Judge, 1899-12-30 · page 7 of 17
Judge — December 30, 1899 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from Judge (circa 1900) contains two distinct pieces: **"Renunciation"** (main story with illustrations): A romantic narrative about an age-gap relationship. A woman over thirty falls for a younger man who doesn't realize time affects women differently. When he suddenly stops visiting, she writes him a letter acknowledging she's discovered she's old—and that he must have noticed too. The story explores vanity, love, and the social anxiety around female aging in 1900s America, where a woman's value was heavily tied to youth. **"How Jack Made Things Lively"** (top left): Shows a woman at her mirror/vanity with various illustrations around her—appears to be satirizing romantic pursuit or courtship drama. **Bottom cartoon**: A dated joke about spotting a "red-headed girl" and looking for a "white automobile"—likely referencing early 1900s automobiles as status symbols or novelties. The overall page reflects turn-of-the-century anxieties about romance, aging, gender roles, and modernity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HOW JACK MADE THINGS LIVELY. cus—2 Mr. TuRTLE—"* the sun. The morning stopped at noon and tip- toed by, and things were , i not just the same, At in- . tervals she consulted her RENUNCIATION. : =e é 7 + glass. At night she wrote: SHE was very old—she was past thirty. He was quite young y “ Please do not come —he had scarcely reached thirty yet, and did not realize y IF again. I see the absurdity that time runs swiftly with women, while it dallies indulgently | | of my position —1 have with men. His eyes were still raised to the future inquiringly, ] i i discovered that Iam old. while her glance had ever a back-turning. Yet so chivalrous was. ; It seems strange that you should have studied my face so often and so well and have given no sign of this discovery before me. Your fine zxsthetic sense must often have been jar- red, still your eyes have never retracted and have always smiled. You may attribute my attitude to vanity, or what you may. Sometime you may say, *She was wise.’ ” + 6 8 8 2. “And after all," she Miss VASSAR (reading)—'' Dearest Marjorie—Can't come cried. ““I_ am not so very up just now, but I send you something that will — ——- MISS VASSAR (toriting)—"" Dear Jack—I wish you would run up and see me, It is awfully dull here.” KATHRINE GROSEAM, he by instinct, so gentle and unassuming by habit and cus- tom, that he acknowledged no odds against her; and when he urged his love the wisdom that lay sealed be- tween her brows did not re- veal itself. She forgot that she was old. But one day she waited and he did not come. His eyes had been as an open book to her, whose language she could not misread, and the silence of her waiting was not jarred by any trivial dis- satisfaction or vulgar mis- trust. Her garden was optimis- tic. Her canary stretched his tremulous wings to the con- fines of his narrow cage and ate his weed gratefully. A sunflower by the wall listened 1900. attentively to the jargon of a Bu—"' There goes a red-headed girl.” bumble-bee, and the morn- 8 Jacx—" Now we must look for a white automobile.” ing-glories grew drowsy in —'liven things up.” comicbooks.com