# Keppler's Puck blows up the Republican "Claim Agency," November 1884

Joseph Keppler's Puck centerfold of 19 November 1884 shows an explosion at a "Claim Agency, formerly Republican Head Quarters," with Blaine, Logan, and their allies flattened and still clutching "We still claim" papers while Cleveland watches on horseback.

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- Keppler's Puck blows up the Republican "Claim Agency," November 1884

      "The Mulligan guard lies, but - surrenders"

      Keppler's Puck blows up the Republican "Claim Agency," November 1884
      Joseph Keppler's Puck centerfold of 19 November 1884 flattens Blaine and allies at a Republican "Claim Agency" as Cleveland looks on. Public domain.

## Techniques named on the archive record

Name-callingBandwagon
      DateNovember 19, 1884Made byPuck (Keppler & Schwarzmann, New York); artist Joseph KepplerMediumCartoonCountryUnited StatesRegimeArthur AdministrationSourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceLibrary of Congress , retrieved October 2, 2026SourcePublic domain by age (published 1884); LOC rights advisory: No known restrictions on publication Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  Joseph Keppler's Puck centerfold of 19 November 1884 shows an explosion at a "Claim Agency, formerly Republican Head Quarters," with Blaine, Logan, and their allies flattened and still clutching "We still claim" papers while Cleveland watches on horseback.

## What the centerfold shows

A building labeled "Claim Agency, formerly Republican Head Quarters" has just exploded. The blast has knocked over the Republican kiosks around it. On the ground lie Blaine, Logan, Whitelaw Reid, Butler, Dana, and a figure labeled Burchard with the letters "R.R.R.," each still holding a paper that says "We still claim." Up in the left corner, Cleveland and a rider carrying an Independent flag sit their horses and watch.

The Mulligan guard lies, but - surrenders.

Caption as recorded by FRAME. Puck, 19 November 1884, centerfold by Joseph Keppler; Keppler & Schwarzmann, New York. Full record at propagandaarchive.org.

The archive does not give a full transcription of the centerfold's labels, so this page names only those its record lists.

## Who made it

Joseph Keppler drew it for Puck, the New York humor weekly he published with Schwarzmann. The archive files it under the Arthur administration and the 1884 election, with the purpose recorded as demonizing. Puck was a private paper and it took sides openly. This page takes no side in 1884. It is about what the drawing does.

## How to read it

The caption is a pun. "Lies" means both lying down and telling lies, and "surrenders" means giving up. The drawing sets the losing camp flat on its back and still claiming, so the joke is that defeat has not yet taught it to stop talking. The archive tags the centerfold for name-calling and bandwagon. The name-calling is in "lies." The bandwagon is Cleveland on horseback, above the wreck, with the Independents' flag at his side. Readers are invited to be with the riders, not with the men in the dust.

There is a fair point in the joke. A side that refuses to accept a count should show its evidence or concede. There is also the usual cost of a victory lap: it treats an opponent's whole coalition as one heap of debris. Free elections depend on losers conceding, and also on winners not mistaking the ballot for a verdict on everyone who voted the other way.

Eight years before, another New York publisher had aimed a different joke at the Republican campaign in Grant to Hayes, with a full basket of fish standing in for the side the print said was winning.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, "The Mulligan guard lies, but - surrenders," Puck, 19 November 1884. Keppler & Schwarzmann, New York; artist Joseph Keppler.

- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. loc.gov/item/2011661847, retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain by age, no known restrictions on publication.

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/mulligan-letters-1884/