Puck's Greeting to the New Year

Ehrhart stages the annual year-change as a bicycle race on a divided road. At right, 1898 — a rosy young woman in a red jacket, plaid skirt, and sash — pedals forward into sunlit, flower-strewn scenery. At left, 1897 — a haggard old woman — retreats into bare, wintry trees, her bicycle kicking up a whirlwind explicitly labeled "Bryanism" and "Hard Times": a direct editorial swipe at William Jennings Bryan's failed 1896 free-silver campaign and the depression it symbolized. Two Fury-like figures writhe inside the dust cloud. In the foreground, Puck himself — rendered as a cherubic boy in a coat, carrying a lithographic pen and staff — tips his hat to the arriving year. The caption reads: "Good luck to you! No punctures, no breakdowns, and easy roads!" The cartoon reflects mainstream Eastern Republican optimism as the McKinley-era recovery took hold.