Judge — August 29, 1903 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This 1903 Judge cartoon satirizes a romantic encounter between two characters during what appears to be a summer courtship. The titled figures—Ethel Summercirl and Cholly Pensnover—represent stock character types: a flirtatious young woman and a presumably wealthy suitor. The joke turns on financial pragmatism disguised as romance. When Cholly asks if Ethel will forget him after returning to New York, she replies that she won't—not from affection, but because he's already given her two months' advance salary. Her closing line about being "not liable to forget where it went" suggests she's spent the money and thus has a financial rather than emotional investment in remembering him. The satire targets both the opportunistic woman and the naive wealthy man, mocking their respective mercenary and foolish motivations beneath the veneer of romantic summer romance.