There may no longer be any urgency in pointing out the parallels between the corrupt & morally lacking present Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, and the G.O.P.’s 1884 Presidential nominee, James Blaine. But, having already dug out and scanned a large number of Blaine cartoons — including several in the twenty-two cartoon Tattooed Man series — it would be a shame not to post them.

Above, from the centerspread of the July 30th, 1884 issue of Puck magazine, He Can’t Beat His Own Record. In this cartoon by Puck founder, Joseph Keppler, Sr., Blaine is shown losing a race to his own tattooed shadow — analogous to his being losing the Presidential race (as he did) because of his record of corruption and indiscretions, the hilights of which are tattooed on his shadow.

Click on the above cartoon, to both view it in detail, and read the tattooes.

The wreaths decorating the tent in the background, have ribbons saying they are compliments of Blaine’s Wall Street Stock Manipulator backers, Jay Gould, Cyrus Field, and Russell Sage (who together were parodied as “The Three Honest Men of Wall Street” (not!))

Below, from the same July 30th, 1884 Puck issue, the editorial prose accompaniment piece for the above cartoon.

To read more about the above cartoon — and other cartoons in The Tattooed-Man series, click here to read the article, One Misdeed Evokes Another: How Political Cartoonists Used “Scandal Intertextuality” Against Presidential Candidate James G. Blaine, by Harlen Makemson of Elon University.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics TattooedMan NYPuck KepplerSr