Judge — December 18, 1886 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes corruption trials by depicting a deliberately incompetent jury. The judge addresses jurors who are illiterate or willfully ignorant—they haven't read newspapers or formed opinions about the case, making them "unprejudiced" in the worst possible way. "Boodlers" refers to corrupt politicians or officials who engage in bribery and graft. The satire suggests that finding jurors ignorant enough to be truly impartial actually makes a fair trial impossible, since they lack the information needed to judge guilt or innocence. This critiques both judicial incompetence and the broader problem of political corruption in the Gilded Age, implying that corrupt officials could escape justice through technicalities or by exploiting the jury system's flaws.