Dated humor and rhetoric

Here's an unfortunate (though useful!) example of why context matters and how it can change: a page from an outdated children's book, and a conversation about what the intentions of the author may have been and whether or not those intentions matter. What's more interesting to me than the image itself, I think, is the unanswered question of whether or not this was originally meant to be satirical -- and the fact that NOT knowing is so crucial to interpreting the image.