Judge, 1889-02-16 · page 8 of 16
Judge — February 16, 1889 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical illustration appears to reference *Uncle Tom's Cabin*, Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous anti-slavery novel. The caption quotes lyrics suggesting a minstrel show or blackface performance: "Put aside d' little playthings; Lay d' banjo on d' flo'; Made voices down t' muffin, Liddle Eva's got ter go." The cartoon likely satirizes how *Uncle Tom's Cabin*—originally an abolitionist work—had been adapted into popular entertainment, particularly minstrel shows that distorted its message through racist performance traditions. The crude dialect in the caption reflects the degrading way such performances represented African Americans. Judge magazine, as a satirical publication, appears to be mocking both the sanitized, entertainment-focused versions of the novel and the racist theatrical conventions that trivialized Stowe's serious moral commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
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