Judge — December 31, 1881 — page 21: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

I can see this is a satirical engraving from Judge magazine showing a large crowd of people arranged in a vertical composition, oriented sideways on the page. The text on the left reads "A CRUSH AMONG MOTHERS ON THE BOWERY WAITING FOR THE DOORS TO OPEN." The cartoon appears to satirize crowded, chaotic scenes of working-class women (likely mothers) gathering on the Bowery—a notoriously crowded, poor neighborhood in New York City—waiting to enter somewhere, presumably for some benefit, sale, or public event. The densely packed, somewhat frenzied arrangement of figures emphasizes the crush and desperation of the crowd. This likely comments on urban poverty, consumerism, or social conditions affecting poor families in late 19th-century New York. The OCR text is too corrupted to provide additional context.