Judge, 1923-12-22 · page 7 of 36
Judge — December 22, 1923 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This Judge magazine page contains three separate satirical pieces: **Top cartoon**: "Santa Claus takes a survey on stocking capacity" mocks women's fashion, likely referencing 1920s hemlines and whether women's stockings could adequately cover their legs as skirts grew shorter—a major social controversy of the era. **Middle cartoon & dialogue**: Business humor about domestic finances and a salesman's dark joke about giving arsenic as an engagement gift—gallows humor about marriage tensions. **"The Reformation" article**: A satirical list of marriages that failed because wives judged husbands by their professions' standards (a bookkeeper judging by profit/loss, a telephone operator by "wrong party," etc.). The satire criticizes modern women for being too critical and career-minded, treating marriage as a business transaction rather than commitment. The final line dismisses reformers as hypocritical—they criticize but offer no solutions. The piece reflects 1920s anxiety about changing women's roles, independence, and evolving marriage expectations during the post-suffrage era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Al —_ ey eval Santa Claus takes a survey on stocking capacity. Crabshaw—Why don't you run your The “Own Your Own Home” cam The Reformation domestic affairs on a business b paign was evidently started by automo- . n Henpeck—I tried that, but my wife bile manufacturers. Got to have son by Katherine Negley \ called in her mother as budget director. thing to mortgage if you are to buy a ear. \ areNocRravien: maried but. found ttt LX the man was not her type so she Even when some men put their best Clerk—New suit? What color? erased him from her life. foot forward it is for the purpose of Customer--Any kind on which face the real estate woman, her husband | kicking. powder will not show. Was not a good buy so she said “good-by.” lite An actress considered her wedding my merely as the opening act on a vaudeville ring program. put When the bookkeeper took a trial eit hal sof her married life, her husband was found wanting, so she charged him to the profit: and Joss account, and that ended her romance. A school-teacher’s husband could) not stand her tests so was not permitted to his pass into the next step of her life. \ saleslady who ried, decided her husband was not a bargain and that their marriage was a misfit. ails To the postoffice clerk, her marriage was a dead letter. \ musician found her husband was a minor so their marri is now the Lost Chord. To the libr: says is a dead n, what her husband \ telephone girl married but found she had the wrong party so was disconnected. ir, A nurse married a dead one and as her . line was live ones, she got a divorce. tes “I'd like a present for my fiancé.” The reformers say all this must be Sheik Salesman—How about a bit of arsenic? changed but they do not say how. comicbooks.com