Judge — March 12, 1887 — page 24: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This political cartoon satirizes congressional spending and wasteful government jobs. The "miller" operates a mill on the Potomac River (Washington, D.C.'s location), which appears to represent the federal government or Treasury. The massive gears and machinery shown being strained suggest Congress is overworking the government apparatus through excessive appropriations—"jobs" that drain resources. The miller's relief that the legislative session ended implies Congress regularly votes for spending that exhausts government capacity. The caricatured figures appear to represent politicians or lobbyists involved in this wasteful process. The satire criticizes how Congressional spending threatens to break or overburden the nation's finances, a common theme in Gilded Age political commentary about government inefficiency and corruption.