Judge, 1895-09-28 · page 7 of 16
Judge — September 28, 1895 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes both racial stereotypes and sports culture of the era. The top cartoon mocks a baseball championship game between "colored league" teams through heavy dialect caricature. Umpire "Unteree Johnson" speaks in exaggerated African American vernacular while announcing that both exhausted teams have agreed to pawn their valuable trophy for beer rather than finish the game—presenting Black athletes as lazy and prone to alcohol. The bottom comic strip shows a sailboat's "balloon-jib" sail repeatedly failing. Each panel depicts the sail collapsing while the sailor insists his theory is correct, concluding "nothing wrong with his theory." This appears to mock stubborn adherence to failed ideas despite obvious evidence. Together, the page uses racist caricature for one joke and visual comedy for the other, typical of Judge magazine's entertainment approach.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
F A WISE CONCLUSION. Unteree Jounson (t0 the grand-stand)—"" Ladies an’ gents, ez yo' all know. dis am de decidin’ game ob de series fo" de possesshun ob dis valualle an’ beau- tiful trophy, known ez de Ketchum challenge-cup, toe be fought fo' by de nines comin’ out fust an’ secon’ in de internashunal colored league. De score now stan's fo'ty-fo'r toe fo'ty-fo'r an’ de playahs am dead tired, an’ it am de united opinyun ob bof nines dat we stop de game right now an’ pawn dis invaluable trophy fo’ a kag ob beer, “We also desire toe publicly t'ank de donah fo" his ginerosity. Ladies an’ gents, wif yo'r kind permishun yo’ will now disperse.” “There! -I call-that a balloon-jib that is a balloon-jib. — Gee whiz! what ails the thing? — —Thunder an’ fish-hooks !— cp a Waal, the theory 's correct. A balloon. jib" carry all right.”” NOTHING WRONG WITH HIS THEORY. comicbooks.com