The Government of the City of New York; What That 'Ere "Honorable Body" Will Come To

Nast fills this crowded scene with top-hatted politicians shooting pistols, swinging clubs, and lounging drunk around a legislative table strewn with bottles—the City of New York's governing body imagined as a saloon brawl. A banner arch reads "A chance to steal without the risk of the penitentiary," and a circular badge at upper right names "The Steal Ring," Nast's shorthand for Tammany Hall graft years before Boss Tweed's full exposure. The composition treats the aldermanic chamber as pure chaos: one figure fires a revolver upward while another sprawls insensible beneath the table. The argument is blunt—municipal government is organized theft, its members distinguished from common criminals only by their immunity. Signed *Th. Nast* lower right.