Frederick Burr Opper’s June 18, 2025 cover for Puck magazine — The “Three Honest Men” of Wall Street Declare for Blaine — depicts, of course, the furthest thing from “Honest Men”. Shown in operatic pirate garb, is Wall Street’s top pirate of the latter 19th century — Jay Gould — flanked by two of the more prominent second-tier pirates, Russell Sage and Cyrus Field. Their swords are engraved with the words: “Put and Call Gambler“, “Railroad Wrecker“, and “Elevated R.R. Grabber“. The title of the cartoon states that they ”Declare for Blaine“. James Blaine was the 1884 Republican candidate for President, heavily parodied for attempting to paint the truth as he wanted people to believe it, rather than as it actually was. (An 1884 parody comic, Blaine Truth, targeted this, while Puck frequently portrayed him as tattoed head-to-toe with various incidents and connections he’d rather people not know about or remember.)

Click on picture, to see an enlarged version.

Click here to find prior Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons entries, and related I.T.C.H. posts. This series will continue, so long as the debate on financial reforms continues in Congress (except Mondays and holidays, during which I’d already had other material planned).

Doug Wheeler

financial reform

NYPuck