Judge — June 15, 1889 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page satirizes rural hardship and city-country migration. The top panels show "City Relatives"—a June arrival and October departure, suggesting temporary visits. The large left illustration depicts a rural family's struggles: poverty, large insects (possibly grasshoppers or locusts), and meager harvests. The middle and bottom panels show a farmer's frustrated complaints about urban medicine and money troubles ("Heart disease, sure? My liver only one dollar a bottle") and signs reading "HAVE DIRTIED ALL MY CROPS" and "PLEASE DON'T TRESPASS." The title "This Life Is Not a Happy One" directly addresses rural poverty and desperation. The satire critiques both the disconnect between city and country life and the farmer's inability to escape poverty despite hard work. This reflects late-19th/early-20th-century anxieties about agricultural decline.