Judge — January 20, 1900 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

**Top cartoon ("He Followed Directions"):** A doctor advises an Irish patient (Patrick, indicated by dialect) to eat animal food for health. Patrick misunderstands, literally consuming corn and oats—animal feed—instead of meat. The joke relies on ethnic stereotyping of Irish immigrants as unintelligent and using broken English ("shtummick" for stomach). **Bottom cartoon ("A Praiseworthy Talent"):** Features African American characters using offensive period dialect and racial slurs. A woman (Mrs. Van Buren) berates a man (Selah) for drunkenness, gambling, and other vices. He sarcastically agrees, and she responds she's "showin' yo'r failin's." The cartoon presents racist caricatures meant to mock Black Americans through exaggerated stereotypes of criminality and moral failings. Both cartoons use ethnic/racial ridicule as their primary comedic mechanism, reflecting Judge magazine's casual deployment of offensive stereotypes typical of early 20th-century American satire.