Judge — December 16, 1899 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a humorous eight-panel comic strip about two young lovers eloping and outwitting an angry father pursuing them. The narrative follows a classic Victorian melodrama setup: a couple flees (Panel 1-2), the father discovers the elopement and gives chase (Panel 5), and the lovers devise a scheme involving an ostrich to distract him (Panel 3-4). The father becomes so focused on "jollying" the ostrich that he loses track of the fugitives. By the final panels, the lovers escape while the father remains absurdly occupied with the bird, leading to the punchline: "Oh, isn't this too lovely for anything?" The joke satirizes both romantic convention—the dramatic father-forbids-love scenario—and the absurdity of using a comical animal as a distraction device. It's lighthearted domestic comedy typical of Judge magazine's family-oriented humor.