Judge — November 7, 1908 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a six-panel comic strip starring "Nervy Nat," an apparently working-class character who drives a taxi. The humor centers on his brash interactions with a "soubrette" (a theatrical actress or chorus girl). The plot follows Nat attempting to impress or proposition the woman by offering his taxi and boasting about its speed and capabilities. She rebuffs his advances with indignation. The comedy escalates through increasingly chaotic scenes—culminating in a spectacular crash sequence in the final panels where the taxi destroys property and scatters pedestrians. The satire targets early 20th-century taxi culture, working-class male presumption toward women performers, and reckless driving. "Nervy Nat" embodies the brazen, persistent suitor willing to cause public chaos for romantic attention. The woman's consistent rejections and the destructive consequences form the joke's moral structure: his nerve deserves comeuppance.