The Judge, Vol. 6, No. 133

The Lion in the Way (Judge, Vol. 6, No. 133, May 3, 1884)

This cartoon depicts a confrontation before the Capitol building between two mounted figures—one bearing the Republican Party standard, the other labeled as representing the Tariff question. A lion, positioned between them, blocks their path. The composition presents competing political interests as obstacles to governance during the 1884 election cycle. Judge, founded in 1881 as a Republican-aligned weekly rival to Puck, regularly employed animal allegory and confrontational imagery to satirize Democratic positions and Democratic and Republican disputes over tariff policy—a dominant issue of the era. The cartoon's use of heraldic and military costume references reflects the publication's characteristic approach to partisan combat through symbolic and anthropomorphic representation.