Judge — December 22, 1900 — page 13: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes competing attitudes toward female independence at the turn of the century. Two men discuss two girls: Ethel, who went to Maine for a month, "roughed it," and killed a moose—demonstrating adventurousness and self-sufficiency. Edith, meanwhile, stayed home among comfortable "sofa pillows" and secured an engagement to a wealthy man named Reggy van Rocks. The joke's title reveals the satire's target: despite progressive rhetoric celebrating female independence and outdoor adventure, the cartoon suggests that a woman's true "wisdom" lies in traditional marriage to a wealthy suitor. The contrast mocks both the new "New Woman" ideal (Ethel's hunting trip) and the enduring economic reality that women's security depended on advantageous marriage, not personal achievement.