Judge — August 1, 1896 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Judge cartoon satirizes the emerging early-20th-century golf craze among American leisure classes. The comic depicts men in golfing attire, with focus on their stockings, which apparently shrink excessively when washed—rendering them unwearable despite manufacturer claims about durability. The dialogue in exaggerated dialect mocks both the working-class laundry workers handling these garments and the wealthy golfers who purchase them. The humor targets the pretension of golf fashion and the gap between advertising promises and reality. "Me didn't allow for shrinkage" suggests manufacturers ignored obvious product flaws. The satire critiques both the frivolous spending of the golf-playing wealthy and the ineffectiveness of early commercial garment manufacturing—a common Judge theme mocking nouveau riche leisure culture and consumer goods failures.