Judge — March 19, 1892 — page 18: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page appears to contain multiple political cartoons satirizing the American church and clergy in the Gilded Age. The title "The Fashionable Metropolitan Minister" suggests critique of wealthy urban churches. One visible cartoon shows a sexton (church custodian) turning away strangers, saying the church is "all bought up"—satirizing how fashionable churches catered exclusively to wealthy congregants who could afford pew rentals, excluding the poor. Another cartoon references being caught "between the Bible and the deep, deep sea," likely critiquing ministers who compromised religious principles for wealthy parishioners' donations and social influence. The cartoons mock the hypocrisy of churches that prioritized wealth and status over Christian charity and inclusive worship. This reflects common Progressive-era criticism of how commercialism had corrupted American religious institutions.