Judge — June 24, 1893 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Judge magazine satire addresses a contemporary labor shortage—apparently a debate about hiring domestic servants. The cartoon mocks proposed "solutions" through racist stereotypes. The central figure represents "John Chinaman" (a period slur for Chinese immigrants), depicted as eagerly awaiting domestic work opportunities. Additional panels sarcastically propose alternatives: Indigenous women from the Congo as nurses, and Alaskan Natives as servants "economical" because they eat little. The satire works on two levels: it ridicules both actual proposals to import foreign labor and the racist assumptions underlying them. The exaggerated caricatures—depicting non-white groups as inherently suited to servile roles—expose the dehumanizing logic behind such schemes. The "intelligence office" reference suggests employment agencies involved in these debates. Judge uses grotesque imagery to mock those seriously entertaining such discriminatory hiring practices, though the satire itself relies heavily on the same racial stereotypes it ostensibly critiques.