Judge, 1913-05-17 · page 8 of 24
Judge — May 17, 1913 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks the early suffragette movement through a faux-interview between Cupid and a female suffragist. The humor relies on attacking women's suffrage advocates by portraying them as: **The Satire's Points:** - Hypocritical: The suffragette claims to reject romantic love and view men as mere "bundle-carriers," but immediately abandons these principles when danger (a fire) threatens, crying "Oh, Harold, my love, save me!" - Emasculating: Men are reduced to "biological factors" and domestic servants - Irrational: She's exposed as emotionally unstable, despising Cupid for revealing her true feelings **The Message:** Judge magazine argues that suffragettes' ideology is fundamentally incompatible with women's "natural" romantic instincts—that feminist principles collapse under real-world pressure, revealing women as inherently emotional and dependent on men. This represents typical anti-suffrage propaganda from the early 1900s, using humor to delegitimize women's political rights by questioning their intellectual consistency and emotional stability.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
swer, but again took his watch from his pocket and held it up tohisear. It af- forded him no satisfaction, and, sadly shaking his head, he replaced the watch in his pocket. Then he got a yellowish strip of paper, on which things were printed, and pasted it upon the long blue ticket. The clock on the wall of the ticket office relentlessly indicated that if tide wished to wait for those who would journey to Puddersville, time was not go- ing to make any such concession. Sweat oozed from his brow. He gnashed his teeth and withdrew his money from be- neath the wicket. Then he drew in a long breath, dropped his satchel upon the floor, and, forgetting rhetoric, began explain- ing his immediate intentions. The young gentleman who was parting forever with the ticket was evidently de- termined to avoid betraying haste, ner- vousness or weak emotion. He folded the complicated affair deliberately, placed it in an envelope on which were pictures of the wonderful scenes along the company’s right of way, and then, apparently for- getting his determination to be brave about it and assuming an air of resigna- tion such as that with which a fair young mother hands her child to the surgeon who has found it necessary to operate, he pushed the ticket under the wicket, held out a hand for the price, ard said, “*Puddersville and return, nine-seventy- five. Train leaves at three-forty-eight. Time changed yesterday.” —=Hilawe. AN OPTIMIST Demonstrating agent (to prospective customer) —You see, in spite of its position the engine is still running and the frame is intact. This proves superior construction. Of course accidents will happen. Cupid's Catechism For the Suffragette Q. One moment, please. (Zing, zip!) Aha! Straight through the heart! Now will you deny your love for the patient, adoring bundle-carrier at your side? A. If you are the so-called God of Love, your arrow is wasted. I ama suffragette. Q. Have suffragettes no feeling for the opposite sex? A. We consider men merely as bundle- carriers and biological factors. Q. Why not love your biological factor? A. That has been our weakness all down the ages. Through our love for them, men enslaved us. To be strong and free, we must not love. Q. Why be strong and free when you can be the slave of love? A. Sir, I have told you that I am a suffragette. Q. Unloving? Free and strong? A. Yes. Q. Especially strong? A. Strong and full of courage. Q. Then look after your bundle-carrier. Can’t you see this department store is on fire? A. Oh, Harold, my love, save me! Q. Then you do love Harold? Or are you trying to choke him to death? A. Ilove him! I love him! We will die in each other’s arms! Q. Will you still admit that you love Harold when you observe that this fire scare is a false alarm? A. Cupid, you are a mean, deceitful monster! As a suffragette, I despise you! Curtis Dunham. Building Up A man goes away to build up his run- down physical system and comes back to build up a run-down financial system. comicbooks.com