Judge, 1898-04-30 · page 8 of 20
Judge — April 30, 1898 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page collects humorous vignettes satirizing the bicycle craze of the 1890s. The bicycle was revolutionary technology that disrupted social hierarchies and gender norms. **Key satirical points:** - **Class anxiety**: A wealthy father accepts his daughter's suitor solely because the young man owns a superior bicycle ("my tandem is better than yours"), mocking how bicycle ownership became a status symbol. - **Gender disruption**: A woman who was a "man-hater for years" falls in love with a bicycle mechanic, suggesting bicycles and mechanical work elevated working-class men's social status. - **Obsession**: Multiple jokes depict bicycles as dangerously life-consuming—a man dies in a mine explosion, but the real tragedy is his lost bicycle; a painter renders a bicycle so realistically it gets smashed. - **Irish/working-class humor**: Dialect jokes mock lower-class characters unfamiliar with bicycle culture. The satire captures contemporary anxiety about how bicycles were transforming Victorian society's rigid class and gender structures.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HER HAPPINESS ASSURED. s* AND can you give my daughter all the luxuries she has been accus- tomed to?” asked the millionaire. “Yes, sir,” modestly, yet proudly, declared the young man. “I may even say my tandem is better than yours.” THAT MUCH HE KNEW. Mr. Chainless — Do you believe that it is love which makes the world ¥ go round?” OUTCLASSED., Mr. Bevel Gear —**1 don’t know Casry—‘ Oi'm surproised t’ hear yez take about that, but it is push Which makes _ 88 from a nagur.”” aes ; Hooigy—""An’ phot do yez expict me t’ say the wheels go round on a grade like t th’ mon phin Oi can’t raich be face wid a this.” kick or an upper-cut?” Copyright by Rockwood, 1808. JUDGE'S FAVORITES. MARGUERITE SYLVA IN ‘‘ MONTE CARLO.” Marguerite of the midnight hair, Languorous glances and tropic alr, Monte Carlo should suit your spirit— Anyway, you've no cause to fear it Since with the plungers you must rank, Play the limit and break the bank. LIFELIKE INDEED. Quizzer—‘' Does he paint so true to life?” Dauber—" Does he paint true to life? Why, man, he did a bicycle so realistically that it was smashed all to pieces the day after he finished it.” A GENTLE ENTHUSIAST. * eA H-H-H!" The maiden clasped her shapely hands and raised her eyes on high : “The wheel! ‘tis t fore we di CHANGED HER OPINION. “They say she married a common mechanic.” “Common, Ethelwynde! Why, he had spent all his life in a bicycle manu- ETHe.wynpe—"' Ah, heavens! Although a man-hater for years, | feel that I could love only angel-wings we have be- such a man as that with my innermost soul.” HER GREAT LOSS. +4 [N THAT terrible mine ex- plosion one man was killed who that morning had ridden his wife's wheel to his work, and the wheel was destroyed.” “Oh, the poor dear! How she must suffer.” THEIR WISE DECISION. Drummer — “1 understand that the village dramatic club are zealously rehearsing a dra- ma which they expect to pro- duce soon. What play do they intend to render?” Landlord (Ruralville tavern) —"* Well, they did allow to pre- sent ‘Pygmalion and Galatea,’ but they found it a little too hard for ‘em, and so they have decided to produce ‘Pygma- lion’ next Wednesday night and ‘Galatea’ two weeks later.” AT THE MILLENNIUM. Bike —** Confound it!" Sprocket-— "What's the SHE DYED matter?” Miss Oldgirl died when she found her hair was turning gray? From the effects of the bike. Mavp—* Wh shock, I su; , There goes the last Fao they found oy bonie lick . trump, and in one hour more : nd atvempey ‘ .. ; SLUMS Me eo ae ener apartment I'd have completed my century No; hair-dye.” run.” comicbooks.com