Judge — August 12, 1882 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon critiques class discrimination at summer hotels. The caption "Children Must Not Tease the Dogs" is ironic—the scene shows children, servants, and dogs literally segregated in a separate dining room from wealthy guests. The joke targets the snobbery of "fashionable" hotel owners who treat children of paying guests as low-class, grouping them with servants and animals. This reflects Gilded Age social hierarchies where hotels maintained strict class boundaries. By lumping together children, servants, and dogs as equally undesirable for the main dining room, Judge exposes the absurdity and cruelty of such pretentious segregation. The satire suggests that wealthy hotel patrons considered even their own children less worthy than maintaining the appearance of exclusive, elite dining spaces.