Judge — May 25, 1901 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

**Top cartoon ("How It Looked"):** Two well-dressed men observe a shabby third man on a city street near financial institutions (Exchange, Bankers & Brokers offices). The joke plays on assumptions about male misfortune: one man assumes the shabby appearance means lost money, while the other quips he'd expect to hear about marriage first—implying wives are financially ruinous to men. This reflects period anxieties about marriage as economically damaging. **Bottom cartoon:** An advertiser seeks someone skilled at handling "country trade" and "figures" (bookkeeping). The applicant, depicted with exaggerated ethnic characteristics and dialect, claims experience at the Eden Museum "wit' de wax figures"—misunderstanding "figures" to mean literal wax statues rather than accounting. The humor relies on period-typical ethnic caricature and the character's supposed ignorance, reflecting contemporary attitudes toward immigrants and working-class employment.