Funeral of Lazarus

A densely populated mock-funeral scene, captioned "Funeral of Lazarus" and marked Copyright Secured. At left, a robed officiant — Joshua A. Norton, self-proclaimed Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, rendered in clerical drag with book raised — presides over an open grave. Frederick Coombs, the street eccentric who styled himself George Washington II, digs the pit below. Behind them crowds a gallery of San Francisco notables, dogs, and a horse-drawn cage wagon. Jump's satire targets the city's beloved fringe figures and their hangers-on, using the death of a public character named Lazarus as occasion for civic ridicule. Jump died by suicide in April 1883.