Judge, 1900-03-24 · page 3 of 16
Judge — March 24, 1900 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes rural and working-class life through several humorous sketches. "The Posumville Theatre" depicts a makeshift outdoor performance (top), mocking unsophisticated entertainment. The various anecdotes below target rural ignorance and poor judgment: a boy's naive imitation of cigars, a woman's unfamiliarity with Christian theology, a farmer's pity for muzzled oxen (misunderstanding their purpose), and working-class logic about employment. The final photo shows two men in what appears to be a hunting or confrontational scene, captioned with instructions to "aim for" the eye and then home. Overall, this represents early 20th-century urban magazine humor mocking rural and lower-class Americans as foolish and crude—a common Judge magazine theme reflecting class-based prejudices of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A IN-couc DANER EE By seaceseete «0 BACON eZ SL POSSUMVILLE THEATRE. “ Hamlet "—ghost scene. (Enter ghost—exit audience.) A DISCERNING YOUTH. IN HIS first visit to the zoo Bennie had been very loath to leave the N THE show-case in a country store stood a box of their best cigars. elephant. While going home the little fellow quietly slipped his A boy from the rural districts walked in and read on the box, * Beware hand into his uncle's and whis- of imitations.” “So them’s imitation cigars, be they ?” said he. “I swan ef pered, “Can't I go again. some- they don’t look ‘zackly like real ones!" tume, Uncle Tom, and see the an- imal with the awfully long bill?” ITS ATTRACTION. FADED FLOWER. She sang *'"Tis buta faded flower"; Vill ne’er forget the place, And I thought much better she would look If she'd put some on her face. HIS OBSERVATION. Mrs. Hornbeak — “1 have just been readin’ that the Christian scientists don’t believe a person is dead when he is dead. They say he has just ‘ passed on." Farmer Hornbeak—* Wacal, | sh’w'd think they'd wonder what made him keep on goin’, I notice none of ‘em ever come back.” ( we PITIED THEM. »y 7 if \ DOROTHY, secing a yoke of oxen with wire muzzles on, thought they must surely be invalids. “For,” she exclaimed, “all they can eat: is strained food.” GOOD ALL ROUND. Smith—"\under- stand you are working half time now.” Jones—*Yes, and loafing the other half.” Smith "Well, working half the time is better than nothing.” Sones —" Yes, and FINAL INSTRUCTIONS. half a loaf is better ; ; . " Youxc nuxter—" Now, if I should see a moose, what should I aim for?” A TRAMP SCHOONER, than none,’ Guipe—" Oh, aim for his eye first, and then aim for home.” comicbooks.com