Judge — December 7, 1895 — page 15: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satire depicts a street urchin ("the under boy") instructing another poor child on dining etiquette—ironically claiming refined taste. The humor lies in the contradiction: a barefoot street child lecturing about sophisticated foods (plum pudding and champagne) while speaking in exaggerated working-class dialect ("yer kin have," "wegerterbles," "t'ings"). The cartoon mocks pretension and affectation among the poor, suggesting that cultural aspirations to "cultivated taste" were absurd when one lacked basic resources. It's also likely satirizing class mobility anxieties of the era—the idea that anyone might claim sophistication regardless of their actual station. The window display visible above contrasts the elegance the children admire with their street reality.