Judge — October 1, 1898 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Judge Magazine, October 1, 1898 This political cartoon satirizes a musician (likely representing someone in power, possibly President McKinley or a political figure) who plays an accordion while conducting an orchestra of spherical "heads" labeled with various issues: "Fraud," "Weak Currency," "Alger" (Secretary of War Russell Alger), "Empress," and "Managed the War Better." The figure appears to be a military or political leader attempting to juggle competing scandals and criticisms from the Spanish-American War period. The caption notes he "played the same tunes for Lincoln and Grant thirty-five years ago," suggesting the figure represents continuity of corrupt or problematic leadership across administrations. The Capitol building visible below emphasizes this is American political commentary during the McKinley administration.