Life — June 24, 1926 — page 26: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts a hellish bureaucratic landscape labeled "The Greater Inferno: The Municipal Buildings of East Hell." The image mocks municipal corruption and vice through an infernal allegory. Visible signage references "Jam Square," "Greater Hell Week," and a "Department of Police" offering "Medals for Valiant Conduct in Pursuit of Sinners"—sarcastically suggesting authorities reward questionable behavior. The crowded street teems with demonic and human figures engaged in vice and mayhem, with various municipal buildings surrounding them. The satire targets urban government institutions as inherently corrupt or complicit in enabling immorality. By framing city hall as literal hell with bureaucratic departments, the cartoonist critiques how municipal systems supposedly protect or reward wrongdoing rather than preventing it.