Judge — January 28, 1893 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This six-panel Judge cartoon satirizes cable car transportation—likely referencing the new cable car systems operating in American cities (particularly San Francisco's, which opened in 1873). The sequence depicts increasingly chaotic mishaps as passengers ride atop a cable car: 1. Orderly boarding 2. Passengers fly off during motion 3. A rider becomes entangled with the cable 4. Violent derailment or collision 5. Explosive chaos with debris 6. Survivors emerging from wreckage The title's irony—"victorious"—undercuts the disaster depicted. The joke mocks cable cars as dangerously out-of-control contraptions, despite their novelty and promise. This reflects contemporary public anxiety about new transportation technology and its safety, presented through Judge's characteristic slapstick visual humor of the era.