_PUCK, March 5th, 1890._
It is a curious fact, to which PUCK has called attention more
than once, that the important post of Speaker of the House of
Representatives has been peculiarly unlucky for members of the
Republican party. Between 1863 and 1890, when this cartoon appeared,
four Republicans and three Democrats had occupied the chair. The three
Democrats, Michael C. Kerr, Samuel J. Randall and John G. Carlisle,
were all men of unblemished reputation, popular in their party and well
liked and thoroughly respected on the other side of the House. They all
performed their duties creditably, and retired with honor. But to the
four Republicans it proved to be a position fraught with misfortune.
The first, Schuyler Colfax, was forced into retirement by the discovery
of his connection with the terrible Crédit Mobilier iniquity. The
second Republican speaker was Mr. Blaine, and it was while he was in
the chair that he became involved in the Little Rock and Fort Smith
transaction, which, more than anything else, caused his defeat for
the Presidency in 1884. The next Republican speaker was Mr. John W.
Keifer--but it is really unfair and insulting to the Republican party
to call Keifer a Republican. Of Keifer the best thing that can be said
is that he was an accident and that he did not happen again. The fourth
speaker of the Republican party was Mr. Thomas B. Reed, a gentleman of
fine parts and high character, who was misled by his natural strength
of will into adopting a policy of tyrannical unfairness toward his
political opponents, which earned for him the nick-name of “Czar Reed,”
and probably contributed largely to the revulsion of feeling which
produced the famous “turn-over” of November, 1890.
[Illustration]