Puck Easter 1908 / L.M. Glackens

L. M. Glackens's cover cartoon for Puck's Easter issue depicts a rotund, top-hatted gentleman in formal morning coat trudging through rain beneath a large umbrella, clutching an extravagant Easter bonnet piled with roses, ribbons, and a strutting rooster. The caption reads "His Wife Was Ill." The joke is social rather than partisan: the bonnet—the season's compulsory feminine display—will reach its public audience even if its owner cannot, the husband reduced to errand-boy for fashion's sake. Glackens keeps the satire mild, directed at middle-class Easter ritual and the absurd elaborateness of Edwardian millinery. The border's red and blue imp figures are stock Puck decoration. No racial caricature appears in this plate.