The Government of the City of New York; What That 'Ere "Honorable Body" Will Come To

Nast fills this crowded scene with top-hatted politicians shooting pistols, swinging clubs, and lounging drunk around a legislative table strewn with bottles—the City of New York's governing body imagined as a saloon brawl. A banner arch reads "A chance to steal without the risk of the penitentiary," and a circular badge at upper right names "The Steal Ring," Nast's shorthand for Tammany Hall graft years before Boss Tweed's full exposure. The composition treats the aldermanic chamber as pure chaos: one figure fires a revolver upward while another sprawls insensible beneath the table. The argument is blunt—municipal government is organized theft, its members distinguished from common criminals only by their immunity. Signed Th. Nast lower right.