Puck — August 8, 1877 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes Henry Ward Beecher, a prominent Brooklyn clergyman whose 1874 adultery scandal had recently concluded. The central figure depicts Beecher as a hypocrite: his suit displays various vices (drinking, gambling, womanizing) he publicly condemned from the pulpit. The title references the gap between his preached morality ("Theory") and his exposed personal conduct ("Practice"). Observers on either side appear to be witnesses to this revelation. The caption—"The Man Who Can't Live on Bread and Water is Not Fit to Live"—likely mocks Beecher's moral pronouncements given his exposed indulgences. The cartoon exemplifies Puck's role exposing public hypocrisy during the Gilded Age.