Judge, 1899-01-21 · page 16 of 16
Judge — January 21, 1899 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This four-panel comic depicts a street urchin ("Lonely Riper") stealing a sled and riding it across railroad tracks, where he's struck by a train. The term "deadhead" appears to reference a vagrant or homeless person. The satire targets the moral message common in 19th-century children's literature: crime doesn't pay. The boy's theft of the sled and reckless behavior lead directly to disaster—the train strike—illustrating the era's didactic lesson that dishonesty and poor choices have immediate, violent consequences. The final caption's pun ("the way of the crooked ain't straight") reinforces this moralizing tone. The comic uses dark humor and slapstick violence to deliver a cautionary tale typical of *Judge* magazine's satirical approach to social issues and character flaws.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
comicbooks.com Lonery Riper (wus a chuckie)—'* Dis is w'ot I call an excellent idee of mine—to *pinch’” 2 dis sled, It jest takes me over de snow-covered railroad tracks like lightnin'— 3 . me boy, I can see your finish. (Bang /) There goes me sled (as the train \— —Gosh! I guess we must have struck a cyclone. Well, it only shows anodder outcast that the way of the crooked ain't straight.”” , ial soins avn: mss co oe vor ANOTHER “DEADHEAD” COMES TO GRIEF. Scher Wii Lito A Co Ree