Judge, 1900-06-16 · page 5 of 16
Judge — June 16, 1900 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous comic strip from *Judge* magazine depicting a joke about barber shop etiquette and honesty. Two men (Hewitt and Jewett) discuss a man who died in a barber's chair. The punchline: the barber told the customer he didn't need a haircut—an unexpectedly honest assessment that apparently shocked the man to death. The satire targets barbers' notorious tendency to oversell unnecessary services to customers. By having the barber break this convention and tell the truth, the joke implies such honesty is so shocking and contrary to normal business practices that it's literally fatal. The accompanying fashion illustration (signed by Penrhyn Stanlaws) shows a woman in a wrap dress with elaborate hat, likely depicting "Miss Barber, the horsy girl" mentioned in the dialogue—though the connection between the joke and illustration remains unclear.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE BARBER'S UNEXPECTED HONESTY KILLED HIM. Hewitt—"* There goes Miss Barber, the horsy girl.” jEWETT—"* That reminds me. I see that a man died in a barber's chair to-day.” jEwITT—"* Yes; he asked the barber if he needed a hair-cut and the barber told him he didn't.” comicbooks.com |