Judge — February 8, 1902 — page 18: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This two-panel satirical cartoon plays on the double meaning of "backsliding"—both the literal winter sport of sledding backwards down a hill, and the religious/moral meaning of abandoning one's principles. In the top panel, Deacon Spratt (a pious church authority figure) hypocritically scolds a child for sledding on Sunday, calling it shameful. The bottom panel shows the ironic punchline: Willie asks "who's backsliding?" while the deacon himself is caught sledding down the hill at speed, "twenty lengths behind" them. The title's joke is that the deacon is literally and figuratively a "backslider"—he violates the very moral standard he just preached, exposing his hypocrisy. The cartoon satirizes religious hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness, showing how moral authority figures often fail to follow their own rules.