Judge — May 25, 1889 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Lament of the Seaside-Hotel Proprietor" This 1889 cartoon satirizes a British hotel owner's complaint about mass emigration to Europe. The image shows a portly, well-dressed man at a seaside resort lamenting that patriotic talk of "love of country" rings hollow when the entire population is leaving for Europe—leaving him to "starve." The satire mocks the proprietor's hypocrisy: he invokes nationalism while his real concern is profit. The background depicts crowds boarding steamships bound for Europe, the Eiffel Tower visible across the water. The cartoon critiques how business interests clash with nationalist rhetoric, and suggests the emigration trend is so severe that even tourist industries suffer.