Life — April 7, 1900 — page 21: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a satirical dialogue cartoon depicting a wealthy man (Dick Willington) complaining to a woman (Sister Ruth) that he's spent $1,500 courting a girl who rejected him. Sister Ruth's response delivers the joke: she suggests the girl wisely calculated that accepting his proposal would cost *her* far more than the money he spent—implying marriage to him would be an expensive mistake. The satire targets materialistic courtship and male entitlement. The implication is that women should be grateful for a man's spending, while Sister Ruth reframes it as a financial transaction where the woman has the most to lose. It's a reversal of the typical "gold-digger" stereotype, suggesting even paid courtship doesn't obligate a woman's acceptance.