Judge — September 10, 1904 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains two separate cartoons using racist caricature and dialect to mock African American subjects. The **top cartoon** ("Worse and Worse") depicts a peddler warning a colleague about a dangerous dog, only to be told the homeowner's wife is worse—a domestic violence joke relying on offensive stereotypes. The **bottom cartoon** ("The Way to Prove an Alibi") satirizes a man accused of chicken theft who claims an alibi: he went to bed at 7:30 PM. His wife corroborates this, but then reveals he instructed her to wake him at midnight if it was dark—obviously contradicting his alibi. The humor relies on depicting the defendant and his wife as foolishly incompetent liars who don't understand they've incriminated themselves. Both use exaggerated caricature, misspelled dialect, and stereotypical behavior to present African Americans as criminals, dim-witted, or morally questionable—typical of early-20th-century American satirical magazines' racist content.