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?