Judge — November 10, 1900 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains two satirical cartoons mocking Irish immigrants and tenement living conditions. **"Time to Vanish"** (top): Shows poorly dressed men fleeing a ramshackle tenement, with dialogue in thick Irish brogue. The joke satirizes the stereotype that Irish immigrants were thieves or vagrants who would steal from households—here depicted as rats abandoning ship when the "lady" leaves home. **"A Strong Probability"** (bottom): Two Irish women (identified by names like "Mrs. Hogan" and "Mrs. Grady") discuss flat-houses (tenements) that prohibit pets. The cruel irony is that they themselves—depicted as verminous and bestial with exaggerated features—are treated no better than unwanted animals in these overcrowded slums. Both cartoons perpetuate dehumanizing ethnic stereotypes common in late 19th/early 20th-century American satire, equating Irish tenement dwellers with vermin and criminals. The heavy dialect reinforces xenophobic mockery.