Limericks illustrated by caricature were fairly common at the time. It's always a mistake to judge the past by the present. Next step is to complete censor the past and then we are cut off form it, learn nothing and live in complete fantasy land.
What we see here is Irony.
[Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words....... Verbal irony involves what one does not mean. For example, when in response to a foolish idea, we say, “What a great idea!” This is verbal irony.] Unfortunately Irony is now banned as not PC, which is now absolute. But Irony is clearly what the creator intended, some of it very pointed and bitter. Some of these, for example 'The young lady from Georgia' and 'the young lady from Hatyi' undoubtedly referred to topical situations that the contemporary reader would know of and which are unknown to us now, so we lack the context. That was, at the time, the only way you could critique behavior and get away with it'
Hell, maybe it still is.
You can still find it occasionally in some memes and tweets.
I guess Crash, we are going to have to agree to disagree.
Here's to freedom of speech.
Cheers!
And Lyons, Thank you and keep on keeping on.
Link to the book:
New Book of Nonsense