The great Rohan & the cattle market

An obscure and bizarre satire, datable only by its incidental reference to the murder of Congressman Jonathan Cilley. (See "Scene in Washington, Sunday Feby. 25. 1838" and "The New Code of Chivalry," nos. 1838-17 and -18.) The print is extremely crude, evidently the product of an amateur or a provincial press. On a small hill two men crouch on the ground near a tree or bush. From the tree grows a man holding a newspaper with the words "Coal is Coal." The third man says, "Just cover up the roots well, there, or you'll expose Me." One of the crouching men says, "I say, Chowder, let me hill up the Rohan. While you whip in the Cattle." The other is frightened by a "Bloody Hand" which appears in the sky above him. A man in a long coat and tall hat (at right) says, "The fact is, Doctor, those Cattle won't feed on Rohans. The prospects of the "Porty" look blue, If we could whip in the Miserable Conservatives, it would really be 'contholing.'" On a branch of the tree perches a bird with the head of a man, who sings "The rascally Whigs killed poor Cilley, Whit-Whit pewee!" On the left a black youth tries to hold back two "Hampton Bulls," one of which says, "Mutton and cheese." The youth says, "Hold on Massa Gineral, it be ob no use to go to dat Market." On the far right several cattle stampede their driver, who is warned by a man in shirtsleeves, "You cant drive them Cattle, no how Gid."
Title appears as it is written on the item.
Purchase (Swann Fund); John Carbonell; 1984; (DLC/PP-1984:449).
Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)
Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1838-19.