What's in a Picture? Losing More Than An Election For most of
his life, B.H. Anderson was known as the general secretary of
the Butler, Pennsylvania, Chamber of Commerce, and as a page at
the United States House of Representatives. After the election
of Woodrow Wilson on November 5, 1912, however, he became known
simply as “the man who lost his bet.” Feeling confident about
Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt, he wagered with
a friend that Roosevelt would be elected a third time. The terms
of the bet were clear: Should Roosevelt win, his friend would
walk in shame across the country with the symbol of the
Republican Party — an elephant. If Wilson triumphed, Anderson
would go on the same journey, but with Jasper, the “Democratic
Donkey.” The results came in — Wilson in a landslide — and
Anderson grabbed Jasper, slapped a Roosevelt campaign poster on
him, and took a photo on the corner of Exchange Street and Fore
Street in Portland, Maine, to mark the beginning of his eight-
month, 4,500-mile trek to