Judge, 1903-03-14 · page 5 of 16
Judge — March 14, 1903 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains several brief satirical humor pieces typical of early 20th-century Judge magazine: **"Some Aural Trouble"**: Jokes about a young pianist who plays "by ear" after her sheet music falls. A crude guest misinterprets "plays by ear" as "has an earache"—humor based on deliberate misunderstanding. **"An Esquimau Episode"**: Stereotypical satire of Inuit ("Esquimau") courtship, with romantic clichés applied to an Arctic setting and references to "train-oil" (seal oil). Mild ethnic humor typical of the era. **"Natural Growth"** and **"His Unlucky Lapse"**: Simple wordplay jokes—one about fish stories growing larger with retelling; another about a mountain hotel echo-worker who forgets his job and accidentally responds to a guest. **"A Trip Through a Modern Art-School"**: Satirizes contemporary art education, mocking landscape painters with "crazy notions" and sculpture students, contrasting them with the "real thing"—hundreds of young women studying to become commercial "American girl" artists, suggesting art school was producing assembly-line illustrators rather than serious artists.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SOME AURAL TROUBLE, EVIDENTLY. ir young’ girl places a new sheet of music before her and attacks the piano with much vigor. Suddenly the music falls off the rack and drops to the floor. But the gentle damsel continues playing with no interruption. “My daughter,” explains her mother with a proud smile, “ plays almost entirely by ear. “ Has she got the ear-ache ?” asks the uncultured brute who has been invited to the house by the careless father. AN ESQUIMAU EPISODE. SeYOU are the light of my life,” sighed the lover, edging a trifle closer on the hand-carved ice settee. “You only say that because you know I drink so much train-oil,” she blubbered, However, it resulted in a match. A DOUBLE PLEASURE. Tue Lion—"' If | had your figure I'd go to the theatre every night.”” Tue cinarre—"* Why so?" Tue Lion—"' You have the advantage of being able to sit in the orchestra and see from the balcony at the same time.” (ORTILINRS tie SLE NATURAL GROWTH. “He claims to have caught a ten-pound trout.”” Why, trout don’t grow as large as that.”” “They do after you've told the story a few times.” HIS UNLUCKY LAPSE. 66] HAD a good job last summer, but lost it on account of my fool absent- mindedness,” said poor old Seldum Fedd, pessimistically. “1 was. actin’ as de echo fer a mountain hotel; an‘! done all right till one moon- light night, when a smart guy from de city hollered + Hello, Smith! Durn me! I fergot meself, an’ swered back, * Which Smith do you mean means capable of heing SeTHE word ‘dirigible,’” explained the teacher n give me : steered. Now, which little boy or girl ¢ which that word is used ?" sentence in Little Abijah Meddergrass raised his hand, “You may tell us, Abijah. “The bunco men in New York found that Uncle Silas was dirigible.” iI \ A TRIP THROUGH A MODERN ART-SCHOOL. Guroe—"* That fellow off there in the corner has a crazy notion that he wants to be a !andscape and wealth as a sculptor."” painter. “And this one labors under the delusion that he will win glory “But here's the ‘real thing,’ eight hundred of them—six graduates a day—all studying to be ‘American girl’ artists.””