Judge, 1900-10-27 · page 7 of 16
Judge — October 27, 1900 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical letter from "Hiram Pennick," a rural Populist campaigner, describing a chaotic political rally in Bloomsburg, Illinois. The humor targets the Populist Party—a third party opposing both Republicans and Democrats—by portraying its supporters as ignorant, violent, and disorganized. The letter recounts a meeting where tensions between "Middle Road fellers" and Democratic Populists erupted into a brawl during a campaign parade. Political disagreement devolved into physical violence: a wig-pulling incident, objects thrown, and chaos involving women fainting. The satire works through deliberately misspelled, dialectal language ("fite," "wimmin," "hyeeniz") portraying rural Populists as uneducated. The cartoons show both rowdy campaign scenes and the fractious hall meeting, emphasizing that Populism represented chaotic, disorganized opposition to the established parties rather than serious political alternative.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mie NINTH leceer Bloomsburg, Ill. Oct. 10, 1900, EER JUDG— i wont goin to write you bout the meetin there at Hanover Tuesday night but i herd the Hanover Courier sed the Pennick army started the fite an i wont to say its a campain lie. The Pennick fellers wont in it. Im a peecible old a feller an ashamed of such rowdy ways. Followin are the fax. Theys ben bad feelin at Hanover fer munths tween the Middle Road fellers an the Demokrat Populists, it got to the bilin pint Tuesday the day of Pennick Parade. . in the evenin wus the meetin in Fishers hall. Fust thing wus singin. Celindy Evins‘a leedin JOINING THE PENNICK PROCESSION. teecher on the organ sung the star spanguld banner awavin a flag an stompin her foot in the chorus. Then Tomps Adleman spoke. The trubble begin whin Adleman sed suthin bout traiters to the caus. Bill Ellison sed hed be switched if hed be calld a traiter by ennybody. Cyclone Duncan jumps up ashakin his fist at Ellison an seys “ thets whut ye are consarn ye an ye kno’ ” Then a tuf feller by name of Sisson walks up the ile an pulls Duncan's wig off acrumplin it up an throwin it on the floor. Wellsir it wont a minnit fore the hull meetin wus in the wurst WETANIIIN n Monin ri fite iever see. The wimmin folks begin A WAR nN LY) iceman carn om, Cindy ve | il } fainted sos i hed to hold her up. “Gen- tlemnen,” i seys yellin, “ rekollect the wim- min thets present.” Just then a coweum- ber cum whizzin thru the air an hit me on the forrid an then they begin skuirtin hose thru the winder. Well i seen it wont no. use fer to try quietin a lot of hyeeniz so i just kept calmin the wimmin an let the fellers fite it out. They stopt when, the sherif cum but they wont no more meetin. ‘Next we go to Sandstone Point wher weel hav the last rally of the campain ‘Thursday. 7 fellers in the processhun now an gainin at evry town. Yurs truly HIRAM PENNICK. P. s—fergot to mention Puddleswille Singers last week they wor good. / ZA he A STORMY MERTING IN FISHER'S HALL.— comicbooks.com