Judge, 1914-09-26 · page 11 of 24
Judge — September 26, 1914 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This domestic comedy depicts a married couple, the Hardleighs, returning from a four-month Pacific tour and threatening divorce. The satire targets both spouses' behavior: Mrs. Hardleigh flirted constantly with a persistent acquaintance named Frothman, while Mr. Hardleigh obsessively played golf at every opportunity, neglecting his wife entirely. The joke hinges on marital hypocrisy and miscommunication. Each accuses the other of infidelity or neglect, yet neither openly objected at the time. Mrs. Hardleigh's final laugh suggests the absurdity of their grievances—his golf obsession is presented as equally damaging as her romantic dalliance. The cartoon satirizes how couples can drift apart through mutual avoidance rather than confrontation, and how leisure activities (golf being a leisure pursuit of the wealthy) can become destructive to marriage.
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verruorye oc“ IF WE'RE going to separate, it might as well happen before we unpack and set things to rights,’’ said Hardleigh. “It would save the trouble of my pack- ing up again, sure]. replied Mrs. Hard- leigh. ‘*But, you know, there are some things that can’t be set to rights.’” “There you go! Well, let’s have it out and done with i They had returned from a summer's travel. When they set out, their luggage had been plastered with foreign labels, which were now covered with less cosmopolitan signs of tour- ing through various resorts of the Pacific coast to Honolulu and back. They had escaped the hardships that recent European travelers have encountered, but they had picked up points of marital difference on the way. “There's no need to go over what we've already talked about to no purpose, I suppose," said Mrs. Hardleigh. ‘*We've been gone four months. We went away quite well satisfied with each other, seemingly, and come back quite dissatisfied with each other. What's the logical solution?”’ Ry J. “Divorce. There's no other."” “Perhaps. “Perhaps! Why, didn’t we encounter young Frothman wherever we went? He hung to us like a bill collector. Stopped invariably at our hotels—how he managed to know Reconciliation 1, WALDRON where we were to put up is a lively ele- ment of suspicion alone—and you mooned with him wherever the moon was visible, and danced with him wherever there was a floor and music. And you remember, don’t you, that in Honolulu I discovered you with him’’—— “In a boat. Terrible, wasn’t it?’ And Mrs. Hardleigh laughed as though she enjoyed the memory. **Well, I shall sue for adivorce.’’ And Hardleigh looked it. “But you'll have trouble making out a case. And what of my side of the matter?” “Your side! Haven’t I been a model husband? found me talking in tender tones to any woman,’’ “T never tried to. But from the time we started out until this moment you've played golf. Where there was no golf course, you buttonholed every man who ever saw one and talked in an unknown tongue—unknown to me. You ate golf, drank golf and slept golf. I might as well have been married to a golf stick. Do you know you haven’t kissed me a dozen times in four months? And even now you have your golf kit in hand, impatient to get out and swear at the balls or your luck.’’ Hardleigh dropped his kit in amazement. ‘*Why didn’t you object, then, to my playing golf?” Mrs. Hardleigh laughed with a satirical note. You never “Object! comicbooks.com