Judge — August 17, 1895 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satire mocks the bicycle craze of the 1890s by imagining absurd future scenarios where bicycles replace conventional transportation and activities. The cartoon poses rhetorical questions: Will ocean travel use bikes? Will St. Peter's applicants arrive by bicycle? Will organ-grinders perform on wheels? Will rural people ("hayseeds") finally be fashionable? The joke targets both bicycle enthusiasm and class anxiety. The phrase "in the swim" (socially current) pairs with rural mockery, suggesting bicycles might unexpectedly elevate unsophisticated people. The cartoon satirizes the era's obsession with this new technology as a revolutionary solution to everything, while dismissing such optimism as ridiculous. It's both pro-progress mockery and snobbish humor about who bicycles might democratize.