Judge — January 1, 1887 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Judge magazine cartoon satirizes the exhausting social custom of making New Year's Day calls—a formal tradition where people visited numerous households to pay respects. The image shows a weary, elderly gentleman who has devised a lazy solution: instead of trudging door-to-door, he's installed a rotating carousel or table of cigars labeled with different names/addresses (visible on the boxes). He sits stationary while a young boy operates the mechanism, theoretically allowing him to "call on" multiple people without leaving his chair. The satire mocks both the tiresome convention itself and the gentleman's absurd attempt to shortcut it through mechanical means. The caption emphasizes his age and exhaustion with the "racket" of maintaining social obligations. It's a commentary on outdated social rituals and human laziness dressed up as innovation.