Judge, 1904-10-15 · page 5 of 16
Judge — October 15, 1904 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a slapstick comic strip following "Nervy Nat," a city character attempting rustic activities with disastrous results. The humor derives from his incompetence and condescension toward rural life. In the first panels, Nat patronizingly tries milking a cow ("Mrs. Holstein"), treating it like a simple task comparable to "ringing up fares" (suggesting he's a streetcar conductor). The cow predictably kicks him. Escalating his foolishness, Nat then harasses a hornet's nest under a tree, getting stung repeatedly across his face, which swells grotesquely. The satire targets urban pretension—Nat's sentimental nostalgia for "childhood" rural simplicity ("lowing kine, autumnal haze") immediately collapses into reality. The joke is that nature isn't genteel or controllable; animals and insects respond with violence to his arrogant interference. This reflects early-20th-century Judge magazine's frequent mockery of city dwellers' romanticized views of country life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Nervy Nat—"‘Ah, me! How this yanks me back to me childhood <the lowing kine, the autumnal haze, and all the other stage properties, Wonder if | could milk a cow after all these years? I'll do it! Mrs. Cow looks ladylike and gentle.” Nervy Nat—"‘I knew I could! It's as easy as ringing up fares. Now, Mrs, Holstein, turn arourd and mind your own business: your curiosity is truly feminine. If you make such faces on a real cold day, your countenance will freeze like that, you impudent hussy!”* Nervy Nat—"You vicious, cud-chewing, pie-faced dog of 'a cow, 1'll pay you up for this! You'll wish you'd kept your feet on the floor, like a lady, before I'm through with you, you four-legged she-devil!” 5. Nervy Nat—* Now, Lady Clara, you'll pardon my tickling your hind leg, won't you? What is now about to transpire is all your own fault. THincerely hope the moral won't be lost to you, When you knock at Mr. and Mrs. Hornet's door you'll find them all at home, including brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins and relations by marriage.” “Come, Bossy! Come over here under this tree for just one minute, then you can kick to your heart's content. I'll fix you $0 you can kick one of nature's punching-bags, and if you don’t do some of the cleverest contortion acts ever seen on the stage I'll bite, masticate, swallow and digest my hat.” Nervy Nat—‘Oh, say, wouldn't that sting you? My face seems to be spreading over the entire landscape. I'll have to be shaved with a lawn-mower, I can see that! And yet they say ‘Return to nature.’ Oh, you can see me returning! If there's any spot on my face that isn't ‘tung I'm going to have it framed,” NO..44.—NERVY NAT, THE COW, AND THE HORNETS.