Judge — January 12, 1924 — page 18: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes wealthy indifference to poverty. A caricatured wealthy woman (Ms. Duff) dismisses concern for hungry poor people ("the poor moth") as sentimental. She boasts that her own wardrobe—castoff clothing from relatives ("aunt's cape," "old summer pants")—suffices for her "personal flock" (likely her children or dependents). The satire lies in the contrast: she considers hand-me-downs adequate for her own family while dismissing sympathy for the genuinely destitute facing winter hunger. The grotesque exaggeration of her features emphasizes the moral ugliness of such callousness. The "mawkish" (overly sentimental) framing in the title suggests Judge is mocking both excessive sentimentality about poverty *and* the wealthy person's self-satisfied rationalization for ignoring it—a sharp critique of class indifference.