1880s George Francis Train Presidential Candidate Temperance Suffrage Trade Card
Description: Illustration of man seated on “Madison Park” bench covering face with umbrella. Text above and below reads “Ye Great Men Of Ye Day, Geo. Francis Train, Ye Philosopher.” Train (1829-1904) was an American entrepreneur who it is rumored served as the model for Phileas Fogg, the hero of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. Train ran for president as an independent candidate in 1872. He was a staunch supporter of the Temperance movement and was jailed on obscenity charges while defending Victoria Woodhall. He was the primary financier of the newspaper “The Revolution” which was dedicated to women’s rights and published by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Katie Stanton. As he aged, Train became more eccentric and in 1873 was arrested and threatened with being sent to an insane asylum. He stood for the position of dictator of the United States and spent his final days on park benches in New York City’s Madison Square Park, handing out dimes and refusing to speak to anyone but children and animals. Card reads at bottom Use Morehead & Co's Laundry Soaps Your grocer sells them Philadelphia, Penna.
Size: 2 1/2 x 4 inches
Item in an 'acid free' sleeve.