Judge, 1894-12-08 · page 26 of 60
Judge — December 8, 1894 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes changing female fashion and behavior across centuries. The opening poem contrasts women of past eras (obsessed with elaborate gowns and restrictive corsetry) with modern "New Woman" figures who wear practical "serge and leathers" for activities like cycling—yet are equally vain about fashion and now demand voting rights. The satire's point: women's supposed moral progress is illusory. Whether wearing feathers or modern attire, they remain fundamentally concerned with appearance and social status. The modern woman's pursuit of rights like suffrage is portrayed as just another form of vanity, no more enlightened than her ancestor's obsession with gowns. The Christmas and romance humor below uses similar logic: Santa Claus, mistletoe customs, and engagement gifts reveal women as calculatingly materialistic across all contexts. The tone is mocking toward female ambitions and reformist movements of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
+" LE COMMENCEMENT DE SIECLE ET LA FIN: ) st ik mi QUE sreatly prized ancestors’ wives, Good women then thought love of show In the good old days of yore, A most unseemly passion, Care not, say those who write their lives, And yet their current records show What kind of gowns they wore. A due regard for fashion, ‘The débutante to-day arrayed For wheel in serge and leathers Is hardly so grotesque a maid As great-grandma in feathers. | Myself, I think those antique girls With gores and wicked stays, | ‘Tight-belted lungs and screwed-up curls | Mad very silly ways. | ‘Then let us at the century’s wane Be not too prone to quote + ‘Those women who were quite as vain As we who pine to vote ac. HUNGER CHRISTMAS CONFABS. Santa Claus is a gay deceiver and is never as kind to a girl after mar- y as he was during courtship. Though Christmas makes us boys again, the old maid shouldn't get under the mistletoe and imagine herself a girl. ‘The engaged girl thinks how happy her lover must feel at getting her nta Claus is about the only person who knows what the small boy Sch nice presents, but she little knows that he has only the first week paid on them. HE. best Christmas courtesy is the mistletoe-bough. The forbidden fruit on tie Christmas-tree tempts the small boy. A woman will never remember that a little slipper goes a long way. wants. The Christmas stocking doesn’t come as smooth as the bathing-suit PROBABLY CORRECT. Santa Claus’s favorite girl is the one that gets engaged just before Wife—"| had a perfectly lovely dears last night.” Christmas. Husband- A visit from Santa Claus, like one from a poor relation, is an ex- Wife— Ves. Wt seemed to me that when I went shopping after Christmas goods there was no one in the store but the clerks, and oh, 1 rd_is a cheap yet useful present so long as you buy had a splendid time! What do you think of it?” Hushand— On, (think it was a dream.” variet ndeed >" The Christma the kind without the date on it A BLESSING. ‘To—"" I'd give a good deal if T had such a sister as yours."” K—"' You'd have to. Did you see her kiss me just now 7" Idid.” “Well, it cost me a V." comicbooks.com