Judge — June 9, 1923 — page 26: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes workplace infidelity and the domestic anxieties it created. A woman visits another woman at home, casually mentioning she had lunch with "your hubby." The visited woman responds dismissively: "Not a bit. His stenographer must be sick." The joke operates on the assumption that the husband regularly lunches with his stenographer (a female office worker), implying an affair or romantic entanglement. The wife's quip suggests this is such a routine occurrence that his absence from the office to lunch with *another* woman only happens when his usual companion (the stenographer) is unavailable. The cartoon reflects early 20th-century anxieties about office dynamics, women in the workplace, and marital fidelity—presenting infidelity as an accepted, almost comedic aspect of business life rather than genuine scandal.