Fortune Teller's Song

This illustration entitled “Fortune Teller’s Song”, by cartoonist Clifford Berryman, which appeared in the Washington Post on January 14, 1898, depicts a gypsy singing a fortune teller’s song over a tomb marked 16:1, which indicates the failed attempt of Silver Democrats to obtain a 16:1 ratio for the coinage of silver to gold. The central issue of the 1896 Presidential campaign was the free coinage of silver in the ratio of 16:1 with gold. William Jennings Bryan’ famous “Cross of Gold” speech earned him the Democratic Party’s nomination. However, Republican candidate William McKinley, running on an anti-bimetallic platform, defeated Bryan. Western states naturally endowed with silver deposits worked hard to institute the 16:1 ratio and to gain an international agreement on the ratio, but their efforts were fruitless. Cartoonist Clifford Berryman highlights the failure to achieve the 16:1 ratio with a fortune teller’s song, sung by a gypsy at the tomb marked 16:1.