Judge, 1894-12-22 · page 3 of 16
Judge — December 22, 1894 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 423: "Mr. Fowler and His Patent Spring Chicken" This page combines multiple satirical pieces. The main comic strip (bottom) depicts "Mr. Fowler and His Patent Spring Chicken"—a series of panels showing a man repeatedly trying to control or capture a mechanical/spring-powered chicken that escapes his grasp, culminating in him chasing it away. The surrounding content includes poetry and short satirical anecdotes mocking various social types: a tramp, a woman claiming to be "emaciated," a manager bothered by noise, and a widow with fashionable capes requiring extra carts to transport. The humor relies on slapstick (the chicken strips) and social commentary on pretension, hypochondria, and affectation—typical of *Judge* magazine's approach to mocking middle and upper-class folly. The "spring chicken" likely plays on the idiom meaning a young woman.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
i} SY HURT HIS OWN PROFESSION, Tramp (in the gray morning light, touching match to hay-rick) Tramp (looking back as the rick goes up)—' Well, well! I didn’t fur a “T guess when thet ar stingy hayseed back thar sees his rick afire he'll wish he'd guv me — minute hev an idee thet any of the perfesh wuz hangin’ out there.” ‘somethin’ ter eat. INSTEAD. PARABLE worth the reading Belike we might have read If Christ had come to Chicago— But the devil came in Stead. CHARLES F. LUIAES, SHE MEANT ‘“EMA- CIATED.” Penelope —" Hello, Per- dita! Where have you been all the week 2” Perdita—"Oh! Thave been sick all the week, and don’t I look awfully emanci- pated ?” TOO MUCH FOR HIM. Manager —"" Who un- der the sun is rattling all the windows in this bloomin’ place coughing so, in the other room ?” The midget —“ Please, sor, it's Desparlo, the fire- eater. He's eating a tamale,” PRECAUTIONARY. GE shook him once — she shook him twice, Yet he was not forsaken ; s Third asking she accepted — STockHoLDER —"* Well, sir, how's the corporation ra __, STREET-RAILWAY MAGNATE —“*Falling off, old man, falling off. ‘Well shaken before taken,” With these new fashions we have to put on twice as many ears to accom. MR. FOWLER AND IIIS PATENT SPRING CHICKEN, comicbooks.com