Judge, 1893-01-21 · page 16 of 18
Judge — January 21, 1893 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily **advertising content**, not a political cartoon. Frank Leslie's Weekly is promoting "The Missing Word Contest," a literary game modeled on a popular English fashion that had drawn 217,000 participants in London. The contest mechanics are straightforward: readers pay 25 cents, cut out a coupon, fill in a missing word from a provided paragraph (sourced from an unnamed "well-known book"), and submit their answer. Prize money from all entrance fees—totaling $53,500 in the London version, divided among 114 winners—goes to those who guess correctly. The paragraph excerpt concerns someone whose "powerful friends" would help if he'd merely burned a house or killed a neighbor, but won't aid him regarding "the slaughter of this wretched"—the final word omitted. **Historical context**: This reflects how newspapers monetized reader engagement through contests before modern sweepstakes regulations. The Post Office Department's approval is noted, suggesting legal scrutiny of such schemes was already emerging. The mechanics parallel modern puzzle contests, though the stakes and participation were notably different.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Season, the Publishers of A Literary Contest. 3 To assist in enlivening the Holiday Yet Frank Leslie’s Weekly have concluded to inaugurate in America the latest English fashion : THE MISSING WORD GONTEST. These amusing contests are now quite the rage in London, and we have heard of one of them in which 217,0co persons participated. As each participant contributed a shilling entrance fee, the amount divided among those who supplied the missing word was large. The total $53,500 was divided among 114 persons, so each of these got almost $470. Here are the Terms of the Contest: Each person who wishes to try to supply the missing word in the paragraph that will presently follow, must cut out the “MISSING WORD COUPON” from this week’s Frank Les.it’s WeeKLy, and with name and address, and the missing word plainly written in the proper blank spaces, send the same to the office of the publish- ers together with twenty-five cents in postage stamps orcurrency. On the lower left hand corner of the en- velope enclosing the coupon and entrance fee, should be written “MISSING WORD CONTEST.” The total of the entrance fees will be divided equally_among those who correctly supply the missing word. This is the Paragraph: “He knew, besides, that his powerful friends, who would have interceded for him had his offence been merely burning a house or killing a neighbor, would not plead or stand by him in so pitiful a concern as the slaughter of this wretched sd This coupon will be printed every week in “Frank Leslie’s Weekly” until the close of the contest. The result of the contest will be announced in the issue of February 16th. There has been some doubt as to whether or not the proposed contest was objectionable to the law. So that there could be no doubt on the sub- ject the post-office authorities have been consulted. ‘The assistant attorney general for the Post Office Department says that if the paragraph, from which a word has been omitted, be taken from a well-known book to be found in almost every library, there could be no objection, We therefore change the paragraph as given in our first announcement, and give a quo- tation from a writer well known to every reader of English literature, s may make as many attempts as they choose, but Competitors each attempt must be made on a coupon taken from FRANK LESLIE'S WEEKLY, and Fee of 25 cents. accompanied by the entrance Address Publishers FRANK LESLIE'S WEEKLY, ARKELL WEEKLY (0., 110 Fifth Ave., N. Y. City. upon braii comicbooks.com