Judge — June 12, 1886 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Chauncey Depew Profile This is a profile of **Chauncey Depew**, identified as "a Great Lawyer and Railroad President." The engraving shows a distinguished older gentleman in formal attire, surrounded by decorative elements including a grand building (likely representing his professional achievements) and a formal meeting scene below. The page appears part of Judge magazine's "Illustrious Citizens" series, which typically profiled prominent American figures. Depew was a genuine Gilded Age railroad magnate and lawyer of significant power. Without additional satirical text visible, the "joke" may be gentle—celebrating or perhaps ironically inflating the importance of wealthy industrialists who dominated American public life in this era. The ornate treatment typical of such profiles could contain subtle mockery of their self-importance.