The automobile—or “horseless carriage,” as it was often called—became increasingly conspicuous in major U.S. cities in 1897. Its emergence inspired the antics of the “Yellow Kid” (center, atop the automobile’s roof) and his friends in this cartoon panel drawn by R.F. Outcault for the New York Journal. Outcault’s “Yellow Kid” was a wildly popular character who, indirectly, gave rise to the epithet “yellow journalism.” .