Judge — April 16, 1887 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Judge magazine cartoon satirizes a proposal to transport convicts to Alaska for labor and colonization—likely referencing early 20th-century debates about using prisoners for development projects in newly-acquired U.S. territory. The image shows prisoners in striped uniforms, depicted as dangerous criminals. The caption's "Ontonox Services" quip—"If they come in, why then we will go out"—is a darkly humorous warning that sending convicts to Alaska would drive out honest citizens and settlers. The satire targets the impracticality and moral problems of the scheme: importing criminals rather than building legitimate settlements. The cartoon mocks both the government proposal and expresses public anxiety about criminals being relocated rather than properly contained in established prisons.