Judge — April 30, 1910 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a tall-tale comic strip featuring an exaggerated character (Captain Fibb) recounting implausible adventures to children. The visible panels show the captain describing a grimy industrial town called "Spitts" where pollution is so thick he claims to walk on it like solid ground. The satire targets industrial-era air pollution—a real problem in American cities during the late 19th/early 20th century. By presenting the pollution as literally walkable, the cartoonist mocks both the absurd severity of the situation and perhaps public indifference to it. The "yarn" format (tall tale) emphasizes how outlandish these pollution levels actually were, making the comic's point through exaggeration rather than direct criticism.