Cartoon critical of Great Britain's lack of support of the Union depicting the country as a greedy, pompous, and disingenuous child. Depicts a smiling, well-dressed, plump lad partaking of a lavish table of food in front of an emaciated, begging dog on an outside patio near the ocean. In the background, an American ship sails near the shore and displays a banner labeled, "Coal?" On the shore, near a row of cannons and a pile of coal, soldiers display a British flag labeled "No!", Date of publication supplied by Weitenkampf., Publisher's imprint stamped below title., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Date
[between 1862 and 1864]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1862-30W [6392.F]
The dollar worshipper kneels before a woman who has large sacks of money by her feet. The worshipper has a serpentine body with a curved spine and a hooked nose that suggests that he is Jewish. The large mirror and the curtained windows in the room suggest that the woman is wealthy. Because of the proximity of the woman to the money, it is not clear whom or what he worships., Text: Ha, ha, 'tis thus on bended knee, / You press your vows of adoration,/ But virtue's not your honest plea,/ Nor yet a life of pure devotion,/ For naught but the almighty dollar,/ Could make you wear the marriage collar., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man kneels before a stone tomb. On top of it is a barrel marked "Gold." The barrel is shaded, and the front of the tomb is yellow., , Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man sitting at a table holds a bag marked "50,500." More bags fill a bin on the table marked "CASH." A letter holder is mounted on the wall behind him., Text: You grasping Usurer, you rascally Knave, Master of Wealth, yet still its slave! / For worlds I would not link my name with [thine] : For, gold can't purchase a true / Valentine., Cf. Valentine 4.30., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A young woman walks holding a stack of school books. The valentine criticizes her fixation on money., Text: While cramming your mind with pounds, shillings, and/ pence, / You must still leave some room for good common sense; / For though to the top of the ladder you mount, / Without sense your great learning will be no account., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The miserly woman looks over shoulder. Her hands rest on a pile of gold coins, and money bags "3000" and "50,000" sit on the table beside her., Text: Trembling at each wind that's passing, / Fearing danger to your gold / You've spent all your life amassing; / How your petty soul is sold!, Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman stands in front of two men sitting at a table with a plate with two small fish on it. The man on the left holds up two fingers. Behind them is a sign that reads "Boarders will settle every week in advance. Mrs. Gutstarve.", Text: You stingy, shrivel'd, wrinkled, close-skin'd skin-flint, / You advertise for boarders in the papers, / But any man who has any sense or wit, / Can't stand your nasty tricks and capers. / One herring for two men, that is our fare, / And what is left of breakfast, for our dinner, / You think you are making money by your snare, / But you will find that you are the winner., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The valentine shows a man holding a bag of money marked "$50,000." The border resembles bank note engraving., Text: You grasping Usurer, you rascally Knave, / Master of Wealth, yet still its slave! / For worlds I would not link my name with thine / For, gold can't purchase a true Valentine., Cf. Valentine 4.29., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man carries a yoke with two buckets. One is labelled chalk and the other water. Milk means to take undue profit and the use of "cream" and "surface" suggest that the milkman is cheating his customers by adulterating his product so that it looks like milk., Text: Bawling about the streets you go, / With noisy cry of milk Be—low, / BE-LOW indeed the MILK must be, / We none upon the SURFACE see, / For it is plain you never fail / To milk the cow with the iron tail. / Of all the MILKMEN I have seen, / Of roguery you are the CREAM., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
The Boarding House Landlady has pointed teeth, a hooked nose, and grimaces. She holds a long bill marked "Board bill" and points to trunk marked "SAM." Behind her is a sign that reads "Boarding." She wears an apron, bonnet, and red shawl., Text: Behold yourself! Mistress of Starvation Hall, / Whose beds are like boards-- as hard as a wall; / You who stint your poor boarders of what's on the table, / And make your bill as long as ever your able., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man leans back in his chair and puts his feet up on the table. A bag of money sits on the table behind him and his head is covered with slips of paper. On says "Bond" and another "Pacific RR". The valentine suggests not only that he married his wife for her money, but also that the money has not given him class., Text: You married money, then—at least that fact is stated. / Alas! Your suffering wife, her taste was vitiated. / Oh! The poor maids should wed whoever fate doth show them. / They seldom marry equals, and often those below them. / You needn’t put on airs, and show your shapeless feet, / For if you found your level, you’d be sweeping in the street. / We can always tell a man, no matter how he feels, / And if he is a donkey he always shows his heels., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
The large-nosed boarding-house keeper is very thin. She holds a thin rooster by the neck in one hand and a knife in the other; "Age 65" is written on its body. A speech bubble by her face reads "You'l do/ Old BUZZARD." A butter dish with legs and insects appear in the top left corner. The border features a woman embracing a man; the pair resembled Commedia dell'arte characters. At the bottom is a pack of matches marked "Lucifer's matches.", Text: Old mother Skinflint, I know you well, / Your species is common, and mean at that; / You think yourself able to "keep an hotel," / Which in you're too stingy to keep a cat. / Your boarders look yellow and skinny and thin, / Just like the old rooster you feed them on-- / Why don't you hang out, from your sorry inn, / The sign of the "Living Skeleton?", Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
Cartoon during the Bank War satirizing the Whig Party as greedy, anti-democratic, pro-Bank, pro-business infidels who worship in the Temple of Mammon to the false god of riches. Atop the temple, a white man, holding a flag inscribed "No Veto! The Bank! Down with Democracy!" kneels on a pedestal inscribed "Bank Candidate. War, Pestilence, and Famine." Within the temple sit symbolic and political figures including: the Devil representing the "Hartford Convention" of 1815, which debated Northern secession; the "High Church" as a clergyman pleading for donations to preach; the "High Priest" Henry Clay with his "U.S. Bank Book" sitting on his throne the "Chair of State"; the "High Chancellor," Bank of the United States president, Nicholas Biddle pouring out a bag of money to buy newspaper editors; a Northerner ("High Tarrif") discussing slavery, "You Southern Barons have black slaves will you not allow us to make white slaves of our poor population in our Manufacturing Baronies"; and southern pro-nullification senator John C. Calhoun ("No Tariff"), who bemoans his association with Whigs in his personal campaign against political rival Martin Van Buren. In the foreground, worshipers, including monkeys, pray and are chained near a printing press, pro-Bank newspapers, and flags and banners. The flags and banners denigrate "Jefferson," "democracy," and "equal rights" and support "high tariffs," the "merchant class," the "Bank of the United States," and "white slavery.", Title from item., Artist's initial lower left corner: H., Probably published by labor radical Seth Luther., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2001, p. 27, 30., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date
[1833?]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1833-20 [5760.F.43]