Puck's Presidential Possibilities. No. III, The Czar Out for a Job

Louis Dalrymple caricatures Thomas B. Reed—the autocratic Maine congressman nicknamed "Czar" for his iron rule of the House—as an actual monarch in ermine-trimmed robes and jester's crown, standing on a pedestal labeled MAINE. He peers through a telescope bent back on itself, labeled Presidential Aspirations, toward the White House: ambition that curves fruitlessly toward the viewer. Behind him, a tiny, green-suited Joe Manley quietly lifts a gavel labeled Speaker of Next House of Representatives from Reed's slack hand. The caption reads: The Czar Out for a Job. Dalrymple's point is compact and cruel—Reed is so consumed by presidential fantasy that he cannot hold the congressional power he already possesses. The 1894 midterms loomed; Puck's Democratic editors relished Reed's overreach.