Judge — April 24, 1926 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The White Wings" - Judge Magazine Satire This cartoon satirizes the "White Wings," a street-cleaning organization or service (likely New York City's sanitation workers). The illustration depicts an elaborate, absurdist "convention" for these humble street sweepers, complete with: - Military-style formations of uniformed workers with brooms - Formal parade grounds with spectators and grandstands - Mock-ceremonial tents and displays - Cavalry and regimented troops treating garbage collection like a military operation The satire mocks the pretentiousness of giving street cleaners such grandiose, formal treatment—inflating mundane sanitation work into something resembling a grand civic or military spectacle. It's commentary on either municipal bureaucracy, labor organization, or the absurdity of treating working-class jobs with excessive pomp and ceremony.