Judge, 1908-06-20 · page 7 of 28
Judge — June 20, 1908 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes a courtship problem using a mathematical puzzle as a metaphor. A man (Mr. Weed B. Benedia) seeks romantic advice from a woman (Miss May B. Not) about winning over another woman's affections. Her "solution" is deliberately obscured by convoluted mathematical instructions—a joke suggesting that romance itself is an unsolvable puzzle, or that her advice is deliberately unhelpful obfuscation. The humor lies in treating a heart matter with cold logic, and in the woman's arch response: she provides elaborate, confusing steps that ultimately yield a predetermined answer regardless of starting number—implying the man's romantic prospects are equally predetermined and futile. The illustration style and "Judge" publication date this to the early 20th century.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
QANES WUNTeomERY -FLACE A PROBLEM. Mr. Weed B. Benedia—* You told me 1 might figure on your answer tc Miss May B. Not—"* Certainly, Start with any per you wish between one and nine, add one, multiply by nine, cross out left-hand figure, add fourteen, and add the number you started with.” comicbooks.com