Judge, 1897-07-10 · page 9 of 16
Judge — July 10, 1897 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a "Puzzles for Our Readers" page featuring horse-racing themed riddles, popular gambling humor of the era. The cartoons mock the obsessive betting culture around horse racing, a major public pastime in early 20th-century America. The riddles satirize different betting archetypes: a lovesick man betting on his fiancée's namesake horse; a chronic loser who abandons his "lucky" horse, only to watch it win dramatically; and an office boy who believes he's obtained insider information about a fixed race through office gossip. The humor targets how ordinary people became convinced they possessed secret knowledge about race outcomes, leading to poor financial decisions. The final riddle's punchline—suggesting the office boy will be fired for asking for a raise based on his supposed insider tips—underscores the futility and danger of betting based on hearsay rather than actual earnings.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The love-sick young man who Plays Sweet Ethel to win because that is the name of his fiancée. What is he trying to do to the ticket, and how soon will the wedding take place ? The man who has played Sir Joblots to win, in every race he has been entered this season, and has uniformly lost ; to-day he lets him severely alone. What is the name of this fiery demon of the turf that comes tearing down the home-stretch ten lengths ahead of his field and winning with ridiculous ease under 2 bits’ feet, horse-shoes, cauls, : strong pall? f@ sboulder for success at the tips in the daily papers ? pation furnished by jockeys, Hriends? Which one only 2M deliberation of the prevail- doesn’t care a—and bets dMpay of distinguishing which conundrum, JUDGE offers essful guesser. This man overheard his office-boy say that Crabapple couldn't lose the great Slopover stakes to-day because his brother, the stable-boy, heard McNulty, the jockey, tell Dennis, the trainer, that Owner Smith told Bookmaker Jones, etc., etc. What will the office-boy get to-morrow when he asks for a ** raise"? comicbooks.com