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1882

The Great American Quack - A Good Remedy in Bad Hands

Bernhard Gillam

American, 1856 - 1896

Puck started as a German-language weekly in 1876, with an English version appearing the following year. By the early 1880s, it was selling over 80,000 copies a week.

During the summer of 1882, the editor of The New York Herald, James Gordon Bennett, actively promoted state comptroller James W. Wadsworth as the Republican candidate for governor of New York. Gillam's satire metaphorically translates Bennett's advocacy into a push for Wadsworthine, a "sure cure" remedy. Not overly popular, Wadsworth failed to win the nomination.

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