This illustration appeared as the front page of the New York Daily Graphic on August 9th, 1882. This political alchemist is a slick newspaperman with mutton chops, toiling in his laboratory to create the spirit of a "civil service reform party." A note hanging from his back pocket tells us he works for Harper’s Weekly. Surrounding him are the tools and materials of alchemy: a furnace and bellows, distillation flasks and alembics, and a mortar and pestle. Many bear labels: "Tincture of Tammany," "Democratic Tongue Oil (Whiskey)," and "Spirit of Greenbackism." Thus in the caustic view of the Daily Graphic, Harper’s had only "very poor material for the new party" and was forced to work with faulty and worn-out ingredients to create something noble.

The artist of this illustration may be Arthur Burdett Frost (1851-1928), a leading American illustrator born in Philadelphia, who produced numerous covers for the Daily Graphic around 1875-1880.