Judge, 1917-04-21 · page 13 of 32
Judge — April 21, 1917 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a domestic satire about marital manipulation. Mrs. Skeemer wants a new hat, so over the course of a week she systematically flatters and indulges her husband: serving his favorite meals, complimenting his appearance, inviting his relatives and friends, allowing smoking in the house, and suggesting he needs a new hat himself. By Saturday, she casually mentions wanting a hat—which she'd actually ordered days earlier—and her husband readily agrees. She then tells a neighbor that *her husband* thought she should have one, inverting the reality. The joke exposes how wives strategically manipulate husbands through calculated affection and ego-stroking to get what they want, while allowing husbands to believe they're making independent decisions. It satirizes both feminine cunning and masculine obliviousness in early 20th-century marriage dynamics.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
| | Husband- WAS on Monday morn- ing when Mrs. Skeemer decided that she would new hat to w to the matinee the next Saturday afternoon. It) was n Monday evening that Skeemer found three of his favorite dishes on the dinner table and the dessert he liked best It was on Tuesday morning that Mrs. Skeemer told him while brushing his that he was growing younger and better looking every day and that she was so glad he was not a “great fat thing” like their next door neighbor. She used the whisk- broom on him s g that when a woman had as handsome a husband as she had she naturally wanted him to look his best. Tt was on Wednesday when she told him to invite his father and mother to dinner the next day and she would have the stuffed veal that his father liked so much and his mother’s favorite pie. She also wanted him to invite his Uncle Bill and his Aunt Maria, whom she despised as she despised few people on this earth. It was on Thursday when she asked him to bring some of “the boys” home to dinner with him the next night and she would have any dish or dishes he liked best and they could smoke in any part of the house. She also told him that he needed a new hat and she hoped he would get it that very day. She didn’t want er good looking husband going around wearing Ke Sod I wonder why our new boarder didn’t come to his dinner. morning and went to the creek fer a swim. I haven't seen him since. Wife—I don't know. He took the dog early this a shabby hat. She agreed with THE EVOLUTION OF A HAT | him that the new fancy waist- coat he had bought that di was a “beaut” while she in- wardly hoped that he would never wear it when she went out with him. She called him a “Billy boy” instead of “Will”? when he went away and made him promise to turn at the corner and look back so that she could throw him a kiss. It was on Friday when she thrust a flower into his button- hole before he left home and asked him what dress he would like to have her wear when he brought “the boys” home with him that evening. She thanked heaven in his presence that her husband’s friends were also hers and she declared her intention of “spreading herself” on her dinner for them that evening. She asked if he could if he didn’t want to order some ginger ale or a little beer and she offered to make a Welsh rarebit before “the boys” went home. It was on Saturday morning when she remarked casually that she believed she would get her a new hat soon—the hat having been ordered the previous Wednesday—and Skeemer had said “All right, Tootsie” and she wore the new hat to the “mat” that afternoon saying to the neighbor who went with her: I didn’t think of getting another hat this summer but my husband thought I ought to have one.” UARBOER comicbooks.com