When Teddy Comes to Town - McManus' early satirical panel

That I believe a marvellous scoop is today!
This is a satirical panel is one of the early (maybe the 1st?) printed works by George McManus (1884-1954). It was published on the 1st page of St. Louis Republic September 29th 1900 (there's no sign of McManus works in the previous issues of this newspaper). The great cartoonist - born in St. Louis, Missouri all right - was 16-year-old only! This hilarious panel caricatures Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), not yet President of United States (1901-09), but he was working for President McKinley (he was Governor of New York till December 31st). He was considered an adventurist, a "doggoned cowboy". Really Roosevelt at that time was an ardent imperialist, and the St. Louis Republic furthermore belonged to William Randolph Hearst, who was very acid towards  McKinley's government.
Anyway, that's the panel!

McManus' model clearly is the excellent work of Ryan Walker, the Communist Cartoonist, illustrator of satirical panels and some comics strips, too. Both Walker and McManus worked - in the same time - for the St. Louis Republic. Here is a panel by Walker from 1900:

Pre-Bringing Up Father Mc Manus

Who knows about George McManus' early works?
Before the famous "Bringing Up Father" (Mc Manus 1913-54) for the St. Louis Republic, he did the strip called "Alma and Oliver" (not "Elmer and Oliver" like someone does). McManus said about it: "Merciful forgotten". Well, we'll see this "Alma and Oliver" strips from 1902 in this blog.
But before "Alma and Oliver" we have a proof of his art in his caricature on a newspaper in April 1902 for a drawing exhibition in St. Louis, together with those of underrated artists of his time.18-year-old McManus' caricature is accompanied by his photography. It's very rare to see a photo of a young McManus!