In this August 1900 cover for Puck Magazine, a man blown up to the size and shape of a hot air balloon floats along with "Kansas City" and "Convention" ribbons framing his head. The man is Richard Croker, the then-president of New York City's Tammany Hall, a Democratic political organization. Just as the tip of Croker's toes are about to leave the ground, David B. Hill, a state Senator of the same party, runs after him holding a spear with a trailing ribbon that reads "NY State Democracy". The scene references a debate that happened in New York prior to the 1900 Democratic National Convention, which was eventually held at a Convention Hall in Kansas City, Missouri. William J. Bryan was the Democratic candidate and would be running for the second time against Republican incumbent William McKinley. The New York Democratic Party held a meeting to appoint the state's Committee Platform delegation, for which Hill and Augustus Van Eyck were the candidates in question. Richard Croker had been covertly advising the party against Hill who, upon realizing the plot against him, attacked Croker in debate. Hill's most notable attack was that Croker had fled the country during the 1896 election that resulted in Bryan's first defeat for the presidency. Croker, gloating with the confidence of his influence on the party, placated Hill with an alternate nomination which he could not accept. Van Eyck was voted 40-26 over Hill with 6 not voting. The caption "PRIDE GOETH BEFORE DESTRUCTION" foots the illustration, suggesting the Democratic party's defeat that year despite the incident in New York.