Judge — November 20, 1915 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes marriage proposals and family dynamics of the era. The scene depicts a suitor (left, climbing a ladder) approaching a large family group (right, positioned elevated on furniture). The caption's rhetorical question suggests dark humor: when a young man offers to "relieve" a father of his daughter's burden through marriage, does the father suspect the suitor's true intentions—specifically, that he plans to "get aboard" (board with the family, becoming a financial dependent rather than a genuine suitor)? The joke mocks both mercenary marriages and economic desperation among young men who might marry primarily for room and board rather than genuine affection. The ladder suggests the suitor must literally climb to reach this family's social position.