Judge, 1905-07-22 · page 10 of 16
Judge — July 22, 1905 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon depicts **Uncle Sam** facing a barrel labeled "American Brains and Energy" while surrounded by obstacles labeled "Railroad Interests," "Tariff Muddle," "Disorganization," and "Yellow Jack" (likely yellow fever). Uncle Sam holds gunpowder, suggesting he must forcefully clear these blockades—a metaphor for **Progressive Era obstacles** to American progress. The accompanying article satirizes the privatization of natural landmarks. It references the actual **sale of Mount Washington** to Boston capitalists and the commercialization of **Niagara Falls**. The satire warns that if America's great natural resources become private property, ordinary citizens lose their sense of shared national patrimony. The author fears a "Morganization" (referencing J.P. Morgan's corporate consolidation) of everything, ending with a mock "For Sale" sign on the Atlantic Ocean. The page's humor stems from exaggerating corporate overreach—a core **Progressive Era concern** about unchecked capitalism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE CASE NOT HOPELESS. Uncte Sam—"A pretty tough blockade, this, but this powder will blast {t out."* FOR SALE OR TO LET. PLURAL. HE public must have read with something of a shock the other day Belle—« There goes Miss Olde.” that Mount Washington, in New Hampshire, has been sold to a Bob—'« Is she a summer girl, too 2" Boston capitalist for over a half-million dollars. This is one of the Belle— Not a summer—about forty-one sum- choicest bits of natural scenery in the country, ranking next to Pike's uy peak in point of scenic celebrity. Coming so close after the taking over of Niagara falls by a commercial company, the purchase of this central feature of the American Alps is well calculated to excite pub- licalarm, These big outdoor landmarks hitherto have been regarded as a kind of continental asset belonging to the people at large, and travelers felt at liberty to boast of them, and did so out of the pride of a fractional possession, as it were. Who has not stood beside Niagara and swelled a little at the thought that he was part propri- ctor of it? So with Pike’s peak. Each one of us who has gone out to view this majestic spectacle was actuated by a desire to take a look at his own property and see how it was getting along. But if these things are to go to the auction-block we shall lose interest in them and spend our money to go and see things that are still free. Next we shall hear that some fellow with a million or so has scooped in the Mississippi river, and then a party from Chicago will go and buy the Alps and Vesuvius. Let the custom get started and there is no telling where it will end. The Morganization of the uni- verse is at hand, we fear. There isn't going to be anything left that the poor com- mon herd can look at with pride and say, «I am part owner of that.” Some of these days, if this thing goes on, we are going to wake up and find sign-boards all over the Atlantic ocean lettered thus : THIS FINE LARGE BODY OF WATER FOR SALE OR TO LET. THE WHOLE, OR WILL DIVIDE TO SUIT. NO TRESPASSERS ALLOWED. THEN HE CAUGHT UP. A FULL THOUSAND. “So George is actually engaged to Mabel? I thought Billy was far ahead of him Si Do you remember, when you married me, you in that quarter.” said | was ‘one in a thousand‘ ?" 7 ee He—" Yes; and when your mother came to live with us «He was until George got an automobile. I thought she was the other nine hundred and ninety-nine.” comicbooks.com