Judge — March 4, 1882 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Star Routers' Ascent" This political cartoon from March 1882 satirizes the "Star Route" scandal—a major corruption case involving fraudulent mail contracts. The cartoon depicts two figures (labeled "TWINS") climbing upward toward "JUSTICE" while juggling incriminating documents labeled "STAR ROUTE FRAUD." The judge presiding above represents the judicial system finally holding wrongdoers accountable. The title's ironic phrase "slowly but surely approaching justice" suggests the prosecution was moving at a frustratingly glacial pace, mocking how long it took to bring the corrupt contractors to account. The Star Route frauds involved inflated mail-delivery contracts under the Hayes administration—a prominent scandal of the early 1880s. Judge magazine used the cartoon to criticize both the delay in prosecuting the scheme and the audacity of the perpetrators.