Judge, 1912-08-24 · page 3 of 24
Judge — August 24, 1912 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes early 20th-century gender roles and marriage expectations. It depicts a newly married woman's supposed "progress" from housewife aspirations to domestic reality. The visual joke shows insects (flies, grasshoppers) approaching women's feet—likely representing unwanted pests in the home—while the woman stands amid lace and fancy boots, suggesting domestic ideals. The accompanying story reveals the satire's target: a groom expects his new bride to progress from restaurant dining to home cooking. The wife initially promises to learn cooking but ends with the droll admission "Today, dearest, I learned how to boil water"—undermining her husband's optimistic assumptions about her domestic transformation. The cartoon mocks both newlyweds' naive expectations about marriage and domestic labor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
» , 0. 1610 —= Dst-office wdgark," ilding, ecretary san Tner ‘hafer rrevien “COME ON, FELLOWS, LET'S GO TO THE NEXT JOINT!" THE newly married man, as newly mar- ried men do, came home from his of- fice happy. He was greeted, as newly married men are greeted, with a kiss, and this, in the fashion of his kind, he re- turned with an interest which any court in the land would declare to be usurious. “Of course we shall go out to dinner, darling,’” he remarked. “Yes, dearest,’’ replied the happy young woman. Her Progress. “But one of these days we shall have a dinner here, darling, shall we not, of your own cooking?’’ The bride looked up into his eyes with a confidence that inspired half a dozen more kisses. ‘‘Of course, dearest,” she replied. “I am_ getting along famously with my cooking lessons.’’ “And it will be such a change,’’ he continued, ‘‘from the monotonous fare of the restaurants when we can enjoy home cooking—the work of your own dear hands!’ There were more kisses. “‘Ah,"’ said she, ‘‘it will, indeed!”’ “Did you take a cooking lesson to- day, darling?” he asked. “Yes, dearest.’” ‘‘And what did you learn to-day?” There was pride in her tone as she re- plied, ‘‘To-day, dearest, I learned how to boil water.’’ J. A. Waldron. comicbooks.com