Judge, 1901-06-29 · page 8 of 21
Judge — June 29, 1901 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines a three-part romantic poem by Madison Cawein with an illustration depicting unrequited love. The central figure is a woman labeled with the phrase "To Let" (meaning "available for rent"), a property-letting term used satirically here. The poem's satire targets the melodramatic desperation of a lovesick man obsessed with "Lydia," a woman who remains emotionally unavailable ("her heart's the sign, 'To Let'"). Each section escalates the complaint—from personal anguish, to universal entrapment, to philosophical questioning of whether women should be "free" from love's obligations. The illustration shows the woman as an object of desire—literally standing like property for lease—with her suitor and companion in the landscape above. The satire mocks both the speaker's overwrought suffering and society's tendency to treat women's affections as commodities to be acquired rather than freely given emotions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“TO LET.” L [VE often thought I was in love, and only lived to sigh; And many a girl at many a time has held me heart and head. I cannot tell you how it is, T cannot tell you why, But Lydia is the girl of girls ‘Who makes me wish me dead. It's Lydia here, it's Lydia there— What have I done to merit this? T cannot turn me anywhere But there's my soul's sweet Nemesis, No use to fume, no use to fret, When on her heart’'s the sign, ** To Let.” A BA \ I've mingled with society, \ / the multitudes of town ; I've lost myself among the woods, and to the sea have fled. No matter where I go or hide, she always runs me down, There's no escape from Love, God knows !— 1 would that I were dead! It's Lydia there, it's Lydia here— What shall I do, where can I go, To rid me of the one so dear, Whose blood is ice, whose body "s snow ? ‘Ab, would to Heaven I'd never met ‘The girl whose heart still says** To Let !* ul. Love is the burden all should bear, the sweet curse none should shirk. Why should one woman, then, go free— go fancy free, I've said? Love is man’s pleasure and his pain, his play-day and his work, ‘And he who loves and is not loved, I deem, were better dead. It's woman here, it’s woman there— Now tell me true, what can he do ‘To make her love him to despair When she is not inclined thereto— To make her love or him forget ‘The girl whose heart still says To Let"? MADISON CAWEIN. comicbooks.com