Judge, 1916-03-18 · page 16 of 28
Judge — March 18, 1916 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece by Artemus Ward Utting mocks women's fashion obsession through a male character, McFee, philosophizing about Fashion's grip on household finances. The humor targets how women's clothing demands drive men into debt—McFee observes that Fashion "dictates and woman obeys—and man foots the bill." The satire catalogs fashion's illogical nature: it sends people to expensive destinations (Hot Springs, Palm Beach), represents "the beginning of tribulation and the end of sanity," and compels women to demand new garments constantly. McFee ridicules his wife and her social circle (Mrs. A, B, C, D, etc.) for claiming "I have absolutely nothing to wear" while demanding new party-covering garments. The accompanying "Evening Wrap" illustration shows an elaborately dressed woman, visually reinforcing the text's critique of excessive, impractical fashion expenditure. The tone is gentle mockery rather than harsh condemnation—characteristic of Judge magazine's social satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE PHILOSOPHER ON FASHIONS By ARTEMUS WARD UTTING 66TNASHION,” began MeFee, the philosophic funster, as he laid down the bill for his wife's latest gown, c, because it changes its mind so often femir “Fashion represents more than appears on the surface; and you will admit that through I he surface often appears, for Fashion uncovers a multitude of shins hion i t icroscopical, item, quite often smaller than the bill i “Fashion sends onc to Hot Springs, the seashore summers, Niagara Falls, and Palm Beach winters “Fashion is the Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end—the beginning o ion and the end of sanity “Fashion dictates and woman and man foots the bill. You ulways at the foot —of Fashion, of the bill, and of woman. That is why chiropo- for riding one into n Debt continued McFee, finger s financial unfoldir can see more follies in Fashion than there are bucks, beans, bones or cartwheels the national debt. But th ame is more than semi-oce | sused and sed. When Mrs McFee, for instance Mrs. A C., D. and all the way down the alphabetical line to Z.—puts up a demand parti-covering just © cashier has stamped in full’ at the bottom of the bill for the most pre est-on the ground that the style. She usually: s: e absolutely ni wear.’ To which I have accustomed myself tor with a smile, *Then you are ight in fa’ 7 Hl a married man, un- derstand vheedling ways of ‘ They do ne care to we g but humb is there an k hus: something mu \ sow whirls her band around it. He sat back, ha rbout Fashion. But I harpooned “Your Fash bi ger * T told him, “because you don m action asked me for a new gown. She expres sire for one that was—well, you could have covered t of mailing it with a two-cent stamp, anyway All t, my dear,’ I told her; ‘but don’t wear it outdoors, will you? I don’t want the family skeleton exposed on the very street.’ And the result was that s he bought itial dress, which has already been 4 Perfectly Natural “N anything out of the ordinary plied Mr. Gap J Ark. “That was the time we'd sc r ne baby, a invited in a passel of kinfolks to sorter help us achieve it. My wife’s mother was sorter present, and several of wife’s brothers and sisters and their familie ich like, and about a dozen of my kin, and some of the neighbors, and a feller or two that prob'ly expected there would be some liquor laying around loose. All of ‘em ’peared to have their preferences in the way of name nd an carnest desire to stick to em. But there wasn’t anything peculiar happened—nothing but what you'd nacher'ly expect to occur when a bunch of that size and sort rallied round to name a baby.” AN EVENING WRAP comicbooks.com