The Return of the "Prodigal Father" to the Puck Office

The founder comes home. Keppler, back from a European holiday, staggers into the Puck office festooned with the spoils of the trip: a garland of Frankfurt sausages, a Munich beer tankard the size of a cannon, Paris wine, Neuchâtel cheese, a London umbrella. The little cherub Puck dashes forward to embrace his master while the staff spill from their departments. Along the left wall the Artists' Department empties out, its men tagged with the old masters they answer to, Gillam as Hogarth, Opper as Raphael. Behind the desk stands a cabinet of "Models from A–Z": plaster busts of Vanderbilt, Blaine, Grant, Conkling and the rest, the politicians whose faces were the shop's daily raw material. Keppler drew the whole affectionate scene himself.