Puck — November 13, 1878 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "A Hard Job Before the Mayor-Elect" This November 1878 *Puck* cartoon satirizes the incoming New York City mayor's daunting task of cleaning up municipal corruption. The main illustration shows a figure (the mayor-elect) struggling to remove filth and refuse from city hall, depicted as an overwhelming physical labor. The inset portrait with a classical government building likely represents either the outgoing mayor or a political figure associated with the corruption being addressed. The satire suggests that New York City government has become so thoroughly corrupted and neglected that the new mayor faces nearly impossible work restoring order and integrity. The metaphor of literal cleaning represents the figurative "cleaning house" needed in city administration—a common reform-era trope criticizing urban political machines and graft.