Judge — April 18, 1885 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This political cartoon from *Judge* magazine satirizes corruption in the Post Office under Postmaster Pearson (New York). The upper panel shows postal officials distributing favors or patronage positions (marked "P.S.A.") to a crowd of applicants—typical machine politics. The lower panel depicts observers outside the Capitol building pulling down a blind/shade to hide these corrupt practices from public view. The satire targets the deliberate concealment of governmental misconduct. The phrase "Pull Down the Blind" suggests complicity and willful ignorance by officials and the public who choose not to witness postal service corruption. This reflects Progressive Era criticisms of spoils systems and political patronage networks that dominated American government in the late 19th/early 20th century.