Puck: 'Congratulations, Mr. President; They Wanted You'

Published the week after Theodore Roosevelt won the 1904 presidential election in his own right—having inherited the office after McKinley's assassination in 1901—this double-page Keppler spread literalizes the magazine's self-importance alongside genuine editorial warmth. On the left, the cherubic Puck mascot, rendered as a plump blond child in top hat and pink sash, stands atop the Puck Building in lower Manhattan, American flag flying overhead. On the right, a giant, grinning Roosevelt leans out from the White House colonnade, the Capitol dome visible behind him. Across the autumn-colored landscape separating New York from Washington, the two clasp hands. The caption—spoken by Puck—credits the people's will, not party machinery. Keppler's Roosevelt is robust and jovial, a caricature flattering rather than hostile, reflecting Puck's broadly progressive sympathy with TR's reform agenda.