Puck — February 6, 1878 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Puck cartoon satirizes different perspectives on what constitutes "hell." The page contrasts three figures' viewpoints: 1. **Upper panel**: A tenement house bell and "The fraudulent financier's idea of hell" — showing a poor urban neighborhood, apparently mocking wealthy financiers' conception of suffering. 2. **Lower panel**: "The tenement house bell" caption, with a figure (appears to be a working-class person) depicted amid snakes and demons, representing their actual lived experience. The cartoon critiques wealth inequality by suggesting that privileged fraudsters imagine poverty as hell, yet remain insulated from genuine hardship. The "opinions of experts" title sarcastically positions financial criminals as authorities on suffering they don't experience. The satire exposes class disconnect and moral hypocrisy in Gilded Age America.