Judge — March 27, 1920 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Sharper Than a Servant's Tooth" This cartoon satirizes wealthy leisure-class attitudes toward taxation and servants. The scene shows an elegantly dressed woman reclining on a sofa while a man stands in the background, apparently departing. The caption references "de Peyster riding about in a common, ordinary taxi" and jokes that he's "given up his limousine" because "the income-tax punctured all his tires." The humor targets the wealthy's complaints about income tax, personified as literal punctures destroying their luxurious automobiles—a metaphor for how taxation erodes their lifestyle. The small dog observing the scene adds domestic irony. The illustration mocks upper-class anxiety over newfound tax burdens, presenting their distress as trivial compared to servants' hardships (the proverb reference in the title).