Judge, 1900-03-31 · page 6 of 16
Judge — March 31, 1900 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical poem mocks Western naïveté about foreign cultures and the danger of judging by appearances. **Ning-tee-Poo**, a Chinese mandarin, cultivates a public persona as a genteel, baby-loving gentleman through affected mannerisms ("Oo dee ittle, tweet ittle sing"). Society ladies fawn over him despite neighbors' whispered warnings of murder and disappearances. The satire targets gullible high society: women dismiss obvious red flags (dungeons, vanishing people, murdered damsels) because his polished charm and courteous behavior seduce them into willful ignorance. When his castle is finally examined, it reveals chambers of horrors—yet the ladies' response is to erect a monument praising his affection for babies, missing the point entirely. The joke exposes how surface civility and exotic mystique can blind the privileged to moral reality, particularly regarding women's poor judgment and susceptibility to manipulation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A POPULAR MAN. HERE once was a wang named Ning- tee-Poo— The kind you see on a Hong-Kong fan. His pigtail trailed for a yard or two, ‘And the ladies all said, ** What a sweet old man!” For he had such a bow—so well- bred, too!— And he loved little babies that say * Ah-goo I” When he passed a pink suckling at- tired for a spin He would pause wi “Oh!” and “Ah To chuck the plump morseling under the chin Till it gurgled with glee; and its proud mamma, When she heard his*' Oo dee ittle, tweet ittle sing!" Was just too enraptured for any old thing. charmingest Now Ning-tee-Poo had a castle of stone With a moat and a tower of porcelain; It had long, grilled window-bars carved from bone And deep, dark dungeons under the drain. And his neighbors whispered he'd much in view Besides little babies that say ‘*Ah-goo !” But the ladies said, ** Isn't he just too dear?” ‘And each to her lord hymned his praise in kind, “* To dream there is truth in the stories we hear! What a manner! So polished—so sweet and refined! A rufianly murder—a vanishing dove? So absurd! Go invite him to dinner, my love.” Ning-tee-Poo grew rich as a Turk, While the neighbors continued to fail and flee. He fattened and dozed and eschewed all work Till he died in the odor of sanctity. And as long as he lived he more partial grew To the dear little babies that say “Ah-goo!” Now, when they examined the castle they found A’ chamber of horrors, a cistern of tears— The corpses of damsels deep under the ground, With respectable citizens hung by the ears. And in the sub-cellar they found on the list Pretty near all the valuables any one missed. But the ladies! Their sobs arose in gales : They cried and cried till they took to their beds, And collected several million taels For a marble-topped monument which read : +t Our dear, dead, delicate Ning-tee-Poo, He Loved little babies ‘That say “Ah-goo.’ ue POST WHERLER, ea SOMETHING NEW. Mr. WHEELER—"' We have horseless carriages, wireless telegraphy "— Miss Srokes—"‘And this morning, when you fell off your wheel, it looked like a manless bicycle." NOT A PECULIAR SITUATION. " noted rabbi that evening, “fora person who belongs to his own race.” POSTED. jones, they tell me you are a well-posted man.” Well, I reckon I am. timber into posts last spring.” ES,-he was a very fair man,” declared Mrs. Newcomb, who had heard the lecture of a Me an’ th’ boys made up that whole fifteen acres o° comicbooks.com