Judge — March 3, 1888 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Judge magazine cartoon satirizes Irish Home Rule activists fundraising in America. The top panel shows an Irish-American laborer resisting a well-dressed man's attempt to collect money, declaring "Begob, ye can't strike me. Oim on strike meself." The bottom panel depicts a money-collection machine operated by a caricatured figure (labeled as appealing to working-class immigrant women—"servant girls"). The sign reads: "Put your money in the slot and the figure will work it a jaw!" The satire mocks Irish Home Rule agitators as perpetual fundraisers who manipulate American Irish immigrants emotionally for financial support. The cartoon suggests their appeals are mechanical, repetitive ("work it a jaw" = talk), and exploitative—playing on ethnic and class sympathies while Irish-Americans themselves struggle financially.