Judge, 1915-05-01 · page 14 of 24
Judge — May 1, 1915 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Aesop's fable-style cartoon uses animal allegory to criticize corrupt politicians. The wolf represents the "long-suffering public," while the flea symbolizes parasitic politicians who feed off citizens' resources (blood = taxes/labor) while contributing nothing but discomfort. The moral is explicit: politicians are parasites who exploit the public for personal gain. When the public tries to rid itself of them (the wolf drowning the flea), they inevitably return—suggesting the cyclical nature of political corruption and the difficulty of removing entrenched politicians through normal means. The cartoon critiques the seeming permanence of political abuse and the public's powerlessness to permanently eliminate corrupt officeholders, a common theme in Gilded Age satire about machine politics and graft.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Wo WOLF having immersed himself in a stream on a hot day, drove a fat flea out of his hair coat to the tip of his nose. The flea, looking the wolf in the eye, in anger exclaimed, “And you would drown me after all this long companionship 2” Yes,” replied the wolf with rising resentment as he contemplated that companionship. “You have fattened from my blood for a long period, and never contributed anything to me but discom- fort from your constant taking of my blood. You are a parasite; you live only by gnawing at my vitals. [| owe you no consideration.” And with this the wolf dipped his nose in the stream and sent the flea adrift. The flea caught a leaf of an overhanging twig, and as the wolf left the stream, dropped upon his back. So it is with the long-suffering public which is scourged with political fleas. ‘They are dropped only to return again.