Judge, 1901-09-07 · page 7 of 20
Judge — September 7, 1901 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate humor pieces typical of early 20th-century satirical magazine fare: **"Sawmill Jones"**: A joke about how a general store owner in rural "Pumpkin Corners" got his nickname from a poorly written sign reading "Sam'l Jones"—playing on dialect humor and rustic ignorance common to the era. **"Peculiar"**: A brief exchange mocking wealthy consumers who purchase expensive antiques (a four-hundred-dollar rug) only to misidentify them—here, mistaking a "Tam Htab" (likely a play on "Tam" fabric or similar) for a "Bath Mat" when turned over. **"The Reason for It"**: A marriage negotiation joke where a father objects to his daughter marrying a man under six feet tall, but she agrees anyway, claiming she's "taking off twenty per cent. for cash"—implying she's negotiating his height downward like a merchant haggling over price, reducing her standards for financial advantage. The humor relies on class anxiety, commercial transaction mockery, and the period's comfort with both rural caricature and mercenary marriage jokes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SAWMILL PECULIAR. JONES. +s C)UEER thing ssHow did he . oe about that get the name > 2 SR ig four-hundred-dollar of * Sawmill?” ee < | rug Hunter bought “He kepta gen- : at the antique sale.” eral store at Pump- oo * “ What? kin, Corners, and had a sign on which was scrawled am'l Jone: imitation of his sig- Phey warrant- ed it to be a genu- ine Tam Htab, yet when he spreads it wrong-side up it ee Re . < ot reads Bath Mat.” neighbor dropped 4 AN EVEN in to See the pro- J y PHIN prietor, and as he ea : 7 Ake: saw no one at work, ‘ ; } é ; mad and couldn't pick him out from among the long- haired and long- bearded occupants, who had assumed every possible indo lent posture around beep const the red-hot stove, i aaa he shifted his quid ‘ : : q “ah and, with a strong fasal twang, asked, “Is Sawmill Jones darling. 1 don’t feel as if L could afford to take you abroad on a honeymoon, You know I'm only getting three thou- sand a year, and the “But we could be gone a year.” HIS SISTER. % H . , 7 DON'T ; lee 3 i hear much PIQUED. z =); aes now about ‘The Ted —" What a a j Man With the makes you think it's Hoe. 1 Spats. casier to win her ; KS F . replied now?" ; wed f 3 Bloobumper. “It's Ned—‘Her the woman with the garden-hose that G.ves us concern younger sister has just become en- THE REASON FOR IT. lrg PATHER—"' You are going to marry that insignificant little cad, Percy Millyuns! Why, you once said you would never marry a man less than six feet tall.” birit—" Oh, T know, papa; but I decided to take off twenty per cent. for cas! comicbooks.com