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James A. Garfiled 1880 Metamorphic Card

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:250.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 700.00 USD
James A. Garfiled 1880 Metamorphic Card
Fold-down satirical card. When closed, the image depicts caricature of Garfield on stage before a crowded audience with an open book [presumably a Bible]. The title above relates "At Home and Abroad or Two Phases in the Life of J.A. Garfield." Printed below this image "When I'm at home I preach and pray / 'How good he is!' the folks all say / To young and old I seem to be / A model of Propriety." When folded down to open position Garfield is depicted smiling and dancing with a young woman kicking up her dress and revealing her legs. Below this image a the text continues "When I'm abroad, as frequently / The care of state cause me to be, / I own I do in Washington / As other statesmen too have done. / And often while an hour away / with Ma'mselle C. Mobillier." Verso bears a 17 line verse titled "The Book of the Bribed", in part: "Abou Jim Garfield, may his tribe decrease! / Awoke one night from a deep scheme of fleece, / And saw that on the washstand in his room, / With fitful gleam half shining through the gloom / Like the faint flicker of a greenback boom, / Oakes Ames sat writing in a check book old..."