Judge, 1904-10-01 · page 5 of 16
Judge — October 1, 1904 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This comic strip follows a recurring character, "Nervy Nat," a vagabond or hobo evading police and societal obligations. Desperate to escape "the mad and feverish rush of society," Nat hides in a woman's trunk she's selling to a dealer. When discovered, he's caught between the angry lady threatening police and his predicament—the trunk lid cutting off his air supply. The satire targets early-20th-century attitudes toward homelessness and vagrancy. Nat's elaborate excuses ("purely accidental") and veiled threat that involving police will create worse problems (he'll become "the city's guest"—jail—then return to harass her) mock both the vagrant's cunning and society's inability to address poverty. The reference to "Carrie Nation" (the temperance crusader) adds period-specific humor about reform movements. The joke hinges on Nat's brazen audacity and the lady's helplessness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
i re = Nervy Nat—" Here is where your Uncle Nathaniel escapes, for the ‘Tue Lapy—"' Yes, that trunk will do. 1 haven't time to look at any time being, the mad and feverish rush of society. This trunk offers me a others. Can you send it up right away ?”" rare opportunity for a beautiful siesta, free from the prods of blue-coated Deater—"' Inside of half an hour, madam, it shall be at your house.”” Micks and safe from the misguided people who offer me work. Lucky Nervy Nat—"* My word! the hound is selling the very roof over my there's no tray in this trunk."* head. I should have left word that | was not to be disturbed.” 4. Tue Laby—"' Yes: put it down over there.”” cod heavens! a man!" Nexvy Nat (from the trank)—"' Great Pittsburg! where the deuce am Madam, you but do me justice. 1 am delighted be- lat? They certainly can't expect me to keep on using that breath | took yond mere words that you mistook me not for the pallid and unintellectual before they shut the lid unless I send it to the laundry once in a while."* clam emerging from his shell. | may say in explanation of my visit that It was purely accidental, as | have not the faintest desire to intrude ""— 5. ‘Tue Laby—' What do you mean by getting into my trunk? I'll show you! You'rea thief, and I'il hand you over to the police! Help! police!" - Nervy Nat—" Hand me over to Carrie Nation, if you like, but kindly Nervy Nat—'Madam, the municipal authorities, represented so bear in mind that the edge of this trunk is slowly but surely making its ably in the person of my old class-mate, O'Toole, insist on showering hos- way through my neck. Then you will have another trunk, madam, which pitalities on me. When I am no longer the city's guest I will come to this will be mine, and it will be most unpleasant, I assure you.” neighborhood and make faces at your children.” NO. 43.—NERVY NAT, THE LADY, AND THE TRUNK. ~ comicbooks.com