Judge — June 4, 1904 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains two satirical cartoons about class and social pretension. **Top cartoon ("Striking a Bargain"):** A Southern cracker (rural poor white man) approaches an artist at work, proposing a deal: if the artist paints his portrait with his wife and ten children, he'll loan the artist money for a week. The satire mocks both the man's assumption that portrait-painting is a quick transaction and his inflated sense of his own importance—thinking his family is worth significant artistic effort. **Bottom cartoon ("What Really Made Him Sick"):** Two boys discuss illness. One claims a cigar made him sick; the other suggests it wasn't the cigar itself but "mi-crobes an' germs on it," implying the cigar's poor quality or unsanitary condition. This satirizes contemporary anxiety about germs and hygiene while poking fun at working-class attempts to appear health-conscious. Both cartoons use dialect and working-class characters for comedic effect typical of early 20th-century American humor.