Judge — July 14, 1923 — page 26: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a satirical illustration about financial loss during what appears to be a market crash. Two women are depicted—one standing, one seated—in an intimate domestic scene. The dialogue reveals the joke: Muriel admits she once met her "ideal man," but he lost all his wealth when "the market slumped," making marriage impossible. The satire targets the financial precariousness of courtship and marriage among the upper classes, where a man's marriageability depends entirely on maintaining wealth. The illustration suggests that romantic ideals are subordinated to economic reality—a man ceases to be "ideal" once he becomes poor. This reflects early 20th-century anxieties about stock market volatility and its impact on social stability and courtship rituals.