<Go back to the People Index results>


WHO SAYS GAS? OR THE DEMOCRATIC B-HOY.
   
Complete Explanation:
A pro-Democrat satire, pitting Democratic candidate Lewis Cass against Whig nominee Zachary Taylor in a bout for the presidency. Cass (center) is the obvious favorite. He wears the stovepipe hat, boots, bold plaid trousers, and soap-locks associated with New York street toughs (or "Bowery B'hoys"). On the front of Cass's shirt is an emblem with the initials "U.S." He grasps Taylor by the hair declaring, "I'm one of the B-Hoys, and I woudn't be anything else!" Taylor, also dressed as a rowdy, cries, "O, enough! I surrender for the first time!"

Cass has already dispatched a black man "Abolition," who sits in a basket at the far left, Free Soil candidate Martin Van Buren, on the ground at left, and Whig vice presidential candidate, Millard Fillmore, on the ground at right with a black eye.

Abolition: "De lor' have mercy on our souls!"

Van Buren: "Johnny [i.e., John Van Buren] come and help your Old Dad!"

Fillmore: "Curse the Old hoss wot a south paw he has given me!"

At far right, seated on a fire hydrant or standpipe, is Cass's running mate William O. Butler who cheers Cass on saying: "I Say Lewy give him a sockdolger!"


Website design © 2010 HarpWeek, LLC
All Content © 1998-2010 HarpWeek, LLC
Please submit questions to webmaster@harpweek.com