Judge, 1889-11-30 · page 11 of 18
Judge — November 30, 1889 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily a **Liebig Extract of Meat advertisement** disguised as humorous verse. The illustration shows a fashionable woman preparing soup with Liebig's product, surrounded by branded jars. The satirical "poem" uses wordplay on "extracts" to humorously list various meanings—floral extracts, sermon excerpts, birch switches (school punishment), alcohol ("extract of corn, and of rye"), and finally Liebig's meat extract. The joke mocks the advertising copy's grandiose claims by comparing the meat extract to these absurd alternatives. The final stanza delivers the actual sales pitch: Liebig's extract simplifies cooking and allegedly brings health and pleasure to all—a common Victorian-era health product marketing tactic. This represents Judge magazine's **advertorial format**, where advertisements were presented as satirical content to amuse readers while promoting commercial products. The tone is lighthearted mockery of excessive advertising claims.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE 127 A FEW EXTRACTS. THTPRE are extracts of flowers that bring joy to the soul: There are extracts from sermons that thrill; And the extracts of roots that we learned at the desk Of the pedagogue’s school on the hil While many a one who gives mem’ry a chance Will recall the old extract of birch, Applied as external reminder that he Had been caught by the ped. in the lurch. Lest the sense of our taste should be left from the list, The extract of grapes we must note; : And the extract of corn, and of rye (the two tramps), Which should never be found near the throat. But of extracts that were, and extracts that are, The one that all others can beat Is prepared by the Company of Liebig, the great: It's his wonderful Extract of Meat. For the sick or the well, for soldier or child, It helps the physique and the brain; It saves all the trouble of cooking, and so It brings out real pleasure from pain. And a homily is, we would have you believe, That, no matter how much you recoup. You never will know true excellence till you Use Liebig Comp'ny's Extract in your soup. comicbooks.com