Judge — 1891 — page 48: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical series mocks an artist's failed attempts to manage an uncooperative baby. The top six panels show escalating contraptions—pulleys, mechanical devices, and increasingly elaborate rigs—all designed to control or amuse an obstinate infant. Each fails spectacularly, with the baby resisting or the apparatus malfunctioning. The bottom two panels depict an unrelated joke about hat-swapping between a "young plunger" (likely a social climber or con artist) and an "old duck" (an established gentleman). The young man steals the older man's superior hat, but they later encounter each other, forcing an awkward confrontation about the switched headwear. Together, these vignettes mock both paternal incompetence and petty social scheming—common Judge themes mocking pretension and failed schemes in Gilded Age society.