Judge, 1891-06-13 · page 16 of 16
Judge — June 13, 1891 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the bicycle craze of the 1890s. The central cartoon shows a person injured after a bicycle fall, joking they weren't hurt because the bike was sold as a "safety" bicycle—a popular marketing claim of the era. The surrounding illustrations depict various bicycle-related scenes: cyclists in different poses, bicycle components, and social situations involving riders. The left panel appears to show "Observations on the Cycle," documenting the obsessive nature of bicycle culture. The satire targets how bicycles were heavily promoted as safe transportation, yet accidents were common. The humor also reflects broader late-Victorian concerns about the bicycle craze's social impact—women's liberation, changing fashion (bloomers), and the general disruption of traditional society that this new technology caused.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
comicbooks.com “That was a bad fall you had ; are you burt ?"* Bicycurst — No; it was sold to me for a “safety.” ‘The effect of too much bicycling.