Judge, 1885-06-06 · page 3 of 16
Judge — June 6, 1885 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Astronomer's Romance" & "The Meter Inspector as a Hero" **Top Cartoon:** A romantic comedy about an amateur astronomer wooing a woman through stargazing. He points out constellations (Mercury, Mars, the Twins/Gemini, Sirius) while she gazes through his telescope. The satire mocks sentimental Victorian courtship rituals—the elaborate romantic setup, the woman's breathless responses, the absurd notion that celestial observations constitute seduction. The poetry quoted throughout parodies flowery romantic verse. **Bottom Section:** Two pieces satirizing British social hierarchies. "The Meter Inspector as a Hero" ironically praises the gas-meter inspector as unappreciated—he's actually invisible to his employers despite doing essential work, ignored while the servant girl (truly powerful in running the household) steals credit. "Its English, Ye Know" jokes about English pretension: a lodger complains he can't sleep on pillows fit for royalty (the Prince of Wales), mocking both working-class aspirations and absurd class-consciousness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
of your purest passion, RONOMER'S TWAS That near my tele \ Heavenly I Lhe What joy T And Those az That seemed 10 say A conve (I never And, while she ke T gave the name of every pla I pointed out the brilliant stars And said She whispered And put it round the hired girl's bed When we went up to tea that ‘The waiter band ne Then he ¢ ver seen ns ook the Milky Way He said he“ thoaght ‘tw to Wenu And when Tasked her for her hand ead, looking at the “Tm pretty sure of Mar's e¢ She answ ata fam: t when she appre we shyly Castor ¢ a Sirions yh “You ar ion then took place knew whieh one he “Here's Mereury overhead.” We mix that with nA mossy hank, without a doubt) hy the hand putout We sat What happy sears have t Ae y sky no clouds ar vations are so clear I sce The Twins with nuked eyes. The Meter Inspector as a Hero. like the he meter inspe down to posterity unwept and unst As it is, he stands of hanging everytime a house-holder detects him) dally- ing with the dog, the gas-meter and the ser- ndiary and ure. lity entitled to tors. Tle Babba Light- ngement on the old reliable g umen that we owe the not-sufliciently-appreciated fact nd two make fou f, and when ters are nonstrating that they are principle of philosophy, them from other He first observed vey of letting es before r might go br: Hil he no poet, Agaemeniy ticles of furn wis int ster of inve uit the inspec ce high in the who discovered that that tw somet concerned, thus measured by asubt entirely different liquids and f and practice the exper ts-mete: rervant ; dis. For him ¢ days last all the year. When, in the course of han it oc. curs toa charitable ** long suffering and full of mercy” corporation to inspect its meters, renovate and refresh. retire them perhaps fr A sto the meter ectors to be bitten st in every other arew-way. shody ever relieves, refreshes or retires the er inspector but the deg. Yet the in- spector unappreciative and prefers slower locomotion in an orbit of which Phyl- lis is the central sun, » if superan ctive servi seems ervant tat Vhen he has his arm abont the waist the meter inspector ext The stars burn out Andi And the leaves of the jud: Book unfold in grows cold ment He is thinking only of pie, and the possibil- ity of somebody’s interrupting him before he ean raid the pantry, ii hours are in the vicinity of three by the clock, an hour midway between the day’s | chief meals, when the lord of the manor is | down town and the dame upstairs deep in a | fluffy pe 1a French » Tis ; ¢ bays him deep-monthed liberties with the calves of his legs. > would go mad did not some friendly eur with fire in | id an eye-tooth like a pitch-fork set | | that is, fir | coar~ hero ever first: found ont were hept in the cellar whe canse their deeds are evil? Who else covered that the servant girl is the ef the American home becanse of the capa ity of he Who but he knows tha the real plar of modern mankind is no longer ** the litth but the b meter wh jeep like the hare all sum= mer and then leap to th all things in the p sion of m life with a rapidity whieh dist sipping country mill-wheel won lalizing ter-inspector should be 1 from a cannon, JOUN PAUL BOCOCK. that g: itis usv bee,” n sca anonized; Its English, Ye Know. Mrs. Grindham—‘T hear, Mr. Growle you have been making complaints about: my house. [wish you to understand, sir, that it is conducted on the best style.” Growler— Thi the t 1 can’t sleep on a pillow that is the Prince of Wales? urms, Mrs. Grindham—* What do you mean, sir?” Growler—* Why, they are made up ree feathers! Hat ha!he, he, haw, haw comicbooks.com