Judge — December 13, 1890 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes phrenology, the pseudoscience claiming personality traits correlate with skull shape. A phrenologist examines a seated man's head while two bust sculptures labeled "Self Esteem," "Grover," and "Selfishness" hang nearby—likely referencing President Grover Cleveland. The joke mocks both phrenology's absurdity and the political obsession of the era: the phrenologist warns that "thinking too much on one subject will surely go crazy," suggesting political partisans (particularly those fixated on Cleveland or partisan issues) risk madness through excessive focus. The scattered papers with faces suggest the cluttered, obsessive nature of political discourse. Judge uses pseudoscientific pretense to ridicule 19th-century American political zealotry as literally brain-damaging.