Judge — August 8, 1914 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This illustration by James Montgomery Flagg satirizes courtship through a humorous visual metaphor. A woman in Edwardian dress presents a dead game bird (likely a pheasant or similar fowl) to a grotesque, demonic male figure with prominent horns and exaggerated features. The title "Her Steady" suggests this unattractive creature is her boyfriend or suitor. The joke appears to mock either the woman's poor taste in romantic partners or, alternatively, to satirize how women might view their male suitors as monstrous or undesirable—a common theme in early 20th-century humor about courtship anxieties. The image plays on contemporary anxieties about romance and marriage during this era.