Judge — October 13, 1888 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis: "Two Sides to a Hypocrite" This October 1888 *Judge* cartoon satirizes political hypocrisy during the 1888 presidential campaign. The large central figure appears to represent a politician—likely President Grover Cleveland based on the "Grover Box of Tricks" label visible on the right side. The cartoon depicts Cleveland presenting himself differently to different audiences: respectably dressed on one side, surrounded by working people and reform advocates on the left, while simultaneously associated with saloon politics and corruption (indicated by the "Saloon Politics" heading and the caricatured figures on the right). The title emphasizes the contradiction between Cleveland's public reform rhetoric and his actual political alliances with machine politics and saloon interests—a common critique of politicians who claim virtue while enabling vice.