Judge — February 13, 1904 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page The main cartoon, titled "Overhead at Asheville," depicts a father, mother, and daughter in an early automobile, with a donkey-drawn cart ahead of them. The daughter asks why the horse hasn't moved, the mother responds "Why, the count may die, papa," and the father replies "What of it? He doesn't owe me anything yet." This satirizes wealthy Americans' obsession with European nobility, particularly the financial entanglements that could result from marrying into titled families. The donkey-cart appears to reference a count of dubious means. The joke mocks both the family's eagerness to associate with aristocracy and their crude mercenary calculations about whether debt obligations would result. The accompanying text discusses the "Democratic donkey" as a political symbol, analyzing its stubborn yet conveniently flexible nature in representing the party's contradictions.