Judge — June 15, 1901 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page features a humorous essay by John Elbert Wilkie, Chief of the Secret Service, titled "A Put-Up Job." The text recounts an anecdote about newspaper rivalry in Chicago during the late 1800s, when Wilkie worked as a reporter. The main cartoon depicts a street scene with what appears to be a streetcar or trolley, with a figure exclaiming "I needed fresh air." This illustrates Wilkie's story about competing reporters from rival papers (the *Tribune* and *Herald*) who devised an elaborate scheme to trap each other by fabricating a crime story about employee theft. The cartoon humorously captures the moment when one reporter, realizing he'd been duped into publicizing false information, needed to escape the situation. The satire mocks journalistic deception and competitive ruthlessness among newspapers of that era.