The cartoon parodies the planned celebration for Blaine’s return to New York City in August 1888 after a 14-month vacation in Europe. However, the same postdated issue of Harper's Weekly (published August 8) explained that the Republican leader’s ship was delayed for two days, compelling the event’s organizers to hold the parade in his honor on the evening of August 9, before his arrival. Representatives from 29 states and three territories gathered to celebrate the absent honoree, and an estimated 8-10,000 participated in the torchlight procession. Blaine’s ship docked the next morning, and he was driven to the Fifth Avenue Hotel “without delay and without display.”

The week before this cartoon appeared, Harper's Weekly reported the announcement that after winning the presidential election Harrison would appoint Blaine secretary of state (in reality, the cautious nominee waited until mid-January 1889 to offer him the position). The Maine politician had served briefly in that capacity during the Garfield and Arthur administrations (1881), and desired to resume the office. The newspaper’s lead editorial noted that Blaine was “as much the acknowledged chief and leader of his party as Mr. [Henry] Clay of the Whigs during the [William Henry] Harrison campaign of 1840.” Republicans announcing Blaine’s future appointment hedged their statement with an assertion that Harrison would be head of the administration, which, as editor George William Curtis wryly pointed out, “implies a feeling that there is some question upon the point.”