Judge, 1905-04-29 · page 6 of 16
Judge — April 29, 1905 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical advice column mocks the economic pressures on young working-class men considering marriage. A correspondent asks whether six dollars per week provides adequate income for married life. The response is tongue-in-cheek: it claims six dollars is "really a lot of money" and offers absurdly stingy budgeting advice—dividing expenses between bread, clothing, and church donations while suggesting the new wife will be a useful "economizer" who can stretch resources. The satire lies in presenting threadbare poverty as manageable through thrift and optimism. The accompanying illustration shows a couple in modest dress, likely representing this economic class. The final dialogue humorously reveals the wife's haughty attitude despite their financial constraints—a jab at pretension among the poor. The overall point critiques the era's expectation that working men could marry on minimal wages, and implicitly questions whether such marriages were realistic or advisable.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MARRIAGE ON SIX DOL- LARS PER, 2 OW muc a your t betore consid ering marriay point. ‘The fol- lowing letter and the answer throw nA ought “Dear sir thing Povaubl toot ¢ nh thas aioe \ if it is really cheapo than Truly y You ought to live very nicely on six per, Samuel. Th. is really slot of money. Yes; His cheaper for two than one, You see, it’s this way, Sam. You buy ac loaf of Dread, and by the time you eat half of at the other kal spotls, f un see yourselt if you had a wite teeat the | that’s spotled you that it would be a great scheme Wives © handy to have ‘round Is economizers in this way. On six dollars per your layout would sive up about like tus: Ri dollars a month; lars a week, A very: appetizin table can be spread for two on that sum, Clothes ought cost over twenty dollirs a until your wife's troussean gives out, ‘Then there 1s something tor urech, char tlowers, cabshire, ete. ; say. titty dollars a month at first, until you yet used to it, So you see six dol lars a week and adream-book will ive you a chance to make quite a spread, I you are short oces sionally you are no worse olf than WL of us are at times; and with a 1 near hy, or some rich folks. with plenty of silverware, v« ought to be able to bri thing from the outside ow an then, You might oceasionally lay for some plutoerat in asi Lane Hjitsu him into the notion of giving you things, ‘There are } .. many little ways of ture un ~ honest penny nowadays. Marry on \ in| what you've got and then Chau , \ i wick around tor a raise of salary, \ SS GHEES trighttully haughty, n't | Yes. Do ye old Me. Struek comicbooks.com ax