Judge, 1882-06-24 · page 3 of 16
Judge — June 24, 1882 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This *Judge* page contains satirical commentary on President Chester Arthur. The main cartoon shows an ice-wagon driver complaining about his grueling work conditions—nineteen trips since 6 a.m., with faulty brakes and difficult passengers. The accompanying letter is Arthur himself responding sarcastically to a previous *Judge* cartoon that depicted him recovering from "a debauch" (drunken excess) with a wet towel around his head. Arthur defensively argues the towel could have been for a headache, hair loss, or political stress—not necessarily hangover recovery. He also questions the magazine's assumption about his visit to New York to "see the boys." The satire targets Arthur's reputation for heavy drinking and alleged dissolute behavior. The ice-wagon complaint appears thematically connected—both pieces critique working conditions and exhaustion, possibly alluding to Arthur's own weariness or incompetence in office. The letter's mock-serious tone amplifies the magazine's mockery of the president.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE OLD CAR-DRIVER. “Yes, this is the nineteenth trip I've mad Since mornin, six o'clock. “Tis now eleven o'clock at nizht, And Lam driving tired And th three more tri Before man's reat I can ta And I've only bi Away from this ¢: This villainou: ur for grab nky brake— tiresome brake! Perhaps you think “us an Because {don't bi And And ge To simply To my pl But 1 Out Tw ke my regular tine form's duty stay; y sixteen hours g this villainons bi “The ‘Super,’ of course, he growls at me, For that 18 one of his righ But the worst I get is with the ride on the lisged to Hist And curses sometimes And puns 0 bad from * That I sigh a sing and smoke tad ei Sometines a gent milli Bat oftener a pimply Just learnil You may think my sixteen hot That ‘tis this my old life frets; But worst of all [have to endar Are snobs and their cis: As I work my cranky brake.”* GEORGE @, SWALL ettes, President Arthur to the Editor of the C. U. “Dear Sin: In the last issue of your paper. ‘A Bad E: you read me a sort of zy curtain-lecture, and in number of The JupGe, you take it upon you y lam represented as ‘a sufferer from a debauch,’ and that [ have a wet towel around my head. Pray, how do you know that it is a wet towel? How do you know but that it isa dry one, or a turban—or that I had a bad headache from a_ seve old? What do people put wet towels around thei heads for anyway? Is it when they are suf: ring from adebauch? Have you been there, Editor, and do you know how it is you If? If you never have, why do you talk | about recovering from a debauch? Why may | it not be true that I had been chinned into a | severe headache by my political friends? | Might I not have put that wet towel on to | keep my hair from falling out? And as for | the legend, ‘Oh, why did I go to New York | to see the boys,’ might not that have had reference to a siege of hand-shaking tracted buzz from office-seekers? What you are pleased to say about my Sunday trout | fishing racket, I have nothing todo with here. You are just as liable to be fooled by a re- s fancy sketch as a secular editor is; but I insist upon knowing why you say I am wearing a Wet towel at the moment the artist has sketched me, And this suffering | from a debauch—really you must know some- thing about my dcar sir, otherwise you | the cheapest and plainest dre: | THE JUDGE. Ixteresten Hov Inate Icemax.—How inch would not have specitied the condition and object of the towel. How is it, anyhow? “The boys’ stand in close ranks, anxiously awaiting your reply, hoping to learn what “wet towels’ are worn around the head for. An early reply will oblige them and your hum- ble servant, “ Cuesrel AN Ohio man squirted some tobacco juice in the eye of a short-horn ball. His trous ere pretty strong, and so kept him from fall- | ing out of the tree into which he had jumped from the ends of those short horns, A Rewarp of twenty dollars is offered by California Board of Education for the who, on commencement day, will appear in And the young mer are waiting to see if any of them will adopt ol Mother costume. Busixess is so backward at Coney Island Jen't that rather a small pi that they actually give the few customers they | have a full glass of beer. At first thought you might suppose they did this for an adver- tisement, but it is not so; those fellows nev ‘imply do it because they don’t want the beer to sour on their hands. of ice for the money ? fur fifty couts, sasnuy > Tuis is the way to do it. James MeHan and John Graves, of New Mexico, quarreled and came to blows, but, afer watching the fight for a few minutes, their obliging friends put loaded revolvers in their hands, and the result was that MeHan shot Graves into a fit condition for the grave, whereupon the foresaid friends lynched McHan, It was a lively way of settling the whole business. Ruope IsLanp had better sell out and give up the State business if it hasn't room enou to pitch a twenty-four foot ring for th modation of her priz ‘Two of thos wsthetic gentlemen were obliged to come up here and have their fight at Coney Island last What sort of a State is it, anyway, that can't take care of her own prize-fighters’ Gus WiLLias’ ‘One of the Finest” is one of the finest pieces he has yet appeared in. But the ‘blue-coats en with envy, because he has more exits on his beat than many of them have, AN International Congress is now called for to regulate the sun, or, at least, the time the old fellow makes. If they could only regulate his heating apparatus, it would while. be worth comicbooks.com