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Subject:
From:
Richard Henzel <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 2 Dec 2019 16:31:24 -0600
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Thanks Matthew and Leslie--great help!!
*Richard*


On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 9:57 AM Matthew Seybold <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Below you’ll see the list of allegorical concordances. I recommend Charles
> Francis Adams’s “Chapters of Erie” or John Steele Gordon’s The Scarlet
> Woman of Wall Street if you want the dirty details. The only one of
> uncertain about, beside the cow, is the fifth head of “the Man,” which I
> think is the con-artist who worked with Gould (Lord Gordon Gordon), but
> might be Joseph H. Ramsey (of the Albany & Susquehanna), who was also part
> of the conspiracy.
>
> Jack = Daniel Drew
> Rat = Jim Fisk
> Cat = Horace Greeley
> Dog = Charles Dana
> Cow = The Good People?
> Maiden = Judge George G. Barnard
> Hydra-Headed Man = Fisk, Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Boss Tweed, Lord
> Gordon Gordon (?)
> Priest = J. P. Morgan
> Cock= Governor John T. Hoffman
>
>
> > On Dec 2, 2019, at 9:04 AM, Richard Henzel <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > I was reading Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and became obsessed
> > with the political cartoons distributed throughout the booklet by H. L.
> > Stephens caricaturing Jay Gould and others involved in the Erie Railroad
> > Scandal.
> >
> > In his reworking of the children's nursery rhyme "The House That Jack
> > Built," Stephens draws various men involved in the scandal as the animals
> > and people in the story. So I'm trying to figure out is who (whom is
> whom?)
> > in the sketches:
> >
> > Jack, the jackass on the title page has the cock-eyed look of James
> Fisk. I
> > thought Jay Gould at first, but the Eyes...
> >
> > The rat is clearly Fisk (he ordered a military uniform for a photo but
> > never served), the cat I can't identify, the dog has Jay Gould's beard
> and
> > hair, the cow is labeled "The  Courts" (Barnard misspelled "Banad" for
> some
> > reason) is the court. The maiden with the long mustache milking the cow
> > branded TGP has to be Judge Barnard himself, the only figure in the
> scandal
> > with such a long dark mustache. The man all tattered and torn has five
> > heads: in front are (l to r) Gould, Fisk, and Vanderbilt, and behind them
> > are two more heads. One, the bald one with chin whiskers who I believe is
> > also the Cat in the previous panels.  And at the wedding, the priest
> > appears to be Gould again, who is also still one of the five heads on the
> > groom. So I think I've identified all of them but the cat and the balding
> > fellow with the goatee in the back...
> >
> > Any suggestions?
> >
> > Richard Henzel
>
> ***************
> Matt Seybold
> Assistant Professor of American Literature & Mark Twain Studies
> Elmira College
> Editor, MarkTwainStudies.org
> MattSeybold.com
>

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