We return again with another cartoon in Puck magazine’s The Tattooed-Man series. parodying former Speaker of the House, James G. Blaine. His long career filled with corruption and impropriety, inspired Puck‘s artist to depict him as a man whose body is tattooed head-to-toe with his many sins. I’m running the series because of Blaine’s numerous parallels with current Republican candidate, Newt Gingrich. Parallels which not only liberal me has been pointing out, but so are many conservative bloggers, afraid that Gingrich would tear down Republican chances the same as Blaine did in 1884.

Above, by artist Bernhard Gillam, is The Receiving-Vault of the Republican Politicians Who Defied Public Morality. Sub-titled, “The Wire-Pullers Have Nominated Him; But the People Will Send Him Where They Have Sent the Others”, it references the recent nomination by Republican Convention delegates of Blaine for President in 1884.

This cartoon is absolutely crammed with details, many of which are only visible by clicking on the above picture to enlarge it. Hilights I’ll point out, are: the listing of the sins of the already entombed, carved in stone above them; Blaine’s own sarcophagus, which depicts the sins we often see tattooed on him, in mock Ancient Egyptian style; the “Nominated June 6. Embalmed Nov. 1884″ which also appears on his sarcophogus; and (bottom center), a still empty coffin, labeled, “Ready for the Next One Found Out”.

The cartoon ran as the centerspread in the June 11th, 1884 issue of Puck.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoon in detail, and to read its many captions plus the narrative below.

The inside front page of Puck often (though not always) ran editorial commentary tied-in with their large front, back, and center-page color cartoons. Below, from the same June 11th issue, an unusually long rant, concentrated entirely on the nomination of Blaine.

Note, while I’ve so far been running these Blaine cartoons on Saturdays, I’ll be posting one of the most significant cartoons of the series, this coming Super Tuesday.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics NYPuck TattooedMan