A Group of Vultures Waiting for the Storm to "Blow Over" — "Let Us Prey"

Thomas Nast draws Boss Tweed's Tammany ring as literal vultures hunched on a rocky ledge while lightning splits the sky above them. The four figures — William Tweed (enormous, dominating the center), Peter Sweeny, Richard Connolly, and Mayor A. Oakey Hall (wearing his trademark pince-nez) — are rendered as hybrid human-bird creatures with men's faces on vultures' bodies. Beneath their talons lie the picked-over carcasses labeled with the spoils of New York City: taxpayer funds, justice, the city itself. The double caption — "Blow Over" and "Let Us Prey" — frames the ring as patient predators banking on public amnesia. The cartoon appeared as the *New York Times* was publishing the Tweed ring's stolen ledgers, and Nast's sustained campaign helped drive Tweed's arrest within months.