"The Busy Bee"

When former President Theodore Roosevelt—the clear favorite for the 1920 Republican Presidential nomination—died suddenly in January 1919, the race became wide open. With such a multitude of potential candidates having the proverbial “bee in their bonnets,” the G.O.P. Presidential bee could not keep up. The bee was a common character in Berryman’s cartoons representing political aspirations as the “buzz” in the potential candidate’s ear.