Judge, 1903-08-01 · page 10 of 16
Judge — August 1, 1903 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon ("A Blessing"):** Two Irish-accented policemen discuss how automobiles benefit them professionally. One notes that Sergeant Cahill has been promoted twice for stopping runaway horses scared by automobiles. The satire targets how new technology creates unexpected job advantages—in this case, police promotion through managing automobile-induced chaos rather than through traditional merit. **"Rubaiyat of the Unemployed":** A poem parodying Omar Khayyam's famous work, but substituting hedonistic philosophy with the grim realities of unemployment during what appears to be an economic downturn (likely post-WWI era). The speaker contrasts Khayyam's romantic advice about wine and bread with the desperate unemployed person's inability to afford even basic meals, transforming the original's philosophical escapism into commentary on economic hardship. **"The Artist and His Realistic Sunrise Picture":** A six-panel comic showing an artist painting a sunrise, which progressively becomes more chaotic—culminating in an actual explosion or disaster. The joke mocks pretentious "realism" in art through absurdist exaggeration.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A BLESSING. First PoLceman- sagen Cahill says thot thim automobiles do be a great blessin’."* Seconp rouiceuan—" Whoy wudn't he? He's bin promoted twolce fer shtoppin’ runaway h wrses shcared be automobiles."" RUBAIYAT OF THE UNEMPLOYED, WHATS all this talk about a jug of wine, When one is up against the actual thifg, "Twere well, oh, happy Omar! you should booze A loaf of bread, and fate, and thine and mine? _Pray how can one forget one’s woes and sing? And thus awake the wisdom of your muse. Can one apply philosophy like this When one has not the price of one square meal I, too, could laugh at fate and things like that When one has not the wherewithal to dine? It rather strikes the songster on the wing. If I were situated in your shoes. ‘Alas! I walk the streets the long, hot day, A leg of lamb, with gravy brown and rice, Desiring things for which I cannot pay, And steady weekly wages, and the price Pursuing evermore the fleeting job, To get my last week's washing out of soak— And hocking garments in the good old way. Ah, then, forsooth, New York were paradise. WALTER A. DYER, comicbooks.com