Judge, 1900-06-16 · page 6 of 16
Judge — June 16, 1900 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Judge magazine page contains several satirical humor pieces reflecting early 20th-century American life: **"On Memorial Day"** — A sentimental poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox honoring fallen soldiers while pointedly asking society not to forget the **widows and mothers** left behind—a critique of how memorial observances focused on the dead rather than the living survivors who suffered. **"Just Reached Easy Street"** — Mocks the elderly and patent-medicine industry. Uncle Jerseyman, 104, survives by writing testimonials for bogus medicinal products—satirizing how unregulated "patent medicines" (often fraudulent tonics) preyed on gullible consumers. **"A Base Deceiver" and "Foot-Ball Not in It"** — Brief joke exchanges using puns and double meanings, typical of the magazine's filler humor. **"A Boarding-House Joke"** — A dark humor punchline about executing a spiritualistic medium ("spiritualist" practitioners were popular but widely considered frauds), with a grim pun on "stake-done" versus "well-done." These pieces collectively satirize medical fraud, social exploitation, and period superstitions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ON MEMORIAL DAY. 0, BRING the fairest flowers From garden-bed and lawn— White lilies sweet with morning dew, Pink buds that match the dawn. The best are none too lovely To strew with lavish hand Above the gallant men who died For God and native land. But what of those who loved them— ‘The mothers and the wives Who helped them buckle on their swords And tured to widowed lives? From all the wealth of blossoms Oh, spare a single spray For those who nobly gave their all And wept their hearts away. sowwa IRVING. JUST REACHED EASY STREET. Mrs. Jonesmith— \'ve just been over to sée Uncle Jerseyman. He's just passed his one hundred and fourth birthday.” Jonesmith—"\'d hate to get that old unless I had plenty of property to live on. At that age a man is too old to work, ‘| and “—— Mrs, Jonesmith— Ob, Uncle Jerseyman says he has a splen- wort icles didly-paying job writing testimonials for three different patent-med- igen icine concerns.” A BASE DECEIVER. **T can't help but love him, he is such a base de- FOOT-BALL NOT IN IT. Mrs, Pokecnor—"' So yo’r husband am an old foot-ball player? I s'pose he has received a good many hard knocks on de gridiron.” Mrs. Razzer BLADES—" Wa-al, yais; but not so many as I has received from de grid half trying. iron since I got married to him.” ‘es. He can throw down to second and catch a Bie A BOARDING-HOUSE JOKE. First noarper—""I see they have just burned a spiritualistic medium at the stake down in Georgia.” SkCOND BOAKDER—"' Yes; that is what you might call a stake-done medium ” comicbooks.com