Judge, 1902-09-06 · page 8 of 16
Judge — September 6, 1902 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This two-panel comic satirizes rural parental manipulation and materialism. In the first panel, a father offers his son (Ephrim) a false choice: attend a circus with his mother, or stay home doing chores in exchange for a cheap gold-plated watch as a Christmas gift. The second panel shows the boy's chaotic response—he's literally being dragged away by animals and chaos, suggesting the father's "bribe" has backfired spectacularly. The satire targets the gap between rural parents' promises and reality: the father dangles a worthless "one-dollar solid gold stem-windin' watch" (clearly cheap, given the "oxydized chain" detail) as incentive for child labor. The joke mocks both the father's transparent manipulation and the absurdity of expecting a child to choose chores over entertainment—exposing the empty rhetoric of rural parental authority and consumer culture infiltrating farm life in early 1900s America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Fatuer—‘' That circus feller over there give me TWO free-gratis tickets to th’ show fer lettin’ him stick them picters all over th’ barn. Now, Ephrim, which would you ruther do—go to th’ circus with yer maw, or stay to hum an’ do th’ chores an’ take care o’ th’ caows an’ git a nice bran’-new one-dollar solid gold stem-windin’ watch fer yer Chris'mas, with an uxydized chain, an’” JRIGMT 1902 BY JUDGE COMPANY OF NEW YORK. comicbooks.com