Judge, 1897-06-05 · page 15 of 16
Judge — June 5, 1897 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a competition page from *Judge* magazine (dated 1897) featuring a visual puzzle contest. Readers must identify ten famous authors based on illustrated visual puns or symbolic drawings—a "rebus" style puzzle common in 19th-century magazines. The contest offered $250 in total prizes ($100 for first place, descending to $10 for subsequent winners), with forty total puzzles across multiple issues of the magazine. Solvers had to mail their answers to Judge's office within one week. The actual puzzle images appear as numbered illustrations (21-30 visible here), each depicting a scene meant to represent an author's name through wordplay, visual metaphor, or symbolic imagery. Without more context, the specific authors referenced are unclear, though the cartoonish, exaggerated drawing style was typical of Judge's satirical aesthetic. This represents how magazines engaged readers through interactive competitions before digital entertainment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGES PICRURE PUZZLES: $250. IN PRIZES. Here are ten pictures. Each one represents the name of a well-known author. We have $260.00 to give away to those of our readers who solve these ten illustrations and THIRTY (30) others, twenty of which were published in the last two weeks and ten of which are to appear in the next issue of the paper. XX ist Prize = - = = $100.00 = | Oth Prize - ---= = = $10.00 2d Prize - - = = = 50.00 7th Prize = = -= = .= 10.00 3dSPrize =. =2 5s s= 20.00 8th Prize - = = =.= 10.00 4th Prize = = = = = 20.00 oth Prize = = = = = 10.00 5thPrize - - - = 10.00 loth Prize = = = 10.00 A TOTAL OF Sasa! oo TO BE DIVIDED, BETWEEN TEN PEOPLE. aS es aE eee |e | SE ccseccccc000 SasD DRDO RIGID LUABLE, rE. Copyrighted 1897, by Judge Publishing Co., of New York. nn Write the solution underneath each picture, cut out sheet and mail, with your name and address plainly written on the bottom ___ fj_ thereof, to the “JUDGE PRIZE-PUZZLES DEPARTMENT, 110 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK.” Mail it in time to oe teach this office not later than one ne welt from date of publication—all solutions arriving later will be disqualified. PRESS OF FLESS & RIDGE: PRINTING CO., FIFTH AVENUE, NEw YORK. comicbooks:com