The Wasp — 1892 — page 425: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes the "Democratic rooster" — a symbol of the Democratic Party — crowing about Cleveland's political victories. The poem mocks Cleveland (likely Grover Cleveland, a prominent 19th-century Democratic president) and the Democratic political machine, repeatedly demanding the rooster stop its boasting with "Ray for Grover Cleveland—cock-a-doodle-do!" The satire suggests Democratic celebration is premature or unwarranted. References to searching "heaps of fossils," raising "a merry war among / The Democratic hosts," and filling the "Custom House" indicate criticism of Democratic governance, patronage appointments, and party corruption. The cartoon uses the rooster as a device to mock Democratic chest-thumping and political claims.