Judge — June 24, 1882 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page presents two connected satirical sequences titled "Bagging Small Game" and "Dog Hunting by the Police," collectively labeled "The Dog Days." The cartoons appear to mock law enforcement and upper-class society's treatment of street children and the poor. The top sequence shows well-dressed adults (likely representing authority figures or judges) pursuing and capturing children in urban settings. The lower sequence depicts police officers actively hunting children with implements, treating them as quarry. The satirical point seems to criticize how authorities hunted down vagrant or orphaned children as if they were animals—reflecting late 19th-century American social problems and the criminalization of poverty. The title "Dog Days" puns on both the summer season and the dehumanizing treatment of society's most vulnerable members.