Judge, 1916-01-01 · page 11 of 28
Judge — January 1, 1916 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes the size and importance of municipal marriage-licensing bureaucracy. A couple stands before an imposing City Hall, with the woman remarking that she never expected such a large building would be needed just to obtain a marriage license. The man responds that it's "the building where one goes for one's marriage license," suggesting the bureaucracy has become absurdly extensive. The joke critiques early 20th-century urban administrative bloat—the irony that what should be a simple civil procedure requires an enormous institutional structure. The grand architecture of City Hall (with its prominent tower and flags) contrasts comedically with the mundane task of getting married, mocking government inefficiency and over-bureaucratization.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HALL —I never imagined a matrimonial bureau needed such a large ine city, too! > be 1o} ica} <= e os ° B ° a} < = n ud) <= Be IN -That’s the building where one goes for one’s marriage license. She: for of building — and just He comicbooks.com