Judge — January 31, 1903 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon by Penrhyn Stanlaws satirizes social climbing and wealth obsession among the wealthy. Two women, Beatrice and Agnes, discuss why Agnes "cut" (snubbed) a wealthy man named Reginald on the street. Agnes's response is a pun: she claims she wanted to experience "cutting coupons"—the literal act of clipping bond coupons for investment income—by socially cutting someone rich. The joke mocks the pretension that wealthy people live off investment returns rather than work, and Agnes's snobbish desire to feel financially superior by rejecting someone merely "awfully rich." It's early-20th-century satire of nouveau riche social anxiety and the obsession with displaying financial status through social exclusion.