Judge — September 17, 1887 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Our Society and the Peer" This September 17, 1887 Judge cartoon satirizes American social pretension regarding European nobility. The illustration shows two figures in military dress examining what appears to be a impoverished or disreputable foreign aristocrat in a urban British setting. Signs visible in the background reference "tailor," suggesting financial desperation. The caption's text—"The reception we should like to see accorded titled Foreigners with doubtful reputations. But which we shall not see this century"—critiques American society's tendency to fawn over European titles regardless of character or merit. The satire suggests Americans would never actually reject such figures, despite knowing their reputations are questionable, exposing American social climbing and deference to Old World hierarchy as hypocritical and misguided.