Judge — November 13, 1915 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a social satire about courtship customs in the early 20th century. The joke hinges on the expectation that when a man proposes marriage, a woman should play "hard to get" by delaying her answer—a coy tactic considered proper feminine behavior at the time. The humor comes from Marie's extreme interpretation: she didn't just delay briefly, but made Egbert wait so long he couldn't leave until 1 a.m. The cartoon mocks both the artificiality of these dating games and the inconvenience they create. The St. Louis Country Club setting emphasizes this is about upper-class social conventions. The illustrated figures show well-dressed club members witnessing this domestic drama, suggesting the audience for such relationship performance was the broader social circle.