why Miss Republican is so much more attractive than Miss Democracy.

"Miss Democracy Is Feeling Quite Well..." by Leon Barritt in New York Press, February 27, 1895

Reaching further back in the New York Press archives, I began to like Barritt as a likely originator of Miss Democracy. As noted above, he also drew for Vim (I haven't located their archives yet), a nationally distributed humor magazine. Not only did Miss Democracy appear in several of Barritt's cartoons, she was named in numerous single-sentence editorials in the Press — snide remarks like "And now they are talking about Miss Democracy in her divided skirt."

"Is Not That a Beautiful Piece of Patchwork?" by Leon Barritt in New York Press, Nov. 28, 1893

The same mini-editorials made for filler in other Republican newspapers, and so did Barritt's cartoons. Republicans, then as now, enjoy parroting the talking points that come out of Republican Talking Point Central.

"Too Faithful Dog Tray" by Herbert Merrill Wilder in Harper's Weekly, June 18, 1892

Going further back, however, I still find Miss — or in this case Madame — Democracy in cartoons by other cartoonists in well-established national publications. This Herbert Wilder cartoon on this issue of tariff reform found its way into some daily newspapers (which didn't have the ability to render the same level of detail as the weekly magazines).

"Which of You Can Bell the Tiger?" by unknown artist in Baltimore Herald, ca. June 22, 1892

Reprints often looked fairly awful. I can't find a signature on this one originally in the Baltimore Herald and included in a round-up of national cartoons in the New York Press. This "Miss Democracy" isn't dowdy at all (it's hard to read it in this wretched reproduction, but that's the label dangling off her hip).

"Miss Democracy Tantalus" by Leon Barritt in New York Press, April 3, 1892

Nor is she elderly in this 1892 cartoon by Leon Barritt. From what I've seen, Barritt began signing cartoons in the New York Press in 1890 (several cartoons, often only one column wide, were unsigned), and neither he nor any of his fellow cartoonists at the Press employed Miss Democracy at all that year.

"Her Platform Going to Pieces" by Bernard Gillam in Puck, March 26, 1884

Ms. Democracy is comely in this cartoon by Bernard Gillam in Puck, a far more influential humor magazine in its day than Vim ever was. For now, this is the oldest cartoon I've found in which the Democratic party is represented by a woman. (The gentlemen in the cartoon about tariff reform are House Speaker John Carlisle, D-KY, and former House Speaker Samuel Randall, D-PA. Harpweek notes that the Democratic platform that year settled for vague platitudes on the tariff issue.)

"Cold Buckwheats" by Bernard Gillam in Judge, October 12, 1889

Puck was a non-partisan but not non-political humor magazine; Gillam left Puck for Judge magazine after Republican interests bought the latter and turned that humor magazine into a G.O.P. mouthpiece. That might explain why Gillam's Ms. Democracy aged so poorly in a mere five years.

Gillam was not a fierce partisan; his "Phryne Before the Chicago Tribunal" cartoon of Republican James Blaine is one of two cartoons credited with dooming the campaign of the Republicans' 1884 presidential nominee — but Gillam voted for Blaine anyway.

I have found a reference to "Aunty Democracy" in a September 25, 1885 editorial in the New York Herald, and one to "Dame Democracy" in Truth (New York) on September 28, 1883, but no cartoon of her that far back. Yet. Until I find evidence to the contrary, I'm almost ready to proclaim Gillam my prime suspect as the inventor of the "elderly spinster" version of Miss Democracy. Does anyone beg to differ?

Q Toon: Pete, or Repeat

Video went viral last week of a woman learning at her Iowa Democratic caucus that a candidate she supported, Pete Buttigieg, is gay. Somehow, she had never heard this before, and since there's no same-sex marriage in the Bible, she asked to change her vote.

This week's cartoon is not about her.

That woman was also wearing stickers for Amy Klobuchar, a perfectly reasonable alternative for any voter who may have been interested in Pete Buttigieg. They're both centrist Democrats from the Midwest, with similar stands on most major issues. Chances are good that either is the second choice of many of the other's supporters.

If few of the Democratic candidates are catching fire yet, it's because most Democrats would be just as happy voting for any of the candidates besides the one they favor the most.

Most Democrats, that is, other than certain Bernie Sanders supporters from whom I hear a lot. So do pollsters.

In 2016, pollsters found that ten percent of Bernie Sanders voters in the primaries cast ballots for Donald Trump in November, which flabbergasts me. Wanting to shake up the system is one thing, but the differences between Socialist Sanders and Plutocrat Trump are so vast one has to wonder what exactly it was that the 10% saw in both of them.

10% of Bernie Bros may not sound like a lot, but they were enough to tip Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to Trump.

I'm guessing that if he doesn't get the nomination, most Buttigieg supporters today will support, more or less enthusiastically, whomever the Democratic nominee turns out to be rather than Donald Berzelius Trump. But you can never be sure about these voters who have only started paying attention to the race in the past week or two.

I don't know how else to explain a voter who had no idea that Buttigieg is gay and finds that fact to be a deal breaker.

Every one of the other Democratic candidates supports marriage equality, anathema to the crowd pushing to legislate Leviticus. If this woman gets all her news from her evangelical preacher, there's a good chance Revrunt Soandso's has forgiven Trump his multitude of sins past, present and future, but still thinks that Barack Obama was the Antichrist and that the current Democratic field is just as bad.

Oh, by the way, did she know that Amy Klobuchar is a Vikings fan?

I May Be Accused of Being Confused

This Week's Sneak Peek

When I linked on Facebook to Saturday's "In Search of Aunty Democracy" post, I noted that some more definitive tome on her was sure to pop up as soon as I did so.

Although nothing about her origin has yet turned up, sure enough, somebody pointed me to some examples of her that were older than the ones I had already found. Looks like this Saturday's topic is already set, then.

In Search of Aunty Democracy

One of these Saturday posts last month included a pair of 1920 cartoons by Clifford Berryman featuring Miss Democracy, a common representation of the Democratic Party at the time but which has long since disappeared from the scene. Here she is with door-to-door book seller Vice President Thomas Marshall 100 years ago.

"Who Was He?" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, February 17, 1920

It got me to wondering where she came from, and in spite of much digging and wandering down rabbit holes, I haven't been able to uncover anything written about her. There has been plenty written about the Democratic donkey, Republican elephant, Tammany tiger, Uncle Sam, Brother Jonathan, Columbia and so forth, but I haven't found any discussion of this lady.

"Lan' Sakes, What'll I Do with 'Em?" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, November, 7, 1912

Berryman was not alone in popularizing the character, who was variously labeled "Miss Democracy" or "Aunty Democracy." The word "Democracy" here was a common reference not to the system of government but to the Democratic Party (as noted back in my posts about R.C. Bowman). A dowdy, usually bespectacled woman of a certain age, she typically dressed in frilly clothes that would have been fashionable in the mid- to late 19th Century.

"Hen(dricks)pecked" by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, August 5, 1876

One often turns to Thomas Nast as the originator for such things, even though he did not invent either the Democratic donkey or the Republican elephant as commonly supposed. He did depict the Democrats' 1876 Vice Presidential candidate Thomas Hendricks as a frumpy "Mrs. Tilden" once or twice (nowhere near as often as he drew cartoons of the "rag baby" representing the Democrats' attempts to make a campaign issue of inflation), which hardly seems sufficient exposure to inspire the next generation of cartoonists to use "Mrs. Tilden" as a template for Miss Democracy. Besides, "Mrs. Tilden" was, ipso facto, married.

"Aunty Democracy" by Charles "Bart" Bartholomew in Minneapolis Journal, August 30, 1899

The earliest incontrovertible examples of Aunty/Miss Democracy my admittedly less than exhaustive research have turned up are by Charles "Bart" Bartholomew of the Minneapolis Journal in 1899. Here he is making a pun on "Aunty" and "Anti"; whether he was taking advantage of a name and character already in existence I cannot say for sure. Bart returned the character to half a dozen or so cartoons that year, and not always to exploit the pun.

"Modern Ulysses and the Siren" by Charles "Bart" Bartholomew, in Minneapolis Journal, September 28, 1899

Cartoonists often cast Miss Democracy in the role of a spinster eager for a mate, but also as the pursued maiden.

"And the Williams Still Pursued Her" by Fred Morgan (?) in Philadelphia Inquirer, 1904

Here she is fleeing William Jennings Bryan and William Hearst, by a Philadelphia Inquirer cartoonist I presume to be Fred Morgan. She's listing hosts of her party's presidential nominating conventions from 1896 to 1904. Does "First I tried New York" mean that she came into existence with the 1896 campaign?

"A Critical Inspection of the Candidates" by Bob Satterfield for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., 1904

Bob Satterfield offers an example of "Aunty Democracy" that isn't trying to make an "anti-democracy" pun — at least, I don't think she's trying to fry the Democratic hopefuls under her magnifying glass. That's twice former President Grover Cleveland under the table, and twice unsuccessful (thus far) nominee William Jennings Bryan in the waste barrel.

"Trying to Stick Them Together" by Rowland C. Bowman in Minneapolis Tribune, 1901

Aunty Democracy isn't seeking a mate in Satterfield's cartoon, or in this one by Bart's crosstown rival, my old pal Rowland C. Bowman. Bowman departs from convention by naming her "Dame Democracy," and in at least one other Bowman cartoon, she has children of her own.

"Iowa Has Done an' Dud Up 'at Old Dead Tat" by R.C. Bowman in Minneapolis Tribune, 1901

I like Bowman's use of alliteration, but among his peers, "Miss Democracy" was her most common moniker.

"Trespassing" by Thomas S. Sullivant for Hearst Newspapers, ca. May 12, 1908

Which brings up the question of why there wasn't a similar character to represent the Republican Party. Surely there were ample occasions when some Miss Republicanism might go a-courtin', or receive gentlemen callers, as in this cartoon in which Joseph Keppler compares Teddy Roosevelt's endorsement of William Howard Taft for the 1908 GOP nomination to The Courtship of Miles Standish.

"The Courtship of Bill Taft" by Joseph Keppler in Puck, April 24, 1907

I've always pictured Priscilla Mullins (a distant relative of mine, whom one of my aunts was named after) as a more attractive woman than this, given that Miles Standish and John Alden both fall for her. So I find it odd that Keppler drew her this way when in earlier cartoons, he had represented the Republican Party as an idealized female specimen.

"Shooing 'Em In" by Louis Dalrymple in Puck, June 1, 1892

But if Keppler couldn't decide what Miss Republicanism ought to look like, neither could his fellow Puck cartoonists.

"Her Pet" by Frederick Opper in Puck, April 13, 1892

Frederick Opper also gives Miss Republican two completely different guises. If these three influential cartoonists couldn't agree what Miss Republicanism ought to look like, what possible hope was there that she would ever catch on with the rest of the nation's ink-stained wretches?

"Their Time Has Come Again" by Frederick Opper in Puck, July 27, 1892

Returning to Miss Democracy, then. She gradually fell out of favor with the generation of cartoonists who followed Bart, Clifford Berryman, et al. (So too does the use of the word "Democracy" to refer to the Democratic Party.) One doesn't find her in the cartoons of the Ashcan School, or, for that matter, most leftist cartoonists using any media.

"What I Want I Can't Get" by Silvey J. Ray in Kansas City Star, 1952

The latest examples I've seen of her are in the 1950's, by which time everything about her is way out of date. She was incongruous to the party of organized labor, civil rights, and progressivism. Nevertheless she persisted, pursuing and being pursued.

"'Tis But Thy Name That Is My Enemy" by Herbert Block in Washington Post, February, 1950

Herblock, from what I've seen, used her only to represent the Dixiecrat wing of the Democratic Party, and hardly ever at that. He included the above cartoon in his first book, in a chapter largely about using stock characters versus caricatures of actual politicians; of this cartoon, he wrote nothing about her but mused that the joining of Dixiecrats with the G.O.P. might necessitate creation of a new stock character someday.

"Harry—What a Hat!" by Leo Joseph Roche in Buffalo Courier-Express, June, 1956

In conclusion, here is the most recent cartoon appearance of Miss Democracy that I know of, in which she is stunned by former President Harry Truman's receipt of an honorary degree from Oxford University.