Judge, 1893-12-09 · page 19 of 52
Judge — December 9, 1893 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces about Christmas customs and human nature: **"Things Go By Contraries"** mocks a reverend's complaint that parishioners stopped giving him slippers once he married—suggesting his bachelor status made him seem deserving of gifts, while his actual need (for disciplining children) goes unrecognized. The satire targets the arbitrary nature of charitable giving. **"Who He Was"** plays on economic self-interest: a pawnbroker naturally advocates for Christmas gift-giving (which benefits his business when recipients later need money), while a poorer man opposes the custom as wasteful. **"The Thoughtful Wife"** and "Suggestive of Santa Claus"** are brief quips about Christmas shopping and poetry conventions. The page's title, **"A Lesson in Natural History"** with a cat illustration, likely references human behavior studied as one would study animals—treating people's predictable, self-interested responses to holidays as observable natural phenomena worthy of satirical examination.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A LESSON IN NATURAL HISTORY, A cat, . THINGS GO BY CONTRARIES. ‘ sTHE contrariness of human nature is one of the most remarkable phenomena possible,” mused the Rev. Dr. Thirdly. “When I was a bachelor my female parish- ioners brought in on an average seven pairs of slippers every Christmas. Now that I am married and have sev- eral children ‘in oct al need of chastisement I never receive a ‘single -pair.” THE THOUGHTFUL WIFE. If at Christmas she doesn’t go buy him a box. WHO HE WAS. *+D) ID you hear that argument? The small man declared the giving of presents at Christmas-time to be a nonsen: custom, but the tall fellow said it was a great, good “Who are they?” “T don't know the small man, but the other one is a pawnbroker.” SUGGESTIVE OF SANTA CLAUS. Rickelts—" In writing Christmas poems you should any particular measure be written in stocking fe THE POINT OF VIEW. ut if drum ai ‘A Campbell. comicbooks.com