Judge — January 30, 1886 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Bill" the Bartender This cartoon satirizes a bartender's ability to create mixed drinks with questionable ingredients. The figure behind the bar, labeled "Bill the Bartender," holds up a bottle marked "SILVER" while displaying various liquor bottles on shelves behind him. A sign reads "Mixed Drinks My Specialty" and another asks "Silver Question." The satire appears to reference debates about monetary policy, specifically the "Silver Question"—the late-19th-century controversy over whether the U.S. should base currency on silver or gold. By depicting a bartender mixing drinks with silver, the cartoon jokes that politicians were "mixing" or adulterating currency policy just as a bartender might adulterate drinks. The caption "What is he going to give us?" suggests skepticism about the outcome of such monetary experimentation.