Judge, 1917-04-21 · page 17 of 32
Judge — April 21, 1917 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This story-illustration satirizes the power of gossip and unfounded suspicion in confined social spaces. Mr. Jessup, a nervous man seeking rest at a suburban hotel, encounters an older woman spreading malicious rumors about "questionable people" and "queer-acting women with dyed hair" frequenting the establishment. The satire's target becomes clear when Jessup later encounters the same woman in a corridor. An innocent, awkward mutual dodge is misinterpreted by both parties—she construes his polite apology as sinister advances and flees in panic, while he becomes convinced she is indeed the "villain" she portrayed herself as. The joke: the gossiping woman has created the very dangerous, disreputable atmosphere she complained about, through her own suspicious mind and wild accusations. Her unfounded warnings about others' impropriety poison the innocent interactions around her. The satire critiques how baseless gossip and moral panic can corrupt respectable spaces.
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To HESE suburban. hotels are really outrageous places. A single woman like myself can never feel safe in them.” Mr. Jessup, a late arrival (having been ordered out of the city by his doctor for a rest over the weck-end), looked up nervously from his New York Evening Post to see who the speaker might be. Two women, one in her thirties and the other younger. were seated on a leather divan opposite him. The elder and less attractive was doing the talking. » emphasize what she was saying, she kept one hand on the listener's wrist and leaned over close to her car,—although the v in which she spoke was hardly a still, small one All sorts of questionable people come here. Queer-acting women with their hair dyed, and all that.” “Really “Yes. I suppose you've been too taken up with your children to notice. But /’te watched them. As for the men. . .” She lowered her voice to an excited whispe You don’t say so! I shouldn’t have dreamed of such a thing he elder shook her head dramatically and continued: “If you don’t believe me, look at the men around here. You can see they are just that sort. What did I tell you!” Mr. Jessup was staring. ‘There was a magnetic unpleasant- ness about her, and his nerves were too much on edge to be indifferent to it. “Come, my dear,” said she, getting up stiffly. Giving him a look that was intended to put him in his place, she swept I y M tOK out of the room with all the panoply of embattled spinsterhood. Mr. Jessup 1 after her with antipathy. “Of all the confounded women!” he muttered. Well! I shall certainly steer clear of her!” After a while he remembered he had forgotten to take a pill after dinner. He had left them up in his room, What a bore! He supposed he would have to go get them. Ascending in the clevator, therefore, he was soon making his way along one of those interminable bleak upstairs corridors through which the guest at any large suburban hotel is obliged to plod. As, still pursuing his course, he turned into the stretch known as the Northwest Wing, he nearly bumped into some- one. It was That Woman. He sidestepped hastily. So did she, in the same direction. Confused, he bobbed still more quickly in the opposite diree- tion. She parried as before. Her alarm and his exasperation were increasing. Changing his course again, he darted well out of the wa. so as to leave her the entire passage, just as she, yielding to a sudden impulse of panic, fled to the wall. Only his quickly- uplifted arm broke the force of their collision. He started to murmur an apology, but she, construing it inister communication, snatched herself from his clutches and fled precipitously out of sight. Mr. Jessup paused and gasped. This encounter had lasted only half a minute, yet, in his present’state of nerves, i completely upset him. Not wishing to run the risk of further misadventures, he retired to his room for the rest of the evening. About ten o'clock, finding himself not yet in a reposeftil