Judge, 1914-07-18 · page 15 of 24
Judge — July 18, 1914 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1910s Judge magazine page mocks both Japanese culture and American women's emerging independence through three separate pieces: **Top section:** Japanese postcards caricature American women as lazy, demanding wives who force husbands into domestic servitude. The satire targets the "New Woman"—the early 20th-century feminist movement advocating women's rights and independence. The article notes Japanese find this scenario hilarious because it inverts traditional gender roles they consider absurd. **Middle cartoon:** A golfer and caddy joke; unrelated to the main theme. **"Engagement Canceled":** Ridicules female suffrage advocates. A woman lecturer planning to address maids about voting rights is mocked when her husband points out servants change jobs too frequently to establish voting residence—implying women lack stability for political participation. **"Sympathy":** A cynical one-liner about marriage. The page's underlying message: women demanding equality and domestic relief from husbands is laughable to both Japanese and American audiences. It reflects period anxieties about changing gender roles.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The wife reads novels while the husband does the washing. When she wants to take a bath be beats the water for ber. While he gets a meal ready she smokes lazily in bed. JAPANESE HUMOR AS APPLIED ‘TO THE AMERICAN WOMAN THORITIES agree that the pictures shown above are the funniest things ever produced by a Japan- ese artist. They are now being circulated over Japan in post-card form and are making a great hit. To their way of thinking, the mind of man could conceive of nothing funnier than these cards. When a Japanese sees these cards, he breaks into such uncontrollable laughter that he has to be quieted with medical assistance. These cards depict the new woman as the Japanese thinks she is in America, as she forces her husband to do the work around the house. She is shown sitting at her boudoir glass arranging her toilet, while her husband holds the back mirror for her and sings to the baby. When she wants to take a bath, he heats the bath water for her, and while he gets the meal ready, she lies in bed blowing smoke rings, and as her better Golfer— How shall I play the next shot ? Caddy—I don't know, sir. The cow has eaten ten balls. half is hanging out the washing, she sits in a chair browsing through the light fiction of the day. They think that American women sit down to arrange their hair, make their husbands heat the bath water, lie down when they smoke, and read while their husbands hang out the wash. The Javanese have a crude, elementary sense of humor. If, in walking along the street, a person steps into a mud puddle, they all break into a broad grin, and if a person should fall down and break an arm, the onlookers would be incapacitated the rest.of the afternoon. There’s nothing funnier to them than to see a man come within a fraction of an inch of being run down by a street car, and if he has been bumped and has to rub himself, they will climb off the car so as to come back and laugh. Much of their humor is so coarse that it is revolting. Of the six post cards in this set, only four could be printed. Japanese humor couldn’t get by in the United States. It couldn’t even get by the post-office.—Homer Croy. Engagement Canceled ‘ «WHERE are you going to lecture to-night, my dear?’’ inquired Mr. Wise of his wife, a promi- nent equal-suffrage lecturer. “‘T am to address the Cooks’ and Housemaids’ Union,’” she responded. Her husband laughed. “T see nothing to laugh about. Surely they have as much right to vote as any other woman,"’ his wife began indignantly. “T am not denying that, my dear,’’ mildly explained Mr. Wise; ‘‘but it isa waste of time. Don’t you realize that a cook or housemaid never remains long enough in one position to be entitled to a vote?” Mrs. Wise, recognizing the wisdom of this, canceled her engagement by telephone. Sympathy Sillicus—Do you believe marriage brings sympathy? Cynicus—Most assuredly. I! believe every woman feels sorry for some other woman’s husband. comicbooks.com