Although films were already more sophisticated than they had been just a few years before, they still had a long way to come before achieving a standard of storytelling commensurate with later films. The pacing in this film is as erratic as you're likely to find in a film from any period but, given that it's only about 12 minutes long, it's more of an irritation than a problem. What does prove a problem in the scenes in which a group of drunken men in a bar squabble over whose bust should replace one of Teddy Roosevelt, and in which the entire gang troop off to a sculptor's studio to commission a replacement, is director Wallace McCutcheon's inability to guide the audience's gaze in the right direction. As was common in these early days of storytelling in films, everybody seemed to be instructed to wave their arms around and overact as much as possible, which means when you've got close to one dozen people on the screen doing just that it tends to look a bit of a mess. McCutcheon would soon fall ill, and his place as chief director at Biograph would be replaced by the infinitely superior D. W. Griffith, who has a part in this film.
The best part of the film is the stop-motion dream sequence in which busts of various US politicians are moulded into life by unseen hands – although even this segment of the film is allowed to meander at times.
The best part of the film is the stop-motion dream sequence in which busts of various US politicians are moulded into life by unseen hands – although even this segment of the film is allowed to meander at times.