Judge — January 1, 1898 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Judge magazine cartoon satirizes the early automobile era's "speed craze." The image depicts a wealthy woman in classical drapery (representing perhaps Progress or Fashion) driving a motorcar at dangerous speeds, while a man on a bicycle struggles to keep pace behind her. The caption's reference to "scorchers"—slang for reckless speeders—mocks both the new technology's dangers and society's embrace of dangerous speeds for status. The classical allegorical female figure suggests how automobiles were marketed as modern, progressive symbols. The joke targets wealthy early adopters who drove recklessly through city streets, endangering pedestrians and cyclists. The cartoon critiques not just the vehicles themselves, but the social obsession with speed and the class divide it represented—only the wealthy could afford these "horseless carriages."