Judge — December 16, 1916 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Judge cartoon depicts a social scene with two main figures: "Uncle Bellum" (a wealthy older gentleman) and "Virginia" (a young woman). The satire plays on Uncle Bellum's complaint about a fevered dream where he imagined himself as a goldfish—an absurd, lowly creature far beneath his social status. The joke targets wealthy, self-important men of the era who would be so horrified by the mere *thought* of social degradation that even dreaming it causes genuine distress. The title "Water, Water, Everywhere" likely references the famous Coleridge poem about deprivation and thirst, suggesting Uncle Bellum's despair at imagining himself confined and diminished. The cartoon mocks aristocratic vanity and class anxiety through this ridiculous nightmare scenario.