Judge, 1902-12-20 · page 36 of 52
Judge — December 20, 1902 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This two-panel cartoon satirizes class assumptions and gift-giving hypocrisy. In panel 1, a wealthy man named Jack Bacneton receives an ugly necktie from his girlfriend and dismissively plans to pass it off as a Christmas "tip" to his Black porter, considering it beneath his own status. Panel 2 reveals the joke's twist: the porter discovers the necktie contains a valuable diamond pin at the bottom of the box—making the "discarded" gift far more valuable than the man realized. The porter's exaggerated dialect speech was typical of 1902 minstrelsy-influenced humor. The satire targets the man's class snobbery and assumptions about what constitutes an appropriate gift for a servant, while the ironic outcome—his attempt to insult inadvertently creates generosity—supplies the comedic moral lesson suggested by the title.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1. Jack Bacneton—"* Well, well! Just see this necktie my darling Lucille has sent me for Christmas! It looks like an eruption of Mont Pelee. I'll just take It down to the office and give It to the colored porter, instead of his regular Christmas tip.” 2. Jerrenson (the porter, after examining contents)—"* Oh, thank yo’, Mistah Bachelor —thank yo’, sah! Dis tle am suttinly a stunner, an’ dis yar dlamond- pin down to de bottom ob de box am simply a crown jewel, sah—dat's w'ot It am!"" COPYMONT 1902 BY JUDGE COMPANY OF KEW YoRK. LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP. Sackett d Wibeina Lith & h(a Rew York. comicbooks.com