Judge — August 10, 1918 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Jones Gets His First Ice Bill" This cartoon by Walter de Maris satirizes the shock of receiving an unexpected utility bill. The scene shows a man (Jones) at his doorway confronting what appears to be an ice delivery person or bill collector. Jones exclaims in disbelief: "Great Guns! and only a little while ago I was chopping it off the sidewalk." The joke reflects early 20th-century urban life when ice was a necessity for home refrigeration before electric appliances became standard. The satire targets the absurdity of being charged for ice when it was freely available as a natural resource during winter—people commonly harvested ice from frozen surfaces. The cartoon mocks both the rising costs of utilities and consumers' surprise at commercial charges for what nature provided.