Judge — April 25, 1908 — page 23: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This appears to be a vintage advertisement rather than political satire. Three sailors are prominently displaying canned ham products labeled "Armour's Star Ham," with the tagline "The Ham What Am." The illustration celebrates U.S. government inspection and approval ("U.S. Inspected and Passed"), using this seal as a mark of quality and safety. The visual joke plays on the sailors' confident poses and the pun in "The Ham What Am," using colloquial speech for humor. The naval setting emphasizes the product's reliability for shipboard provisions. The artist is credited as Grant E. Hamilton. This represents early 20th-century product advertising that leveraged government approval as a selling point, particularly important for canned meat products following food safety scandals of that era.