Judge — June 4, 1921 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This satirical illustration, drawn by Robert Wildes, depicts "Mr. Snorem Installs a Self-Announcing Breakfast-Getter." The cartoon mocks over-mechanization and unnecessary complexity in modern life. A sleeping man in bed is surrounded by an elaborate Rube Goldberg-style contraption—including a clock, mechanical arms, pulleys, and various devices—apparently designed to automatically deliver breakfast. The absurdity is the point: the cartoon critiques the era's obsession with technological "progress" and labor-saving inventions by showing how ridiculously overcomplicated such a device would be for a simple task. This reflects early 20th-century anxieties about whether modern invention genuinely improved daily life or merely created needless complexity. The satire targets both inventors' ambitions and society's gullible enthusiasm for gadgetry.