Life — December 9, 1886 — page 23: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon presents a multi-level cross-section depicting toy manufacturing as illicit moonshine production during Prohibition. The title puns on "Moonshineland" (illegal whiskey-making) and "Santa Claus Toy Works," conflating toy factories with bootleg operations. The sequential panels show cherub-like workers (elves) engaged in various activities across different "floors"—mixing, assembling, packaging, and shipping goods. A "Prohibition Except This Building" sign appears bottom-left, suggesting the factory operates outside legal restrictions. The joke satirizes either the toy industry's practices or perhaps uses toy-making as metaphor for prohibition-era lawbreaking. The cherubs doing industrial labor mock both idealized Christmas imagery and the reality of industrial workers. The cartoon critiques Prohibition's widespread violations and the government's apparent selective enforcement.