Judge — January 22, 1910 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Judge: "The Wooing" This satirical cartoon compares courtship customs across three time periods. The top panel shows "the way they used to do it"—a romantic woodland moonlit scene with traditional courtship. The middle panel depicts "the way they do it now"—a modern indoor setting where a woman appears to be smoking while a man sits passively, suggesting role reversals or changing gender dynamics in early 20th-century courtship. The bottom panel projects "the way they will do it in the future," showing what appears to be even more dramatic role reversals or unexpected developments. The satire likely critiques changing social roles, particularly women's increasing independence and smoking (considered scandalous), suggesting anxiety about modernizing gender relations and courtship practices among Judge's conservative readership.