Judge, 1897-09-25 · page 16 of 16
Judge — September 25, 1897 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes baseball rule enforcement through a racial stereotype. The scene depicts two players—a white "Captain" and a Black player labeled "Jim Jackson"—in a dispute about batting stance. The joke hinges on Jim Jackson's claimed predicament: official rules require batters keep their feet twelve inches from home plate, but he claims this makes it impossible to reach the plate with his bat while standing upright. His solution is to bat while kneeling. The cartoon uses exaggerated dialect and a servile posture (kneeling) to mock both the absurdity of overly rigid rule application and, through its racist caricature, to demean Black athletes. The humor relies on the audience accepting the stereotype that Black players require special handling or accommodation—a deeply offensive premise that reflects the era's casual racism in sports and popular media. The satire targets bureaucratic inflexibility rather than offering genuine commentary on racial exclusion in baseball.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ia DARK Towns” BRAMAWS” 2.8, GROUWDS )oms - A ‘ 2 3 p comicbooks.com Comymeny 1997 ay THe JUO6E PUBUSRIBG COMPANY OF REW YOR CAPTAIN (to batter)—"" Look byar, Jim Jackson ; whad yo’ mean by gittin’ on youah knees to bat ?” Jim JAcKson—"* De empiah say ah hab to keep mah feet twelbe ir.ches from de home plate, an’ ah kain’t reach de plate wid mah bat under dem sukumstances ef ah stan’s up.” OVERCOMING A BASE-BALL DIFFICULTY. ‘Sacked Wihelims Lhe & Pry Co New York