Judge — July 3, 1920 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is a satirical illustration by Walter De Maris titled "And There Are People Who Sigh for Golden Streets!" The image depicts a nighttime rural landscape with a large moon, a cypress tree, a winding path, and a solitary figure gazing at the scene. The satire appears to target romantic idealization of rural or rustic life. The caption ironically suggests that despite people's nostalgic longing for "golden streets" (presumably referencing idealized pastoral simplicity or perhaps biblical imagery of heaven), the reality shown is a lonely, dark countryside landscape. The joke criticizes the disconnect between romanticized fantasies of simpler living and the actual, sometimes bleak reality of rural existence.