Judge, 1903-04-25 · page 6 of 16
Judge — April 25, 1903 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes Arizona's push for statehood through a fictional letter from "Yuma Jack" of the Hash-Knife Outfit. The piece mocks Arizona's reputation for lawlessness while paradoxically defending it as civilized. **The satire works on multiple levels:** Yuma Jack writes in exaggerated frontier dialect, claiming Arizona needs "eddication" while simultaneously boasting about shooting, gambling, and violently driving out undesirables. The irony is that his defense of Arizona's civilization actually proves the opposite—he describes a violent, anarchic territory where problems are solved with guns. **Key targets:** The "short-horns" opposing statehood, and implicitly Arizona's actual boosters who used similar crude arguments. The cartoon of a domestic quarrel ("He Was a W-W-Wretch!") and museum jokes about a living skeleton provide comedic filler typical of Judge. **Historical context:** This likely dates from early-1900s statehood debates when Arizona was criticized as too wild and uncivilized for admission to the Union. The satire suggests Arizona's defenders undermined their own case through their behavior and rhetoric.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘THE HASH-KNIFE OUTFIT PROTESTS. HasH-kNi¥e OuTFIT, Panhandle Gulch, Arizona. EAR and honored sir—Having read your paper off and on since the San Francisco mountains were a hole in the ground, and knowing it to be of a serious disposition, | now write to unfold that these yere short-horns what air objecting to the admission of Arizona air plumb locoed. ‘They shore- ly do seem to think, being un- eddicated critters, that we-all fon the range air a-shooting up the scenery all the time. Which being of the opinion, they're allowing to drive her into the corral and brand her fer a maverick, putting the New Mexico iron on her. What you-all back ae was A woaeereH there needs is eddication, as I aforesaid men- Mus. Hennerice—"' You brute! you aren't satisfied with spoiling the china, but you make me hit tioned, A locoed tenderfoot—which his brand Fido."" : . escapes me, but it sounds like Beef-on-ridge— came out yere and milled around some among the Pima wickiups and ulation here is the most cult ed any country needs. All the tucks the greaser huts, then pulled his picket-pin and vamoosed with his and frills of manhood are right here with us. We can bend a pistol quicker than any tenderfoot in the states, and can stick to a pitching bronco without hunting leather or riding on our spurs long after he would have taken the dust. About this yere gabfest senator orator of yours, what they call Beef-on-ridge — mebbe there's the making of a man in him yet. If you ‘lows that's so, send him out to Hash-knife ranch and we'll learn him to ride herd and how to tie a bull, He may tackle my sun-fishing mustang Pinto, which I am betting—though it's a cinch and plumb taking your money—that he cayn’t at present last three bucks. Likewise we'll learn him to cuss most fluent and talk the man-talk in- stead of chewing like an old lady ata hen gabfest. Being all for this time, I now puts my brand on this letter. YUMA JACK. AT THE MUSEUM. s+ P)O THEY pay you much?" asked the vis- a = a ey ee ior, Gikres 46 Use UP (HE Gar No,” replied the living skeleton in a tone Giana" Havent wo caught enough (ah jet, BIL” of disgust ; just enough to keep skin and bone Bit—" Nope! There seems to be a little left in the jug yet.”* together.” durned committee back into the states, rep- resenting that we-all weren't civilized, which that short-horn’s long suit is gab, but this time he tackled more than he can ride herd on, But letting that go in the discard, I puts it to you straight that there ain't on this yere foot-stool a more’ civilized spot than Arizona, | gambles with no limit on that it has more scenery to the square inch than any spot on earth, and that there are yearlings rustled in this territory than te raises altogether, That's what- ever, or I'm a Chinaman. Likewise—which is more of the same talk—there’s better sport of all sorts, including both bronco and faro bucking. It has been slung at us that Arizona is filled with absentees. I natcherly al- lows that having no neighbor is a blame sight better than having one you don’t want, We-all shoot up the undesirable ones and keep the community pure, or least- ways we throws a gun on him and intimates that if he puils his frelght he will find the climate of Mexico better suited to his com- Just as EASY. plexion. Yes, sir; you can gamble—and | fet “Only a débutante? Why, one would think she had been ‘ out’ for years.” plays this, too, with no limit— that the pop- “Oh, well, girls take to society as naturally as a trust takes to water, you know.” comicbooks.com