Judge, 1911-05-06 · page 20 of 28
Judge — May 6, 1911 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Judge cartoon satirizes the "hobble skirt," a restrictive women's fashion of the early 1910s featuring a narrow hem that severely limited leg movement. The top cartoon depicts women voters organized into two new political parties—"the Harems and the Hobbles"—in Adams County, Ohio, where women had apparently gained voting rights. The accompanying text humorously catalogs the hobble skirt's impracticality: the wearer struggles boarding trolleys, nearly gets hit by traffic, cannot raise the skirt to retrieve money from her stocking, and cannot walk normally after sitting. The satire mocks both the absurd fashion trend and women's newly visible public participation in civic life, suggesting that women voters are as chaotic and problematic as this ridiculous garment. The joke relies on conflating fashion frivolity with female political agency, presenting both as sources of disorder.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
If it would, I should have let it go, for I was filled with mortification. At last, the conductor and the brakeman took me by my elbows and swung me up, or I never should have got aboard at all. “Then, in New York, it was dreadful! You know tow I cross the street? I simply have to do it my own way, for it makes me nervous to depend on those policemen. I always cross in the mid- dle of a block to escape them. I just watch for a good chance, you know, and then I run across, fast, and I always manage all right. But, terday, I tried to run, and that awful skirt held me back, and when I was about half- way across I stumbled in it, and the trolley cars and motors just clambered all around me! How I got over alive, I don't know. I shouldn't have, only two nice men and a boy seemed to spring up from somewhere to help me. Well, then, I went on, and I suddenly discov- ered the lovely satin hem was getting awfully soiled. So I tried to hold it up, but My dear, have you ever tried to hold up a hobblette? Well, don’t! ‘It’s much more unmanageable than a sheath! I wanted to turn it up, like a man does his trousers legs, but I felt I was attracting enough attention as it was, Then, my dear, it was time to go to meet John, and I tried to get on a street car. Well, the board of elder- men, or whatever they are, will have to have those car steps made lower! I had my pay-as-you-go nickel all ready, but I IT MI V4 aw By = | M7 Baer | 14 = IL aa Cm Gabehell — LATEST NEWS OF THE HAREM SKIRT. In Adams County, Ohio, where all the men voters have been disfranchised, the women have organized two new parties—the Harems and the Hobbles just couldn't get up to the place where you go. And the wretched conductor wouldn't help me a bit! He just grinned, as if it were an old story to him. I tried three or four cars, but they all had high steps and unhelpful con- ductors; so I took a taxicab “They do have sense enough to build the steps of the taxicabs fairly low, so 1 got in all right and went straight to Sherry’s. Well, I had been shopping, HT GO OFF you know, and I had spent much more than I thought I had—I always do, don't you?—and, if you please, I didn’t have money enough in my purse to pay that cabman! But that isn’t the worst of it! I did have more money with me, but it was in my stocking. I always carry some extra bills there, and I'm rather an adept at getting it out, if need be, without any one knowing what I'm do- ing. But that skirt wouldn't budge! I stepped back into the cab and shut the door, but I simply couldn't raise that hobblette enough to get my money! What could I do? Well, as good luck would have it, John came along just then, and I opened the cab door as if I had just arrived. John paid the bill. “We had a lovely luncheon—John is a dear man to go about with—and then we went to a matine But, oh, my dear, if my knees didn't get cramped! Both feet went to sleep, and they wanted to walk in their sleep, but they couldn’t. Well, when we did come out, I could scarcely stand, let alone walk! And John hurried me to the station. Well, when we reached the boat it was just beginning to move from the dock. ‘It's perfectly We'll jump “‘Jump!" said John. safe. I've got hold of you. together now.’ “**T won't!’ said I firmly, and I didn’t. Why, my dear, if I had, we'd have both gone into the water. ‘So we waited for the next boat, but “Oh, mother, may I go and look at the cannon ?’ “Yes; bat remember, you ‘re not to point it at me."* John didn’t know why and never will!” comicbooks.com