Judge, 1900-12-22 · page 38 of 48
Judge — December 22, 1900 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1900 cartoon satirizes marriage through the lens of slavery rhetoric. A man proposes to a woman, offering to be her "slave," but she objects that slavery is "unconstitutional and bad form...in the south" — referencing the post-Civil War South's complicated relationship with the abolished institution. The humor relies on a double meaning: the man responds that men are expected to "sacrifice his constitution when he marries," punning on constitutional law versus personal sacrifice. The satire targets marriage itself as an institution where men surrender their freedom and autonomy to wives. The cartoon reflects contemporary anxieties about gender roles and marriage dynamics among Judge's educated, middle-class readership. It uses slavery's legacy as a framework for joking about conjugal subjugation — a comparison that would strike modern readers as tone-deaf, though historically it was commonplace marital humor in this era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IMT 1900 BY JUDGE COMPANY OF WEW YORK. Sackett & Wibelne Litho & Pi Ca New York COUNTING THE COST. Hz—“' Marry me, and 1 will be your slave !" ‘Sue— But don't you know that slavery is unconstitutional and bad form here in the south?” He—" Of course! Bat a man expects to sacrifice bis constitution when he marries, you know !" comicbooks.com