Judge, 1888-02-04 · page 3 of 16
Judge — February 4, 1888 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Judge Magazine Analysis: Page 3 This page contains several satirical sketches from Judge magazine (date unclear from image). **"Only the Framework"** mocks a thin woman by suggesting she needs upholstering—a play on her skeletal appearance. **"A Sing-Song Sketch"** parodies the confessional narratives popular in Sunday newspapers. It's a cynical autobiography of a criminal whose entire life trajectory—from childhood theft through bank robbery to imprisonment at Sing Sing—is predetermined by poverty and circumstance. The closing line ("Coz once I happened to be born") sarcastically suggests social determinism: the speaker's crimes weren't choices but inevitable outcomes of his birth status. **"The Reign of Anthony I"** appears to reference Anthony Comstock, the famous anti-vice crusader, discovering an anatomical skeleton in a schoolroom and interpreting it as obscene—satirizing his prudish overreach. **"That Accounts for It"** humorously attributes a patient's weakness to his employer's exploitative nature. Remaining sketches are brief humor pieces about directions and labor issues (coal strike, servant relations).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ONLY THE FRAMEWORK. 7 PARTY —* Say. Jones who ist : p party“ Why, that’s lis w Finst panty You don't say so tall, angular and ex! ely thin woman talking ts Hicks >" T think if T were Bicks I would Inve her upholstered °* A SING-SONG SKETCH. (A la the Sunday World). When Ewas bata baby boy When La little older grew 1 pilfered change from mother too. often Twent to school, stole” away to pkiy pin-pool When Tw: the fifteen noteh Tpawned my father's silver wateh. At twenty. Twas such a churl Aste ran off with brother's girl. Some stocks T did, at twe ight, Without © suspish,” hypoth At thirty, swindling mining © booms” I worked, but landed in the Tombs. (A crooked lawyer got me free; T beat Aim out of his whole fee.) Learned, at thirty-five, some fi With suckers at the sawdust THE REIGN OF ANTHONY I. wil, let ux hope, last). v Anthony the Pure did vis Ji school one da ordained he was ush- com maidens. ive ml the room he thought he heard a pupil say Jess.” but he was exceeding loth te believe it, But wh won the table the sea doubt : for there stood wn avticnlated: skeleton, adorned from his ey AM forty, though, I struck a snay. While burgling banks, and sot “th They sent me up for sixteen years, In spite of all my pleas and tears, So here in Sing Sing now | dwell, Hark ! there's the ding-dong of the bell, But ere the lockstep T fall in Til tell how this “might wot have been": What ! © Christian rearing inn Oh, nix! cor ! this here's The reason Tam in this cell (But keep it dark, and never tell) Is, Lam jugged this gloomy morn Coz once T happened to be born! 28}, aliax © THY ALL-nouNnD TOUGH,” THAT ACCOUNTS FOR IT. In a doctor's office. “T can't exactly explains my symptoms, doc isa general feeling of w wearine ble ite! wanted to be in m Wet T see! cashier.” ALL THE DIRECTIONS. Asign on the station house at sit but its natural bone ‘Anthony the Pare nd rushed upon it, and ea about it his own sealskin great \ \ Uhe and the law are mighty t J othat class dmapes all its and it studies the hu- man form divine under a bushel, son dat’ swid yo'am Ocuimas be gota, watel THE COAL STRIKE, huer Ol've herd the folks say ax how coal wuz goin’ up, but Oi've bin two days, an’ divila bit has riz from under the shed yit Big Sandy, Wyo., reads as fol- God bless our home. Girl wanted—apply within. A JUST ESTIMATE. Philosophy in the kitchen. “Our employers—A lot of make-believes, who keep servants to help them do nothing.” comicbooks.com