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The
Omaha
VOL. XLI-NO. 40.
How it Feels to Be Cartooned -Told from
Mr; Rosewater-CoadescendSi"
Bf VICTOR ROSEWATER,
Member Republican National Committee from
Nebraska,
OW does it feel to be cartooned?
HI Well, that depends upon the car
I toon, and also upon whether It la a
nrsc experience or you nave Become
used to it by repetition of the offense.
The cartoon may produce in the
subject either a feeling of elation or
of disgust
If it la a good cartoon laid on a broad founda
tion of humor, and the point is well made, It should
arouse no resentment " A person ought to be able
to take a Joke and a cartoon Is supposed to be a
joke perpetrated in picture when the joke Is on
him as when It is on the other fellow. If the car
toon is a distortion breathing malice or deliberate
misrepresentation in every line, why, it stimulates
a desire to get sight of the artist and have a brick
hand? about the time he comes within hitting dis
tance. But the ambition to retaliate on the car
toonist will fade away when you realize that be Is
Just working at his profession and probably draw
ing pictures as be Is told to draw them, possibly
having the ideas supplied to him to be elaborated
on the drawing board.
With the single exception of Mr. Bryan, who
unquestionably holds the record for having been
the target for more cartoons than any other person
on earth, I believe I have figured in a larger num
ber of such pictorial portrayals than anyone else
now living In Nebraska. This honor, or disgrace,
whichever way It Is viewed, is due to the persistent
practice of personal politics pursued by the opposi
tion In this city and state by which I, aa was my
father before me, have been singled out personally
to take the burden of every campaign Instead of
the candidates whom I may be' favoring. Never an
election passes In which a stranger judging by tbe
cartoons might not easily be led to imagine that I
was running for at least one, If not every, office on
tbe ticket, although I have never sought election
: to publie office of any -kind. Perhaps it Is sheer
. vanity that has impelled me to save the cartoons
in which a pretended likeness of myself figures It
ao, I admit the charge but the collection makes
an Interesting record of past politics and current
blntory, more Interesting to me, no doubt, than to
anyone else. I have now nearly 100 of these draw
1 Ings In my possession, and more a-coming every
little while. , m
T-Memorable First Cartoon.
Tes, I reuiember the appearance of my first
: cartoon. It was just a little one, but the artist
"hit It off," aa it were. I had been on the ground
at the legislature of 1901 In Lincoln somewhat
actively engaged In supervising the job of electing
' two United States senators, assisted by. or assist
ing, a number of similarly self-sacrificing patriots
with like purposes, among them then District Judge
"Ben" Baker. The judge and I offered the car
toonist just the sort of contrasts that be revels in.
I measure five feet four and a half inches, which is
below the average, and weigh around 12S pounds, '
while "Ben" la large of height and girth and tips
the scales quite generously. I have a head of hair
that makes me get my money's worth whenever I
patronise the barber shop, while "Ben" combs 'his
cranium with a waslirag and, except for the small
pace occupied by an invisible fringe near the neck,
keep a roller skating rink for files all the year
- round. I do cot use tobacco in any form, while
"Ben's" most constant companion ia a big black
cigar, so jov. can readily see what the cartoonist
did to aa There Is "Ben" with feet on terra Anna
as against me perched high on a soap box placed oa .
a chair, and then just able to get my mouth on a
level with his ear. "Ben" has his cigar at a rakish
tilt and wears clothes that bespeak the man of the
world, while I am made to look like an Immature
boy just out of college it might have been kinder-
garten.
Of course, I was all puffed up by that cartoon.
I thought I must be beginning to amount to some
thing to attract that muck attention. I showed It
without attempting to conceal my pride, to friends
and acquaintances. I even felt complimented by
being associated with such a great man as Judge
Baker and to be able to rise as high as he did, even
though I had to pile a soap box on top of a chair
to do so.
Working on m Fassoos Toga
Oat of the senatorial campaign of 1901 grew a
merles of cartoons la which. I figured, sometimes ia
A.x fte trrlJ EerJJ '
T3
VlCTOfc
ICDGE - JtEM
the foreground and sometimes in the background.
In these I was exhibited as working on a toga for
"My Pa," and to emphasise the relationship of
father and son I was thrust back Into youthful ap
parel with knickerbockers. Buster Brown collar and
butterfly necktie, which were entirely foreign to
my regular costume. I was depicted as Industri
ously sewing this mantle together, as trying to
protect It from mutilation by political enemies and
of carrying it through the different stsges and
vicissitudes of the contest, finally tearfully bringing
it home In tatters at the conclusion of the conven
tion try-out. .
The preliminary campaign for the support of
Nebraska In the republican national convention in
1908 brought me more or less Into the thick of It,
and at the same time into the cartoon limelight.
Then, as now, Mr. Taft was tbe candidate with
whom I had enlisted, while the opposition likewise
started out behind Senator La Foilette, and later,
when they found they were losing ground, tried to
shift to former President Roosevelt The personali
ties of the campaign could not be kept out, nor tbe
artists' pencil withstand the temptation offered.
Then the republican party became an Infant with
lusty lungs, with a tag suspended by a string
around Its neck labeled "Republican Reform,"
which Infant I had kidnaped and made away with
despite the frantic efforts of several self-styled re
formers to retain possession of the child. At the
next turn I had "boarded a lumbering old automo
bile, inscribed, "Nebraska O. O. P.," in wfcich I
continued to carry the kidnaped youngster, along
The Gag Slips.
m
T" XT'
I J w
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, MAKdl 24.
Delivering the Goods.
The"True Inwir&wu" ol Last Night's Tift Banquet
J" 1
"BAKE! AKT "DOC.
1 jmm 3taW f mrM
If-
VICTOR ROSewATJCR. ,
(Discussing .the- situation.)
with me, unceremoniously bumping obstacles In tbe
path. i
An Interchange of correspondence with the cus
todian of the La Foilette boom gave occasion for
what I consider one of the cleverest cartoons that
has been perpetrated upon me. In my open letter
I said something about "condescending" to reply
to persistent attacks previously Ignored, and so I
was portrayed as coming down from my high horse
by step-ladder route to deliver the political enemy
a stinging slap on the wrist The equine with Its
elongated legs must have drawn Its inspiration from
tbe wooden horse of Troy sung by the Greek poets,
and, while tbe portrait likenesses would scarce be
recognizable without the name Imprinted, the ex
ecution was not so deficient as to obliterate a good
idea altogether.
Drilling Delegates for Taft
As tbe delegates were elected, and Instructed
for Taft, I became a schoolmaster drilling them In a
chorus with a flail In one hand, representing the
machine threatening political castigatlon to those
who did sot respond right The stato convention
-finally completed the work by commissioning me,
along with others, as one of the deiegates-at-Iarge
under instructions that made it a solid Taft delega
tion from Nebraska. I then suddenly In the car
toonist's mind became the whole republican party,
with the elephant sticking his head out of my
pocket, and the "Thank you" telegram from Mr.
Taft displayed, to say nothing of other emblematic
ornamentation intended to epitomize tbe Interests
P4Kr
7fli 2JnU
1912.
't -nn a
to; sauce'
charged by tbe democrats with, contributing to tbe
result In culmination came the presentation by
me to Mr. Taft at tbe banquet he attended here
in Omaha shortly afterward, of the Nebraska O. O.
P., a miniature elephant carefully bound up In testi
mony of "Delivering the goods."
Turning Tables on the Tariff.
After the tickets were In the field and I became
one of the managers on behalf of tbe republican
candidates with special charge ' of the publicity
work in tbe west. It goes without saying that I con
tinued to be a mark for my cartoonist friends. An
Incident, or rather an accident, of the campaign by
which, during my absence, one of the editorial
writers on The Bee failed to recognize a quotation
by Mr. Bryan from the tariff plank of the repub
lican platform and proceeded to dress It down with
characteristic ridicule, gave an opening that could
not be passed up. I had no more to do with It, nor
was I justly to be held personally responsible for
it, any more than Senator Hitchcock for tbe antl
O. A. R. editorial In the World-Herald, which he
has been periodically explaining, but that did not
prevent the "break" being put upon me as one of
tbe Taft campaign factotums and the changes rung
upon It on tbe stump by Mr. Bryan himself and In
tbe democratic newspapers. Chairman Mack of the
democratic national committee put his corps of
professional medicine mixers at work on It and the
cartoons they evolved and syndicated appeared In
newspapers, big and little, from one end of the
country to the other. It was a good stunt and in-
PA - m
. V Ml i
The RiPVBUCAN
TAftnr n auk 'n
A CATrilPENNy iite
- IT NCANJ
SIMPLf N0WKQ'.
M ' Arret
tkcm
OUT fjllinilH.
T9; ROUND OUT Ollt
'0yAsrtl
. 71 04 an
eaei' mis.- m mtt -.- ' "MS, Tl '
aL JE7CIC AND VIC," the Republican CoaeoW
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
Experience
matelhrttamtf
A PRESENT fOR PA'
jected a little harmless ginger Into the campaign
just at a moment It threatened to become acrimoni
ous and did no one any great damage.
The political contest of the following year pro
duced more repetition than variety In the picture
game. Tbe sacred O. O. P. elephant continued to
follow me like a doolie animal and go through all
the different motions according to my direction.
The election turned out a republican triumph,
swinging Nebraska back Into the republican col
umn, but that did not stop my appearing as one of
the drivers of "tbe Rosewater-Hayward machine,"
with the exclamation, "We won. BUI, but we can't
stand many such victories."
Tbe political battle of two years ago, and of
last year as well, added the usual quota to my car
toon collection. The machine reappears with Its
customary transformation of drivers and passen
gers, "Ben" Baker steering this time, and Governor
Aldrlch and Senator Burkett riding behind. Edgar
Howard was cast for companion1 piece in some of
them, which went to the extremes .of personal men
dacity. The Impending Presidential Contest
Tbe present presidential campaign has been on
for more than six months and already brought Us
early crop. The occasion of the visit of President
Taft to Nebraska last October followed the publica
tion of a letter by Governor Aldrlch addressed to
Ross Hammond, declaring himself unreservedly tor
La Foilette, produced picture plays that elicited
considerable comment Ia one of them I am ex
hibited In the act of "gagging" the governor. The
latter Is represented as a parrot to f r as body and
beak go, ibut with his well-known facial features.
I have clfmbed up a long ladder In order to tie bis
mouth shut, with tbe remark, "You talk too
much," while fading away In the distance Is a suc
cession of exclamations, "Polly wants La Foilette."
Tbe second chapter shows Ross Hammond with a
pair of tweeters pulling tail feathers out of the
''parrot, who Is fluttering and turning fiercely on
bis tormentor, the gr.g supping on wnue ue parrot
exclaims. "That's a personal insult," and once
more incessantly repeats, "Polly
wants La Foi
lette." The governor appears again In still another
cartoon sitting by the roadside aa a dislodged pas
senger from the Taft machine, on which I am still
permitted to sit with the driver.
My appearance In away-from-home newspapers,
except as already noted, has been chiefly In the
form of pen and Ink portraits with, as a rule, rather
doubtful likeness. The Chicago Record-Herald once
gave me a large part of a page along with a humor
ous sketch of doing at the republican national
campaign headquarters, written by Richard Henry
Little, In which I was dubbed
"the man with the incan
descent smile." The New
Tork Herald artist has also
contributed a snapshot taken '
along with others during an
Associated Press meeting, in
which it would take an in
candescent light to find the
trace of a smile. Good, bad
and indifferent however, or
completely devoid of resem
blance, they give the experi
ence of being cartooned of
being held np to tbe public
eye with personal character
istics distorted to make tbe
point or draw the laugh, and
in time to cauterize what
ever sensitive spots a man
may have.
- lAMt
mi urti !
wcu rnn
HOW WOULD IT DO?
' How would it do for Taft '
to. say at this juncture:
"The wise custom which
limits the president to two
terms regards the substance
and not the form. If I am
nominated and elected this
year, under no circum
stances will T be a candi
date for or accept another
nomination." Or is this
. also copyrighted! Siou
City Journal,