Puck's Presidential Possibilities No. I: The National Knife-Grinder

Frank Marion Hutchins caricatures Ohio senator John Sherman—three-time presidential also-ran—as a street knife-grinder working a wheel labeled "Nomination" while sharpening a blade marked "Law-Breaking Strikers." A placard on his rig reads "Please Help a Poor Perennial Aspirant to Get to the White House." Surrounding storefronts represent rival factions—Silverites, Woman's Rights, Populists, Protectionists—each tenant thrusting a knife forward for Sherman to grind, suggesting he will opportunistically weaponize any grievance for votes. A lone Striker leans against a fence, visually isolated. The cartoon targets Sherman's reputation as a calculating trimmer without core conviction, skewering his 1894 positioning against labor unrest (the Pullman Strike had just ended) as cynical vote-chasing dressed up as law-and-order patriotism.