Judge — December 19, 1903 — page 13: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This 1903 *Judge* cartoon satirizes medical practice through two scenes. The top panel shows "Paw Paw Pete" (a character in poverty) and a tall figure discussing starvation and train travel—likely mocking callous attitudes toward the poor. The bottom panel, captioned "Wayside Pixie," depicts starving people (drawn with exaggerated features typical of period caricature) being denied food by a doctor. The satire critiques the era's medical orthodoxy that prescribed fasting for certain conditions, even when patients were malnourished. The "correct" caption ironically endorses this harmful practice. The cartoon attacks both medical ignorance and indifference to poverty—suggesting doctors prioritized doctrine over patients' actual survival needs. The crude caricatures reflect period illustration conventions, though they embody problematic racial/ethnic stereotyping common to early 1900s American humor.