Judge — February 15, 1902 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

**"A Good Bracer" (top):** A homeless man complains about the cold world to a well-dressed man pulling a sleigh laden with provisions. The "town wag" responds with cruel advice: take cold baths daily and you'll stop noticing the cold. The joke mocks callous attitudes toward poverty—offering a poor person discomfort as a "solution" rather than actual help. **"A Longer Lease of Life" (bottom):** A judge sentences a prisoner to additional years in jail for a burglary charge. The prisoner responds that these added years have extended his life—implying prison provides shelter, food, and safety he lacked outside. This satirizes how desperate poverty makes incarceration preferable to freedom, critiquing both economic inequality and harsh criminal sentences. Both cartoons use dark humor to expose indifference toward the poor and marginal figures in early 20th-century America.