Judge, 1914-05-23 · page 13 of 24
Judge — May 23, 1914 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the early 20th-century "market-basket movement"—a reform campaign encouraging women to shop directly at markets and carry purchases home themselves, bypassing middlemen to reduce grocery costs. Colonel Beanfugle hypocritically advocates this economy publicly while dismissing it as impractical for his own family, fearing neighbors would think him financially troubled. His wife calls out this hypocrisy: she's willing to actually practice what he preaches, dragging a large basket on streetcars, yet he objects to the *appearance* of economizing. The satire targets masculine double standards—men gladly use delivery services without shame, yet expect women to perform manual labor for savings. The cartoon mocks upper-class anxiety about social status conflicting with genuine economic reform. The illustration shows a woman with an enormous, unwieldy market basket, emphasizing the impracticality Beanfugle secretly recognizes but won't admit.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“I'm sure [ don't know,’ said Mrs. anfugle a little weakl “That's the way with all reforms started ** pursued the colonel relent- lessly. thing ever comes of ‘em. Why, when this market-basket move- ment was first talked, you’d have thought the middleman was going to be elimi- nated, Every woman was going to take a market basket downtown at least twice k and pick out her own meats and ables and bring them home. She by women, ivery service which adds so much to every grocery bill. Furthermore, was going to save at least twenty per cent. of the cost of every table necessity by buying it herself and corralling it on the spot in her trusty market basket. But what is the result? It's all forgot- ten- crowded out by the tango and other » piratical middleman is laugh- e harder than eve: Or- lephoned in, and he picks out what he pleas she ing in his ders are what he pleases, char; it in just as e: she pleases. The great Ame! ket basket is a myth.”” Several days later Colonel Beanfugle looked up in surprise as his wife ap- om, dressed for the and deliver pensive a w ‘an mar Lin the living st and with a shawl over her head and on her arm. a huge market baske “Why, wh 1. “I'm going down to do the family mar- ure you going, my dear? he keting.” “Do you mean to s: t thing on the street car? I'm going to have it filled with meats and vegetables, until stalks droop over ore end and beefsteaks Then I'm going to put it street-car aisle, and I'm going to y man who happens to stum- Maybe I'll put it in the after a while, and I'll refuse y you are going to carry th over the other, in th glare ble over it. beside me to take it up in order to let any one sit down.’ “But look here, woman You're not nd forth and the going to lug that thing back t between her along the stre ‘e you?”’ How else do you think I'm going to get the market stuff home and save money? I can't afford to hire a messenger boy to carry it for me. That would amount to more than the middleman’s profits.’” ‘But we have some dignity to maintain in this neighborhood. You can’t afford n dragging a market basket back I can’t afford it, to be and forth like that. It would cause talk. People would say Beanfugle must be in financial straits."” “Well, you were preaching market- basket economy the other day, weren't you?” “Yes; but, confound it! you don’t have to apply my preaching so personally “Oh, it’s merely good advice for the other individual, is it? You'd like other families practicing this market- basket economy, but you don’t care for it at home."’ “Well, if you insist on putting it that way, yes, You see, we can afford to p: a little more to have things delivered; but other people’’—— “Yes, I see your weak-kneed argu- ment. And, furthermore, you want to remember that your sex has contributed liberally toward the building up of deliv- ery systems. How many men do you see on the street cars carrying home their newly purchased articles of wearing ap- parel? Does a man get a big basket and stuff everything therein when he buys shoes, handkerchiefs and collars? You bought a rake and a lot of other garden things the other day, but did you make the hardware man knock off ten per cent. of the price because you insisted on carry- ing them home personally and saving de- y expense? No; you submitted to the middleman’s extortion without a mur- mur. And last week, when you bought a wheelbarrow, you might have trundled it home; but instead of that, you paid at t twenty-five cents to have it deliv- ered at our back door.” y no more, prithee, say no mo: murmured the colonel. ‘*My hands are up. Only take off that shawl and put away that market basket. Put it down cellar, where I can stuff it in the furnace, lest this personal-shopping mania should chance to seize you again."" “All right,’’ said Mrs, Beanfugle; “‘but remember that if I've got to do personal shopping for the table, y. got to help economize by bringing home all the things you buy."” “All right, my dear, all right,’’ said the colonel. ‘Only, for heaven's sake, t out of the doorway, or some of the neighbors might see you with that hide- ous basket on your arm."’ And for some time after his wife had disappeared, the colonel peered nervously across the street, to see if any of the neighbors had caught the Beanfugle family committing the crime of econom- izing. u've comicbooks.com