Judge, 1915-07-17 · page 14 of 28
Judge — July 17, 1915 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This two-part cartoon mocks early 20th-century social hypocrisy about love and marriage. **The Dialogue (left):** A mother lectures her daughter Abigail about practicality in marriage, insisting modern times demand financial security over romance. The mother reveals she herself eloped with Abigail's father for love—yet condemns her daughter for falling in love with the poor Charley Lyman. The daughter's final revelation ("We—we—got married") exposes the mother's complete hypocrisy: after lecturing against impractical romance, her daughter has done exactly what the mother once did. **The Photograph (right):** "Perhaps a Few Signs Might Reduce the Mortality" shows a roadside covered with hand-painted warning signs about dangerous driving conditions—a commentary on reckless automobile accidents. This likely connects to the elopement: young lovers driving carelessly mirror society's dangerous contradictions about courtship and morality. The satire critiques how adults abandon their youthful romantic ideals once wealthy, then hypocritically deny the same freedom to their children.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IN A MODERN RESTAURANT Mother—Have you any good fox trotters to-day? were twenty when you married papa, weren’t you? I think you told me so.”” “Yes,"" “*And he was twenty-two?"’ Yea." **And you were both poor in worldly goods, and grandma wanted you to marry a rich baker, who wanted you’'—— **But, my child, you don’t realize that times and man- ners are very different now—very different. Now every- thing is money—everybody wants money—and persons without money are absolutely submerged."’ “*But people fall in love still, don’t they—young people?’’ “‘They may think they’re in love sometimes, child, but life these days dissipates romance. Look at the divorce courts."" **And if I should marry Mr. Willing and didn't happen to like him, I could get a divorce?” ‘*What a strange idea! It's almost disgraceful! To even think such a thing about a man before you are mar- ried tohim! I’m ashamed of you, Abigail!'’ “But I'm talking about a man I don’t care a box of candy about. When you were of my age, you no doubt thought just as I’m thinking now. You've even told me you eloped with papa to escape marrying an old man, You were in love,’” “You aren’t in love. And the situation is different." “Yes, The situation is different. But I am in love."’ “In love! With whom?"’ “*With Charley Lyman,."" “‘That boy? With no money, no position, no"’-—— “But haven’t we money enough?"’ “Fudge! What foolishness! And I let you go to the tennis court with that chap yesterday !’’ “*We didn't go to the tennis court.’’ “Where did you go, then ‘*We—we—got married.”” PERHAPS A FEW SIGNS MIGHT REDUCE THE MORTALITY comichooks{eom