"Here's a Pretty Mess!" (In Wyoming)

Two figures drawn in exaggerated Chinese costume—queued hair, flat-brimmed hats, fans in hand—stand at right, watching a scene of mob violence erupt across a Wyoming landscape: burning buildings, armed rioters, bodies on the ground. The caption labels them "Chinese Satirical Diplomatist" and gives their dry verdict: *"There's no doubt of the United States being at the head of enlightened nations!"* Nast is responding to the Rock Springs Massacre of September 1885, in which white miners killed at least 28 Chinese laborers and drove hundreds from their homes. The irony is pointed: America, fresh from passing the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and preaching civilization abroad, cannot protect the workers it imported to build its railroads.