The Judge, Vol. 7, No. 157

The Judge, Vol. 7, No. 157 (October 18, 1884)

This cover cartoon depicts a coachman rejecting a woman's request, declaring "No mash here." The woman, fashionably dressed with a fan, appears to be flirting from a doorway while a horse and groom stand in the background of what seems to be a stable. The title plays on contemporary slang—"mash" meaning romantic flirtation or infatuation. Published during the 1884 presidential campaign, Judge used such domestic comedies alongside its better-known political satire. The magazine, founded as a Republican competitor to the Democratic Puck, combined topical humor with commentary on urban social life, drawing on the visual traditions of chromolithographic caricature that dominated American illustrated weeklies in the 1880s.