The Judge, Vol. 6, No. 139

The Judge, Vol. 6, No. 139 (June 14, 1884)

A portly gentleman in green jacket and checkered suit sits at a desk, hand on belly, examining a sketch of a thin, muscular male figure. Papers and artwork surround him. The caption reads "Let those laugh who win" with a subtitle "What fools these mortals be."

Published during the 1884 presidential campaign, this cartoon likely satirizes Democratic politics or a rival politician through the contrast between the corpulent figure and the idealized physique in his drawing—a common device in Judge's partisan humor. The Republican weekly used such imagery to mock opponents' pretensions or hypocrisy. The classical allusion and theatrical tone typified Judge's approach to campaign ridicule in the Gilded Age.