Puck — May 1877 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes President Rutherford B. Hayes's social policies following his contested 1876 election. The caption reads "View of a Party of His Friends Going to Dine with President Hayes." The joke appears to target Hayes's known temperance stance—he famously banned alcohol from White House functions. The figure on the left carries what looks like a wine basket or drinks case, while the middle figure holds what appears to be a bottle, and the third rushes ahead. The satire suggests that Hayes's friends must now *smuggle in* their own alcohol to presidential dinners, mocking his strict moral policies as inconvenient and impractical. "The New Regime" emphasizes that Hayes represented a departure from previous presidential social customs—a point of political criticism among those who saw his puritanism as excessive reform.