Judge, 1896-05-09 · page 18 of 18
Judge — May 9, 1896 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Judge cartoon satirizes German-American immigrants through ethnic stereotyping. The scene depicts a baseball game where beer kegs serve as bases—a joke about German beer culture and supposed German immigrant obsession with alcohol. The manager, speaking in exaggerated German dialect ("dose kegs," "der bases," "dey reagch"), orders the captain to remove the beer kegs. The humor relies on the stereotype that German-Americans prioritized drinking over the rules of baseball itself, with players allegedly stopping to drink rather than advancing bases properly. The dialect spelling and mispronunciations reinforce period xenophobia toward German immigrants. "Dutchtown" refers to German neighborhoods (from "Deutsch"). This reflects early-20th-century American nativism, when immigrant communities faced ridicule in popular media.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ee PES, [es Sauce Heat j wend VIENNER AY, comicbooks.com Sackett Wibelms Litho Co New York Coprmige™ ‘908. 8Y THE JuOGE PUBLSKING COMPAMY OF MEW YORK BASE-BALL IN DUTCHTOWN. (A keg of beer on every base.) Maxacer Swiccunnnin (onprily)— Gaptin Lizerwurst, remoof dose kegs of beer dot you are using for bases. Here id is de ninth inning und my blayers hug der bases, steal no pags, und ged a chag on pefore dey reagch dirt base !”