Judge — January 15, 1887 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of "A Task for the New Hercules" This 1887 *Judge* cartoon satirizes the challenge facing New York City's newly appointed police commissioner or similar official (the "new Hercules"). The figure, depicted as a classical strongman wielding a broom and shovel, confronts the filthy "Metropolitan Augean Stables"—a reference to the mythological labor of cleaning King Augeas's stables. The cartoon mocks the scale of corruption and disorder plaguing New York's municipal government and police department. Buildings labeled "Park Police" and "Armory Board" suggest institutional rot across multiple city agencies. The dead animal and general decay symbolize the pervasive problems the new administrator must remedy—a seemingly impossible task without genuine reform, not merely cosmetic cleanup.